Lost in transition

Everyone has an opinion about Martha Dean, the Republican candidate for state attorney general

Connecticut’s U.S. Senate campaign is turning into a contest of the crippled candidates, with the winner likely to be the person able to survive savage, self-inflicted wounds.

Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Richard Blumenthal seem to be taking turns handing the opposition all the negative material any political flack could desire.

Their difficulties are magnified by the fact that neither has any experience dealing with this scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners, bomb-them-back-to-the-Stone-Age kind of campaign warfare.

McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, is a political newbie looking to overcome her inexperience and the weight of the WWE’s ugly reputation with obscene amounts of money.

Blumenthal is supposed to be a veteran, but he’s been cruising along for decades without taking political punches. He’s stumbled repeatedly in this campaign and seems to be bobbing and weaving, trying to protect his glass jaw.

A cautionary tale came out of Stratford last weekend for anyone who thinks it might be a good idea to mix guns, alcohol, fire and the products of America’s failing education system.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, four campers were sitting around a fire in Roosevelt Forest (which, incidentally, gets a mention in this week’s Clown-O-Meter for a separate incident). According to published reports, one of them, Eric Ardito, took off his shirt to fan the flames, showing the others he was carrying a handgun. They allegedly encouraged him to shoot the fire. (Apparently, the shirt didn’t work.)

Ardito, 22, let out three shots, say police, and the jacket of one of the bullets hit Joseph McDonald, also 22. He was knocked over by the force of the bullet, but initially, he and his friends thought he’d fallen over due the effects of his drinking, police say.

A neighbor heard yelling and called police, who took McDonald to Bridgeport Hospital, where he finally realized he’d been shot.

Ardito, who did have a valid pistol permit, was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree assault, unlawful discharge of a firearm and carrying a weapon while intoxicated.

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How will it impact the state’s school reform efforts?

If relentless bitching was a crime, former Danbury Hospital Chief Financial Officer William Roe would stack up a few charges on top of ones for theft and fraud he’s facing.

About two weeks ago, the FBI arrested Roe, 54, of Wilton. He allegedly transferred $90,000, and tried to transfer another $25,000, in unauthorized hospital money to a software company in Lima, Ohio, that he owns. Also, to recruit Roe from his position at a hospital network back in Ohio in 2009, Danbury Hospital agreed to pay him the difference between the appraised value of his Lima home and what it sold for. The FBI says it reviewed Roe’s computer and found he forwarded false appraisal information to Danbury Hospital. His house in Lima was actually valued at $239,500 by one appraiser and $250,000 by another, but Roe allegedly led his new employers to believe it was appraised at $315,166, pocketing $46,166 when it sold for only $269,000.

Danbury Hospital’s top ten highest-earning executives raked in a total of $9.9 million in salary and fringe benefits in 2009, according to the state Office of Health Care Access, by the way. Remember all this next time you wonder why healthcare is so darn expensive.

The FBI tacked on another charge, for an alleged attempt to charge his former employer, Catholic Health Partners, $33,500 for the services of his software company, and arrested Roe on Aug. 17. A judge released him on bond provided that (except to retrieve his car) he stay away from Danbury Hospital and have no contact with its staff, an order Roe seriously disobeyed, according to the feds’ paperwork.

“John, I understand you are upset, I would love to talk to you and clear this up. I would never do anything to hurt the hospital,” Roe wrote in his first e-mail to Danbury Hospital CEO John Murphy, about three hours after his arraignment. According to documents released by the U.S. Attorneys Office, Roe says that because the hospital was apparently also paying his rent (for up to $5,000 a month) until he sold the Lima house and “appraisals came in ridiculously low,” “it was the best deal for the Hospital to get off for only $45k.” “I admit I made a mistake in changing the appraisals to justify our cost,” Roe wrote, damningly. He also insinuated that he thought Murphy knew the software company was his.

Roe then e-mailed Murphy 40 minutes later (“Tell me what to do. I’m lost”), six minutes after that (“[W]e can work something out. I’d really like to get the prison option out of the way. If you don’t believe me we can work out a salary garnish to pay back Danbury.”) and 20 minutes after that (“Here’s what I would like…this goes away…[and you] let me keep working till we discuss it.”). Two more e-mails were sent the next morning. (“If you wont [sic] give me my job back please give me my life back.”) This is on top of the phone calls Roe allegedly made to Murphy. They occurred “hourly,” according to the U.S. Attorneys Office, and forced Murphy to change his cell phone number.

Because of these alleged violations of the conditions of his release, Roe was rearrested on Aug. 20 and will remain in the custody of U.S. Marshalls until his Sept. 7 court hearing. The actual losses to Danbury Hospital were $141,166, according to the FBI.

If you’d like to send Roe a message, the documents show that his email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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Everybody’s Talkin’ About...

• Ken Mehlman, former RNC chair and Bush’s 2004 campaign manager, comes out of closet, supports gay marriage.

• Glenn Beck holds “Restoring Honor” on same date and site as MLK’s 1963 “Dream” speech, exhorts crowds to “Pray more.” Maybe he should have directed them to the counter-rally led by an actual reverend, Al Sharpton.

• Jimmy Carter frees American prisoner from North Korea, makes up for that botched attempt to rescue Iranian hostages 30 years ago.

It was 1988, and one of my drudge-duties at New Haven Department of Cultural Affairs was to compile an exhaustive calendar of the summer-long festivities marking the 350th anniversary of the founding of New Haven. My research was to be emblazoned on McDonald’s placemats throughout the city.

Some of these events were extravagant and mellifluous, such as the coordinated ringing of church bells. Others were half-baked: Lender’s Bagels was asked to create the world’s biggest bagel, but since they’d already done that for their own anniversary months earlier, the city was obliged to commission and promote “the world’s second largest bagel.”

Maybe it was that bagel that inspired me. On the eve of the printer’s deadline, I realized I’d filled in an event for every date on the calendar except one. Reeling at my inability to plug this gap (one that felt as large as the hole in the world’s second largest bagel), I fled City Hall to do some last-minute proofreading in the bar at the Colony Inn, where I met up with local metal sculptor John Landino.

I shared my plight, and Landino and I declared that if there was no good reason to celebrate New Haven on that date, we’d just have to make one up: The Dadaist Invasion of Lighthouse Point Park. To my mind, this was more prank than plan. If an actual invasion transpired, fine. But if it didn’t, I envisioned scores of enthusiasts combing the beaches wondering which of the normal summer-day occurrences at Lighthouse Point were “Dadaist.”

State police data is available, but with limited resources it remains unanalyzed

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Finally, someone to tell you it'll all be OK.

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