Posted on 07/26/2023 7:16:01 AM PDT by Fiji Hill
Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who swaggered through three terms as Connecticut’s last Republican senator, challenging Richard Nixon over Watergate and the GOP’s rightward shift under Ronald Reagan, then willed the state’s income tax into existence in a second act as a third-party governor, died Wednesday. He was 92.
His death at Middlesex Hospital was announced by his family.
Weicker left elective office in January 1995 as Connecticut’s 85th governor, capstone to a career dominated by two decades in Washington, where he emerged as a fierce defender of abortion rights, the separation of church and state, and funding for social services, oceanic exploration and AIDS research.
His legacy includes co-authoring the Americans with Disabilities Act, introduced in his final year in the U.S. Senate and passed 18 months after his departure, and striking an exclusivity deal as governor that allowed two tribal casinos to flourish while effectively banning commercial competitors.
But it was breaking his generation’s ultimate political taboo by ending Connecticut’s status as a state without a tax on wages that indelibly defined his time as governor, cemented his reputation as a maverick and made him the target of the largest protest ever staged on the grounds of the state Capitol in Hartford.
30 years too late IMHO.
His income tax on CT killed my business.
And yet Weicker was anything but a libertarian as Goldwater was— Goldwater castigated as a war monger— imagine, an AF fighter pilot Libertarian is a war monger. Nope, but LBJ sold it that way. The shameless national poverty pimp LBJ to own a minority vote for a while. They are still after it— hanging ornaments to dim memories, which smarter people recognize as yet another sellout.
“War Monger” is on my list of BS words and phrases, for good reason. People who toss it around are often apologists for tyranny.
Connecticut’s last Republican senator......... That’s a distinction without a difference..................
Classify this under: DKHWSA.
Rotten RINO bastard.
I suppose he is about the best to be expected out of Disconnecticutt.
Funny you should mention LBJ. Did you know he was awarded the Silver Star for a sightseeing tour of the Pacific during WWll? No politics there.
But in my opinion, it cheapened the Silver Star and dishonored the brave men who earned theirs.
safe and effective. /s
Back when RINOs really were that.
Wicker was also one of the big supporters of David Souter’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
Again ? One of the worst politicians to come out of the Northeast and arguably the worst from Connecticut.
It fits a lot of nutters today who want to involve ourselves in needless foreign misadventures that the Founders wanted us to stay out of, especially the Malthusian Zelensky fanbois.
While Weicker was no longer a Senator when Souter was appointed he was was recruited by warren .Rudman to help lobby, introduce Senators to Souter and tell Republican Senators they could trust Souter.
Weicker is also known as the Republican Senator that led the filibuster to keep prayer in schools from being allowed by legislation and also filibusters to keep any public funds from being spent for any use by parochial schools.
Thank you for providing further evidence to support my point.
CT has the history of destroying John Rowland round about the turn of the century. Hasn’t been a conservative controlling CT since then, and using the word conservative is a stretch for Rowland. John did nothing the Dem’s don’t do everyday, he just got hung for it.
Sound like what they’re doing to Trump much !!??
My point surely hit right on the target.
Your comment gets Maggie’s Drawers.
Au contraire, Gomer. I’ve got your number.
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