The story of John and Martha

Martha Dean, who ran for attorney general in 2010, isn’t the worst candidate for high office Connecticut has produced in the past century or so though her recent activity gives her a huge sympathy vote for that distinction.In considering our worst, however, let us not forget Philip Giordano, who was arrested after losing to Joe Lieberman in the 2000 Senate race and is serving a very long term in federal prison for using the phone in the Waterbury mayor’s office to arrange to have sex with little girls. Giordano was then occupying that office, not just borrowing the mayor’s telephone. If you’re looking for the worst candidate ever, Giordano’s the man.But this column is devoted to Martha Dean, her posting of a vile video about the Sandy Hook shootings on her Facebook page and our good fortune in not having her as the state’s chief lawyer. It also affords a rare opportunity to compliment former Gov. John Rowland. Radio talk showman Rowland was the first to conduct an extended interview with Ms. Dean and in an hour on his WTIC program, he effectively demolished her claim she was merely sharing viewpoints when she disseminated the cruel, lying video.I normally do not like listening to Rowland because I feel it is bad form for a disgraced former governor to constantly second guess a successor. That said, I did enjoy his confident assurances that Mitt Romney would be elected president.However, I come to compliment, not to cavil. Rowland knows how to talk on the radio and he showed in his questioning of Martha, he can be a very good interviewer when he wants to be. He is usually too tolerant and unquestioning of his many extremist and often wacky callers, but he made an exception this time with rewarding results.But first, let us introduce Dean. She’s a graduate of Andover, Wellesley and UConn Law, where she was an editor of the Law Review. She has practiced law with the SEC, the prominent Hartford law firm, Robinson and Cole, and for 16 years, she’s been in private practice in Avon. That’s the good part.Before she posted the video that cast doubt on even the existence of the Sandy Hook massacre, Dean was known for that one, unsuccessful run as the Republican nominee for attorney general in 2010 and vaguely remembered for having been trounced for the same office by Dick Blumenthal in 2002. Campaigns for attorney general are mostly overshadowed by the contests at the top of the ticket, but Dean in 2010 was an attention getter, particularly for promising, if elected, to see to it that all school children, Boy and Girl Scouts and little campers, be trained to use guns. “We teach sex education in school, yet we omit the most basic skill needed to exercise fundamental constitutional rights,” argued Dean. It will no doubt shock you to learn she is a life member of the NRA.She was easily defeated by George Jepsen, getting 480,310 votes to Jepsen’s 591,725, which begs a question: Does Connecticut have at least 400,000 people who will vote for anyone?At any rate, Dean was relatively quiet after her defeat until she posted the horrible video, which, she contended, she only did because she’s a real believer in sharing ideas. These ideas ranged from the incredibly bizarre — the killings never happened, what you saw on television was a movie — to the incredibly hurtful — parents lying about their children being dead.Dean said she questioned why the killer was able to kill everyone and not wound some, whether people stopped in the vicinity and released were accomplices and whether the government of the United States had a role, which, she conceded, was highly unlikely, though “theoretically possible.” Dean did disown conspiracy nuts who say a parent seen smiling on the video was evidence that the killings didn’t happen but couldn’t resist speculating the smile could be a “red flag” to investigators. There’s much, much more but this should be enough to convince our great political parties to exercise a bit more caution about whom they nominate for major offices. Dean said Sunday that Republicans who criticized her were afraid she will run for high office again.They should be.Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.