Susan Bysiewicz Gets Confused.

The essential CT-N has a video of Susan Bysiewicz’s February 18th press conference announcing her action for a declaratory judgment seeking to have a judge declare she is eligible to serve as attorney general or, failing that, strike down as unconstitutional the statute that sets out the qualifications. Save yourself some time and pain by starting 28 minutes into the 40 minute event.

You’ll hear a befuddled Bysiewicz undercut her action, which she filed on the day she answered reporters’ questions, as she announces the legislature has the power to require an attorney general to possess some qualifications other than simply being a voter. Her lawyer, in the same room with her, had spent a considerable amount of time explaining that the legislature had no such power.

Bysiewicz waves away the contradiction by saying her lawyer “is making his legal arguments.” Hey, Madam Secretary, he’s making your legal arguments. You’re assumed to have some knowledge of them.

How much Bysiewicz is paying her lawyer, Wesley Horton, is a mystery. He refused to say and she danced around the question of whether she’s paying Horton’s standard hourly rate. Why wouldn’t she say?

Then there’s the presence at the start of the press conference of Democratic state chair Nancy DiNardo. She’s a defendant in the Bysiewicz action. It is rare indeed for a defendant to join a plaintiff at the announcement of a lawsuit. DiNardo’s embrace of Bysiewicz’s action has made other Democrats very unhappy, so the Democratic leader now has a stake in Bysiewicz succeeding. This may prove to have been a costly mistake for the cautious DiNardo, who’s usually more adept at keeping her footing.