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It was Maine lawyer who spread word of Bush-DUI arrest
By Jerry Harkavy, Associated Press, 11/03/00 PORTLAND, Maine -- Sporting his signature long-billed fishing cap, Tom Connolly is a familiar figure at the Cumberland County Courthouse. And as befits a former college debate champion, he loves to talk.
When he gets excited, his words come in a loud, rapid-fire burst, and he makes no secret of his disdain for George W. Bush. So the 43-year-old lawyer was easily overheard Thursday when he was sounding off to colleagues about a revelation: Bush had been arrested 24 years ago in Kennebunkport for drunken driving. A police officer who heard the courthouse conversation passed the news to a TV reporter. The reporter spotted Connolly later in the day, the lawyer agreed to give her a copy of a court document about Bush's case and the story was out. Outside his office on Friday, Connolly rejected Republican talk that the release of the information less than a week before the election was a political dirty trick, It was Bush who should have owned up earlier, he said. "It's not a dirty trick to tell the truth," he said. "Bush is the one who's been playing fast and loose with the truth." Connolly's dislike of the Republican presidential nominee is well-documented. So is his sense of humor. At last summer's Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, Connolly distributed buttons that said "W is for Wiener," showing Bush stuffed into a hotdog roll. He wrote a book with the same name and distributed about 700 copies at the state party convention. He also posted the information on a Web site. Why wiener? "'W,' of course, and because he is a wiener -- a person who essentially is beyond the yuppie class and has been provided for in a very elaborate way," Connolly said. He also supplied conventioneers with hundreds of buttons that read, "Insomniacs for Gore -- I'd rather be put to sleep than put to death." The references were to Al Gore's bland reputation and the number of executions in Texas since Bush became governor. He also was a delegate to the 1996 convention in Chicago where he wore a lapel button showing a "No Right Turn" traffic sign -- a protest against what he saw as a conservative drift of the party. Born in Boston, Connolly graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he was a debating champion and class valedictorian. He received a law degree from the University of Maine School of Law in 1982. His oratorical flourishes proved to be of little help two years ago when he attempted to unseat Angus King, the popular independent governor. King won 59 percent of the vote, compared with 19 percent for Republican Jim Longley Jr. and 12 percent for Democrat Connolly, whose campaign signs featured the tan and black swordbill cap he wears just about everywhere. Connolly, who lives in Scarborough with his wife and three children, first became widely known with his dogged defense of a Bowdoinham farmer who was convicted of the 1988 murder of a 12-year-old babysitter. Connolly has been outspoken in his support of state control of liquor sales, citing the costs of alcohol abuse to society. He said Friday that he has represented hundreds of drunken-driving defendants and has sympathy for Bush. But he said it was important for the public to know about the 1976 arrest. "It's conceivable that Bush could relapse," he said. A staunch liberal, Connolly also has advocated increases in the minimum wage, state-financed college tuition and government loans for worker buyouts of some shutdown factories. But he's no stern ideologue. Behind his desk there's a human skeleton, its skull encased in a crash helmet. |
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The New York tabloids had a field day with the news that Bush had been arrested for drunk driving.
