Blumenthal: Guilty until proven innocent

We’ll hold the trial in the morning and hang em before noon. The “jobs” Senator. “You are out of business. You are dead”

Not long ago I asked the Hartford Courant to look into Blumenthal’s record as AG, a record that by any measure is spotty at best. Long championed as the hero of the working class, he instead has a long trail of unresolved law suits, many of which killed businesses and jobs, many of whom were guilty of nothing except providing a juicy target for an AG who was more comfortable in front of a news camera than a court room.

This column, not from the MSM, but from the UCONN Daily Campus, details it all and does the work that apparently the MSM wouldn’t do because … well … because they were too busy taking whacks at the WWE and steriods.

During his time as attorney general, Blumenthal completed 380,963 cases and released 2,427 press releases. Meanwhile, his office budget increased from $13.4 million to $29.4 million, as reported by TheDay.com. Blumenthal’s biggest self-proclaimed victory was in 1998, when he joined many other state attorney generals in the fight against “Big Tobacco.” Blumenthal also sued Smith & Wesson, demanding that gun manufacturers be held responsible for crimes committed by individual gun owners. He even sued Microsoft for anti-trust violations over the marketing of Windows 98.

Blumenthal received widespread publicity for his lawsuits targeting “Big Business,” but he has targeted small businesses as well, showing little discretion before suing them. He sued Computers Plus Center of Waterbury for $1.75 million and publicly accused its owner, Gina Malapanis, of fraud. Malapanis was later arrested in her own home. In 2008, a Waterbury jury dismissed the charges and awarded Malapanis $18 million, not as a reward for the crimes that she allegedly committed, but for the blatantly inappropriate and vicious way in which the case was handled.

That’s just a sample of the destruction left in the AG’s wake. There’s more, much more … bu as the author writes, there just isn’t enough space to detail it all. Still here’s another sample.

Then there is the case of New England Pellet LLC. In the winter of 2008, Blumenthal sued the company, which was having trouble supplying its customers with wood pellets, even though the company had already begun to refund its customers. On television, Blumenthal accused the company of engaging in “consumer harm” and demanded “civic penalties and restitution.” As a result, the company collapsed. One of the co-owners attempted suicide. Only later did the lead investigator admit that he had no evidence to support the major accusations levied against New England Pellet. The Middletown Press’s Donald Pesci quotes NEP lawyer Jim Oliver as saying this about the case: “if [Blumenthal] sues you for $70,000, and wants $1 million in penalties, life as you know it is over. Your bank accounts are seized. Liens are placed on property and assets. Even if you win, the state will appeal and you will wait another year. You are out of business. You are dead.”

In these crucial days before the election, Blumenthal wants voters to see him as the state’s white knight, the ultimate father-figure who protects the helpless population from evil business. In the past, maintaining this heroic image required a villain – AT&T, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Atlantic Wire, “Big Tobacco,” Broadwater, Brookfield Quarry, Computers Plus Center, Countrywide Financial, Microsoft, the Phoenix Products Company of Plymouth, United Technologies Corporation, Smith and Wesson and the Thames Shipyard & Repair Company, among others.

In a state where the unemployment rate is 9.1%, it is apparent that the AG not only doesn’t know how to create jobs, he seems intent on destroying them. No doubt within this pile of rubble thee are cases worthy of consumer protection, and worthy of court action. But I can’t see the forest for the trees.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZxlksAk5s

Read it all.

Posted in

Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

8 Comments

  1. RoBrDona on October 27, 2010 at 6:33 am

    Ah, American Progressives. No one is safe from being pushed under the bus. Including their own. Using your power to abuse the people you are supposed to protect smacks of a socialist fascism and a painful lack of morality that pervades the movement from BHO on down. 



  2. weregettinghosed on October 27, 2010 at 6:43 am

    Blumie knew full well if you throw enough lies out there you can instill in minds the lies are fact. Has is worked? My experience, affirmative, citizens repeat the lies as truth, as fact only to be faced with the real truths by those seeing Blumie as a habitual liar, never believing him, rallying for Linda.

    Finally, perhaps a little too late, yet miracles do happen, the UCONN paper at least gives credence to what we have been shouting. This may help invigorate voters to vote for what is just and right.



