My apologies for paraphrasing Muhammad Ali’s famous quotation, but he was fighting one at a time. Whether taking on one or more, however, it’s good advice. So, Republicans, keep doing what you have been doing so far: let the Democrats lob all they have without wasting your punches.

Eventually, however, some punches have to be thrown, and there are so many to chose from. Let’s start with Ned Lamont. If you happened to hear Ned’s acceptance speech at the Democrat State Convention, you may have reached for your checkbook to pay for Lamont’s voice lessons. It was that sad. His strained, oddly pitched voice made me wonder if Ned really wants a second term as governor of Connecticut. Who could blame him if he doesn’t? It’s hard to keep track of all his troubles. There’s that pesky FBI corruption investigation, allegations of sexual and racial discrimination in his administration, Mrs. Lamont’s investment in Covid testing, dead seniors in nursing homes, Ned’s charity that may benefit his friends’ tax returns more than the needy, and who knows what else might come to light. Although Ned has spent a long time ruling as a king, I don’t think there’s a voice coach who can rehabilitate him.

And Senator Dick Blumenthal. If all the job demanded was to show up at events and have pictures taken, I’d be tempted to vote for Dick. But, like three-day-old dead fish, his appearances stink. Although Dick made a joke about it himself, Connecticut is laughing at him, not with him. Keep ‘em laughing, Republicans.

Joe Courtney, party bag man, is exhausting himself running back and forth from Washington, D.C. to Connecticut. He recently told us all about the money he brought back to fix up brownfield areas. That’s nice. Why did you wait until an election year? As the surprised recipients of that money innocently note, those areas have been a mess for a long time. Let’s continue to question why Courtney seemed untroubled by the brownfield areas and other problems until now, and let’s keep a laser focus on the inflation Joe and Dick gave us. Their votes have had a real impact on our lives.

Joe Biden. Words fail: him, every day and me, discussing him. What I do want to know is why Blumenthal, Lamont, and Courtney stay in lock step with Biden. Why are you afraid to criticize the man undermining our country - in fact, helping him do it by not addressing his disastrous policies and his ridiculous, dangerous comments on all topics, but most recently on China and Taiwan?

Finally, are all three of you so indebted to your party that you are willing to let your members make racist tweets about George Logan without a word of criticism? Apparently so. What does that imply?

So, when the time is right, Republicans, bounce off those ropes and punch.