The Rand Paul Boom

The national political press constantly pumps up scenarios that have no chance of ever coming to fruition. I don't know if they are clueless, cynical or carried away by events. A little of all three I suspect.

The latest example of this phenomenon is the Rand Paul boom, as illustrated by today's New York Times story on the senator squiring Rupert Murdoch around the Kentucky Derby.  Paul, we are told, is the sort-of GOP frontrunner for 2016. His biggest drawback, the political press says, is his less-than-hawkish foreign policy views.

Poppycock. Rand Paul will never be president, and it's not because he questions the Bush-Cheney foreign policy. The oval office is out of reach because he does not believe in the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that bans discrimination in public accommodations. That means, if I run a business, I cannot refuse to service people based on their race, creed, national original, etc.

Paul's argument is that it was correct to ban discrimination by governments, but individuals should have the right to discriminate.  But for that right to be fully excercised, the state would have to intervene on the side of the discriminator. Specifically, police would have to arrest or threaten to arrest the person denied service if they refused to leave the business. So in the end, you would have state-sanctioned discrimination.

The moment Paul becomes a serious candidate, this video of his interview on this subject with Rachel Maddow will surface and it will all be over. In the meantime, tens, perhaps 100s of millions of dollars will be spent, and countless words will be written, all for nothing.

NFL Blues

I just read "Slow to Get Up," a memoir by former NFL tight end Nate Jackson. It's a great book, a revealing look inside pro football from a player, per the book's subtitle, at "the bottom of the pile."

Jackson played six seasons on the Broncos, mostly on special teams and as a backup. His account of the constant pain and suffering endured by the typical NFL player is harrowing. Even as  a non-starter, the list of his injuries and ailments is cringe-worthy. But you can understand the high. Even marginal players like him partake of American's adulation of men who pound each other to jelly for our entertainment. The perks are sweet: VIP treatment at Las Vegas clubs, golf with Playboy bunnies, first class hotel rooms, cash to burn.

I was struck by the odd sense of isolation Jackson experiences in the most team-orientated of games. He's just an interchangeable part, a gypsy ready to move anywhere at a moment's notice. The friends he makes get traded and he never sees them again. He lives alone in a gigantic house. He writes of the affinity between strippers and football players because both live outside of normal society and are subject to impenetrable stereotypes.

The world he presents is in contrast to Vince Lombardi-Green-Bay-Packers ideal of my youth. Books about those teams emphasize the intense bonds formed between players and their coach. Today, it's all business.

The best thing I've read on pro football since North Dallas Forty.

Boomerang Man

 The world boomerang championships? Who knew?

Here's my story about a Wethersfield man who will take part in the boomerang world cup later this month in Perth, Australia.

Passage of Power

Just finished "Passage of Power," the latest installment in Robert Caro's massive LBJ biography. Very good, but uneven. Parts, especially those dealing with the Kennedy assassination, are brilliant, can't-put-it-down stuff, but other sections drag. Caro unfortunately engages too often in what an editor of mine called "dumping your notebook." Instead of picking and choosing the good stuff, you throw everything into the story.

Unfortunately, this was also true of "Master of the Senate." I have not read the first book in the series, but I can say that "Means of Ascent," Caro's account of LBJ's scandalous 1948 Senate campaign is by far the best so far. The story is so outrageous that it makes your jaw drop, and unlike the next two books, it never, ever drags. I think I read it in a day or two.

Oddly enough, I found LBJ much less interesting once he became president. Of course, the next volume that will talk about the tragedy of Vietnam and is sure to be gut wrenching.

I find LBJ fascinating. He was a vulgar, crude and cruel man who passed some of the greatest social legislation in our history, a man who could never break himself of saying "nigra," but nonetheless did more to assure equal rights than any president since Lincoln. He would be a great president were it not -- and this is admittedly a very big were it not -- for Vietnam.

I have always been fascinated by something I heard Caro say in an interview about one of the books. He dismissed the cliche about power corrupting. The key insight, the key question, he said, is what do people do with power when they get it. By that measure, LBJ, at least on domestic issues, ranks among our greatest presidents.

Chris Hoffman New Haven Pic of the Day

January Sunrise

Pez Pistol

You've heard of Dead Heads and Parrot Heads?

Carolyn Farrlley is a PEZ Head. She is a passionate collector of everything PEZ, including 300 PEZ dispensers and all manner of sweet paraphernalia.

Check out my story about her.

PEZ are originally from Austria, and I recall them when I went there as a child in the late 1960s and early 1970s to visit my grandfather. On one of the trips, someone gave me a PEZ pistol dispenser. It had a magazine that you filled with PEZ and inserted into the handle, and a firing mechanism that moved like a real pistol when you shot one of the rectangular-shaped candies out of the barrel. I recall PEZ flying out of the gun with considerable velocity.

Here's a link showing the exact model and colors of the one I had:

According to this blog, PEZ had to discontinue the toy because kids were shooting candy into their months. Can you say cracked teeth and choking hazard? Luckily, I was never that stupid.

Alas, the pistol broke, plus y wife was never comfortable with it, so I threw it away.

The Dean

Today, Steve Kotchko, dean of Connecticut's Capitol press corps, begins covering his 40th legislative session. When the veteran radio reporter started out, Richard Nixon was president, legendary Connecticut Democratic Party Chairman John M. Bailey still held sway and Joe Lieberman was a liberal.

I had the privilege of sitting next to Steve during the five years I covered the General Assembly so I got to listen as he taped his reports. I was always awed by his ability to quickly and accurately summarize a press conference or event in a handful of sentences. 

I would add that Steve is also very funny and an all around great guy. Think gravitas meets Bill Murray in "Candy Shack."

Steve sat down with me last week for a story. Here's a link:

http://www.courant.com/community/wethersfield/hc-wethersfield-kotchko-0107-20130107,0,7549131.story