Rowland Finds Comfort in Nation’s Capital
By Brian Dolan
WASHINGTON —At home, many are calling for his impeachment. But in the nation’s capital, Gov. John Rowland had, by his own testimony, a “good weekend.”
Roland attended the National Governors Association winter meeting and discussed issues including funding for roads and highways and the Pentagon’s decision to cancel production of the Comanche helicopter. Scandal in Connecticut was hardly mentioned, he said.
After repeated denials, Rowland admitted in December that he accepted gifts and free work from politically connected contractors who renovated his lakeside cottage in Litchfield. He says he did not return the favors.
Many of the governors “treated me very matter-of-factly,” Rowland said in an interview. “A lot of them don’t even seem to know anything about it. The ones that do just said, ‘Hang in there.’ But it hasn’t really affected anything that’s gone on here.”
Rowland and other Republican governors met with President Bush over the weekend. Bush greeted Rowland warmly and slapped him on the back, also telling him to “hang in there.”
At the White House, Rowland and his colleagues met with senators and Cabinet members to discuss the proposed disbursement formula in the $318 billion highway spending bill, which would give Connecticut the smallest increase in highway funding of any state.
“The transportation issue has been an important one,” Rowland said. “The formula in particular is not working for us.”
The Pentagon also created an important issue for Connecticut when it canceled the $39 billion Comanche helicopter program. Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft unit of United Technologies Corp. teamed up with the Boeing Co. to develop the helicopter, which it started building last August in a new Bridgeport facility.
“The big issue is the Comanche helicopter being cut,” Rowland said. “So we are busy putting the fire out on that one.”
Army leaders said at a press conference Monday they planned to divert billions of dollars earmarked for Comanches to buy and modernize other helicopters.
Rowland met Tuesday with Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., to discuss how to reverse the Comanche decision.
“It simply doesn’t make sense to pull the plug on the Comanche,” Dodd said in a statement Monday. “Obviously, this will not be an easy fight, but I intend to work with other members of the Connecticut congressional delegation to seek to retain the Comanche as part of our military arsenal.”
Lieberman expressed a similar concern.
“I am outraged by the Army’s decision to terminate the Comanche program,” Lieberman said in a statement Monday. “Canceling Comanche will not only cost jobs, it could also weaken our national security—something I am determined to prevent.”