  3. VictimsRevenge on October 27, 2010 at 8:58 am

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    Richard Blumenthal takes on the guerrillas like Big Tobacco, Microsoft, Smith & Wesson, and the list goes on. Every time Richard Blumenthal sues a megacorp it’s always under the pretense that he’s protecting the citizens of Connecticut, however his motives are much less than honorable than you’ll ever get him to admit. Money seems to be the most obvious reason for these lawsuits. Lots of times these lawsuits are just a regular old-fashion shake down. What he neglects to tell us is that when he decides to sue a gigantic guerrilla like the Tobacco industry, it’s an immensely unpleasant task. It’s not really too bad for him because he knows what he gets if he wins, but for many of us it’s a terrible situation he put us through, and we the people of Connecticut get nothing out of it except a whole lot of anxiety and stress that leads to many a sleepless night, and most of us don’t even understand why this is happening. He makes his rounds like the guy in the ice-cream truck selling political favors, and what’s left of his soul. When you hear the tune, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, Yankee Doodle do or die, a real live nephew to my Uncle Sam, born on the fourth of July.” well that’s Richard Blumenthal coming to your neighborhood to let everyone know that if you support him you can always call upon him to redeem those unused tokens. Then he demonstrates to all takers the intrinsic value of his clout. Something that he learned from Bill Clinton, the night he and his wife stayed in the Lincoln Bedroom. He tells everyone exactly what they want to hear, with what seems to be a sincere gesture he offers his assurance that you can always count on Richard Blumenthal. With his soft spoken voice and his slightly effeminate demeanor that would immediately suggest to anyone a docile submissive disposition. Almost as if he is over compensating for something that he has to keep hidden. In other words, he’s a creep!

     



  4. JollyRoger on October 27, 2010 at 2:57 pm

    What about "taxpayer harm"? I called Bloomie's office and told them that I'm robbed weekly- by the public sector; they couldn't care less!  And if you call the DCP, SSA, CHRO, DMV or just about any overpaid government bureaucracy, you are treated like a buzz-kill at an office party.  Most folks have no idea what's awaiting them if they've ever got pause to call one of these horrible boondoggles!  I once called the local tax collector after receiving my first vehicle tax bill…  I assured the woman that it wasn't my truck and that if I stopped making payments- Ford would come and take their truck away. The tax collector laughed like crazy and told me that nobody had ever made such an argument.  Why in the hell not?  I hope Tim in Alabama has an extra sofa, fridge, and bug spray on his porch!?



  5. Army Strong on October 28, 2010 at 5:19 am

    I sent the Attorney General back in the spring, and e-mail about a neighbor whom I have that is abusing the states " handicaped" display, and lisence plate system, and how they are perpertrating a huge fraud on the state taxpayers . I sent him the persons address, the plate regs. numbers, the make of vehicles and even a description of the vehicles, and guess what, I never heard a word back from his office, from him , or from anyone on hi staff. So he can claim all he wants that he is for the citizens of this state, and he is about routing out fraud in connbusiness and in state government, but like his military service, he lies yet again. My neighbor is ripping off the taxpayers of this state, and we all are paying for this fraud.  Neither he nor anyone in his family is " handicapped", in the least .  So why anyone would want to waste a vote on someone like  Tricky Dicky, is beyond my understanding, just more of the same ole same ole. Connecticut will never change.



  6. Don Pesci on October 28, 2010 at 6:34 am

    Jim,

     

    There is more on Blumenthal and his sloppy prosecution of the NEP case here: http://donpesci.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-england-

     

    If was not possible to put all this detail in the column you referenced.

     

    Don



  7. uconnmike on October 28, 2010 at 8:47 am

    Focus… big companies can at least defend themselves with fleets of lawyers, but Blumie's attacks on small businesses are just bully tactics that he can do by abuse of his State position. For this abuse of power he is a coward. And we can just expect more of the same if we give him even more authority.



  8. BEA on October 28, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    I never really knew much about the man but there was just something about him I didn't care for…too "Elliot Ness on steroids" for me.

    Now with all that is being exposed about this guy I'm shocked to still see people supporting him!!! The other day someone commented on Facebook that she wanted Blumenthal for president and that she was obsessed with him.

    Seriously??? Yeck!!!



Blumenthal jobs

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