Democrats in Hartford and Washington are really scrambling these days. They are trying to find a message that will make every voter forget how truly awful the economy is and how few people see it will get any better until most of the political establishment is carted off to Borneo.

Remember that “summer of recovery” tour by the Obama administration?  Now, Democrats are moving toward “an Autumn of anecdotal recovery.”

You can see House Speaker Chris Donovan, D-Meriden, or Congressman Chris Murphy, D-CT,  practicing in the mirror each morning on their “George Bush is responsible for everything bad, including the Lindbergh kidnapping and Lindsay Lohan’s recent relapses.”

 Maybe they contort their foreheads into a bit of a furrow to offer a serious acknowledgment of the tough times, followed by dancing eyes to say “we will get through this,” ending with the sideway’s  leer, “hey, we don’t want to go back to those old  days, do we?”

Right now, 2005 is looking pretty good. People were working, the corner was turned in Iraq and the national debt was under a trillion dollars. And Iran? They weren’t making too much noise.

Murphy and Donovan will have none of it, of course. To Donovan, everything has been just  jiffy on his watch.  In an article in the Hartford Courant by Don Stacom, Donovan dismissed concerns by local leaders that the coming $4 billion deficit means a cut in municipal aid and an increase in local property taxes.

“Everybody said they were worried about ’09, then about ’10, then about ’11. We took care of that. We were going to borrow $900 million this year, that’s down to $646 million,” he says.

Down to $646 million?! Guess we  should go out and buy a Lexus.

The most recent borrowing, requested byDemocrat State Tresurer Denise  Nappier supported by GOP Governor Rell and opposed by State Rep. Vin Marino, R-North Haven and State Sen. Andrew Roraback, R-Goshen.  prevented the state of Connecticut from being reduced to a week’s worth of cash to pay bills. Pretty soon, people should think about bring their own toilet paper if they are driving the Merritt Parkway.

If the Mayors and First Selectmen are worried about being short, Democrat Gubernatorial candidate Dan Malloy has another option – allow these same cities and towns additional taxing powers.  Mallow makes no mention of relieving the locals and school boards of any unfunded mandates – because that  would annoy the local school and municipal unions.

If you wonder what universe of reality Malloy and Donovan operate in, all you need to do is go to the various websites of Democrat incumbents of the House and Senate, or ask for their most recent copies of “franked” mail. In it, each tells the happy tale of how they have “balanced the budget,” and not increased taxes while keeping their commitments on education, health care and transportation.

Murphy has been invisible in the district and with good reason.  The memories of his near public hanging in a supermarket parking lot last fall in Simsbury have made him a little shy in big crowds. That was over the health care vote, which has a negative rating of near 60 percent.

The Murph is now going back to one-on-one door knocking. I mean how bad can that get? Actually, it’s a ruse, since no Congressman could possibly have the time to do anything more than a few hundred doors during  a campaign.  Murphy kept a local reporter at arm’s distance while he went and met the people in New Milford, but when asked by the Housatonic Times about the health of the Connecticut economy, implied prosperity was just around the corner.

“We have a greater than normal lag between economic growth and employment growth,” Murphy said.“All of the anecdotal signs in Connecticut’s economy are good.”

Maybe Murphy’s anecdote include conversations with postal employees, state employees, trial lawyers or nursing home workers. Because they can’t possibly include anyone else in the private work force.

The  Democrats don’t believe in fiscal triage. They are content to simply spike every wounded taxpayer with a shot of taxes, hope the patient gets numb enough to pass out before being shipped to a long-term care facility where they can play out their days in debt and misery.

The Election on November 2 offers the voters a simply statement from Republicans – “come with us if you want to live.”

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