'Snow White' Unbeatable as Connecticut Governor
Prof. Clyde McKee
Issue date: 11/14/06 Section: Opinions
- Page 1 of 2 next >
What made Snow White, as many have dubbed Jodi Rell, an unbeatable winner in Connecticut's gubernatorial race? Her combination of two concepts: jujitsu and metastasis.
Jujitsu is an ancient Japanese martial art based on weakness, gentleness, and weaponless fighting that uses the opponents' own weight to subdue or disable them. Metastasis means to change position, state, or form as a disease-producing agent from the site of disease to another part of the body or body-politic.
Before her inauguration as Connecticut's chief executive, Gov. Jodi Rell cleverly developed a political strategy. She exposed her private life to protect her long public association with former Governor John Rowland. Also, she finessed her lack of executive experience and weak institutional partisan support by cultivating an image as an independent and courageous Snow White, who was above politics and sought only bipartisan cooperation from her natural adversaries to ameliorate the major problem of metastasizing corruption facing our state and local governments.
Rell became governor following Gov. Rowland's resignation. But before her inauguration she announced that she had breast cancer, creating questions of whether she would be able to assume the state's demanding executive responsibilities. However, she broke this state's political anxiety and immediately captured the hearts and support of Connecticut's females by announcing that she would become an advocate for those women in fear of breast cancer.
There was question as to whether Gov. Rell would be strong enough to give the traditional "state of the state" address to both houses of the General Assembly at the start of the legislative session. She gave an address that was widely publicized and made corruption one of her central issues.
She pledged that she would personally interview all the holdover commissioners appointed by Gov. Rowland and remove those who did not meet her high standards of legal and ethical responsibility. She also pledged that she would not allow lobbyists representing special interests into her office, subtly challenging possible Democratic opponents to make this same commitment, which none made.
Jujitsu is an ancient Japanese martial art based on weakness, gentleness, and weaponless fighting that uses the opponents' own weight to subdue or disable them. Metastasis means to change position, state, or form as a disease-producing agent from the site of disease to another part of the body or body-politic.
Before her inauguration as Connecticut's chief executive, Gov. Jodi Rell cleverly developed a political strategy. She exposed her private life to protect her long public association with former Governor John Rowland. Also, she finessed her lack of executive experience and weak institutional partisan support by cultivating an image as an independent and courageous Snow White, who was above politics and sought only bipartisan cooperation from her natural adversaries to ameliorate the major problem of metastasizing corruption facing our state and local governments.
Rell became governor following Gov. Rowland's resignation. But before her inauguration she announced that she had breast cancer, creating questions of whether she would be able to assume the state's demanding executive responsibilities. However, she broke this state's political anxiety and immediately captured the hearts and support of Connecticut's females by announcing that she would become an advocate for those women in fear of breast cancer.
There was question as to whether Gov. Rell would be strong enough to give the traditional "state of the state" address to both houses of the General Assembly at the start of the legislative session. She gave an address that was widely publicized and made corruption one of her central issues.
She pledged that she would personally interview all the holdover commissioners appointed by Gov. Rowland and remove those who did not meet her high standards of legal and ethical responsibility. She also pledged that she would not allow lobbyists representing special interests into her office, subtly challenging possible Democratic opponents to make this same commitment, which none made.
Be the first to comment on this story