Poor Ned. I feel like a mean girl, but he provides so much fodder, I can’t help myself. So here we go.

The Connecticut State representatives are voting on whether or not to pass a law making all of Ned’s mandates law. Should I wait for the result before writing? Naw . . . it doesn’t make any difference. Either way, the Democrats lose. Taking a vote forces Lamont’s party to either endorse unpopular mandates that will grow very ripe between now and the election, or to go on the record as rejecting the governor’s decrees. Voting against the mandates is clear evidence that the Democrats who swathed Lamont in purple realize that the mandates - maybe mandates in general - weren’t and aren’t a good idea. And so it follows that making Governor Lamont an emperor for two years was their own very bad idea.

Spin doctors can work with either outcome, but why put them to so much work? I’m guessing it’s damage control. With federal investigators breathing down his neck, Governor Lamont is tiptoeing through the tulips, looking for evidence that his party will stand behind him. What Lamont and oer entrenched old-line Democrats don’t understand, however, is that true left believers in the party and government hate the old guard. Let me be clear: I don’t hate anyone; they do. Look around. The party is getting a clean out. Wealthy capitalists are going to be tossed out when their usefulness is finished. Governor Lamont, did you take no lesson from the Cuomos? Did you not wonder why you were allowed to profit from Covid testing?

So, Ned, while you’re out in the tulips, please keep a sharp eye out for Chris Murphy. You might find him hiding among the tall stalks, but I don’t hold out much hope. Don’t worry about Joe Courtney and Richard Blumenthal. Courtney is over by the birdbath, still as a statue, holding out his hands with treats for the birds and deer. But do please ask him to take off the gnome hat. Blumenthal is standing in the garage with the opener, pushing the button over and over, and smiling every time the door goes up.