West Hartford lawyer ties fate to Gonzales

I always figured that Kevin O’Connor, our former town attorney, was a bright guy. He seemed like one.
But now he’s gone and become the chief of state for U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who’s getting roasted daily for his blundering in the firing of eight good U.S. attorneys around the country.
O’Connor, who remains the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, has apparently done enough of the Bush administration’s bidding to keep moving up the ladder. Of course, that just puts him ever close to political incineration, which is what happened to Gonzales’ former aides.
“I am very pleased that Kevin has agreed to serve as my Chief of Staff,” Gonzales said, according to a department press release. “He is an outstanding lawyer and as U.S. Attorney in Connecticut demonstrated that he is a strong manager and leader.”
At least Gonzales admits that he knows O’Connor. He can’t seem to recall much about the eight able U.S. attorneys that he dumped because the White House didn’t think they were partisan enough.
O’Connor is going to have a tough time keeping his image clean in dirty DC. But I wish him well there.
He isn’t a bad guy. He’s just running with a bad crowd.

Key Supreme Court ruling started in West Hartford

It turns out that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week that pretty much forces the Bush administration to begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions had its roots along a West Hartford river bank. 

Today’s Boston Globe has a good op-ed column that tells us that James Milkey, assistant attorney general for environmental issues in Massachusetts, who argued the greenhouse gas case before the Supreme Court that led to this week’s historic ruling, started his activism in eighth grade in West Hartford.

Milkey remembers picking up garbage along a river bank during the very first Earth Day back in 1970.

Milkey told The Associated Press that “someone had to stand up” and push the federal government to start regulating CO2 emissions. “Everyone said at the time, ‘Hey, Massachusetts is really going to get the Bush Administration to act?’ Well, we did.”

Bravo to Milkey for his work — and for holding on to that youthful idealism.