McDonald unfit for chief justice

It’s not the support for Andrew McDonald’s nomination to chief justice that surprises me, but its vehemence. Smug proponents claim there’s no legitimate case against him, claiming opposition is driven merely by partisan politics and prejudice.

I leave to legal minds the matter of his role in the judicial repeal of the death penalty, and to his conscience the claim that he had no knowledge of the import of a bill written by the committee he chaired when a state senator that would have dictated a new structure for the Roman Catholic Church in Connecticut.

Outrageous and unjustifiable is the dismissal by his supporters (The Day included, in its March 13 editorial) of abusive behavior that McDonald directed at a sitting senator of his own party. While representing the governor in a meeting at the Capitol, with other legislators and staff present, McDonald became enraged at the senator.

In her affidavit, Sen. Gayle S. Slossberg testifies:

“Justice McDonald started screaming directly at me at the top of his lungs in a very personal and shocking manner. He was so angry that his lip was quivering… I can honestly say that in the 12 years that I have served in elected office, I have never experienced anything as hostile at any time. After the meeting, a number of the persons present approached me to make sure that I was okay and to express their shock and dismay at Justice McDonald’s behavior.”

Neither denial nor apology has been offered. Instead, unnamed sources claim that the senator “gave as good as she got,” her response somehow excusing McDonald’s attack.

I don’t think that’s how it works. If someone yelled at me, I might yell back — I’ve lost my temper for less. I might respond yet more strongly were I a woman who felt she’d earned the right not to be yelled at. Still, the fault lies with him who yelled first, without whom there had been no yelling.

I served as lead Republican on a committee chaired by the senator McDonald attacked. Sen. Slossberg is famously sharp but entirely professional, too wise and charming in my experience to give cause for ill feeling.

In a decade at the Capitol, I have never seen anyone yelled at to her face, not nearly. Should a man representing me so treat anyone — bellhop or bishop — in public, I will dismiss him. Instead, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy picks such a man to preside over our state Supreme Court and the entire judicial system.

A case can be made that the incident is insignificant; I ask only that his advocates allow I might legitimately find disturbing such behavior in a man proposed for the highest seat on our bench.