Governor Dannel Malloy  Governor Dannel Malloy (July 30, 2013)
Last year, Barack Obama won reelection in spite of — not because
of — his first term as president, and he had Republican hard-
liners to thank for the victory. Connecticut's Dannel Malloy has
to be hoping that same formula will rescue him.  So far, the
Connecticut GOP seems to be working its increasingly
conservative ass off to make Malloy's "My-First-Term-Really-
Wasn't-That-Awful" Democratic reelection campaign actually look
feasible.  Let's see:  -Republicans just reanointed as their
state party chairman a conservative named Jerry Labriola Jr. His
initial term in office wasn't what you'd call successful.
Cluster-flop would be more appropriate: Democrats took every
congressional and statewide office imaginable and retained their
iron-fisted domination of the General Assembly.  (One can only
imagine Malloy's private reaction to the reinstatement of
Labriola. How about a fist-pumping "Yesssssss!")  -As one of his
most "trusted advisers," Labriola h