Jim Amann talks about my video

Hoo boy. This thing just won't go away.

ConnecticutBLOG and My Left Nutmeg both ran detailed articles on the recent developments.

This last Sunday Kevin Rennie, a columnist for the Hartford Courant, wrote in this article:

Technology is freedom's friend in the battle to protect liberty from those who see themselves as our betters. So on this Thanksgiving weekend, give a nod to the essential YouTube.com. If you would like to see the veil slip on Williams' counterpart in the House of Representatives, go to YouTube and type in the name "James Amann" in the search box.

Thanks to videographer CTBob, you'll see that tribune of the people, Amann, announce to a local interlocutor that he would "crush" anyone who would dare to run against him in his Milford district. Amann has essentially become a bully of the most pompous sort. And there it is for all to see in two minutes.

We don't need fewer opportunities for candidates to reveal themselves, we need more. These moments of candor always tell us more about our leaders than they intend. And for that we are grateful.

Yesterday, the local talk radio station had a field day talking about my video (link) that pokes a bit of fun at House Speaker Jim Amann. Which is fair, in my opinion. If I'm going to express my point of view publicly on the internet, then it's fair for talk radio people to discuss my work.

Of course, I don't REALLY think that he's Tony Soprano; he just talks like him sometimes.

Actually, he reminds me a little of John Gotti. But in a good way.

So on WTIC, there were TWO shows that featured ME, "Connecticut Bob", prominantly. First, Jim Amann called in to the "Ray & Diane" show, and he had some interesting things to say about the video. Then, on "Sound Off Connecticut" with Jim Vicevich, the host had a few things to say about the situation. I don't have a copy of his show, but I do have the Amann interview mp3 right here.

Basically, Jim has a faulty memory of the event. But's that isn't surprising. He talked for nearly a half-hour non-stop, and even though I taped the entire thing, I didn't remember everything he said.

Here's a partial transcript from Jim's radio interview with Ray & Diane yesterday:

Amann: "When the press conference was over, I was leaving and a couple of the bloggers were there. Actually, the interview...you know, there was about five minutes of it, of course, they edited it, the interview actually was very good, the asked me some pretty direct questions about my support for Joe Lieberman.

About three minutes into the interview this individual started heckling me, basically yelled at me as I was leaving "You're a leader" and you know, "when the party tells you to walk one way, you've gotta walk lockstep with them".

And my response basically was at first, it was kinda humorous, I was a little bit taken aback by it, but then I said the last time I heard about party leaders walking lockstep they were walking into Poland from Nazi Germany."

Besides the obvious insulting nature of what he's saying, it's faulty memory. Nobody but Jim Amann mentioned the word "lockstep", and that was once at the very end of the interview. I guess he confuses Democratic Party loyalty with Nazi invasions.

Let me try to help. Here's the Nazi invasion of Poland:

And here's Democratic Party unity:

I hope that clears things up for you. Now let's continue with the radio interview:

"I said as a leader, I don't think I don't always have to, you know, do everything that the party tells me. You know, I think this guy is a good man and I support him, and he just came on snapping back.

So I went to walk away...when I walked away he basically in my opinion kind of threatened me, you know, we're gonna go after you next. I think that's what really aggravated me, mostly because I feel 25 years in politics, and I think I've been a pretty good Democrat, and for a fellow Democrat to say, because I support another Democrat, that they're going to threaten to do the same thing to me that they did to Joe Lieberman. It just kinda irritated me."

This photo was taken minutes after the alleged "threat". I dunno, but does Jim look like a guy who's been threatened? Someone threatens me, I'm not going to shake his hand and smile. Seems he's not even making a mountain out of a molehill...he's trying to fashion a molehill out of thin air.

That's CT Keith and my bestest buddy and interview-ruiner Branford Boy, with Speaker Amann. (BTW Kelly, I'm not really pissed at you; I just had a bit of fun at your expense in the video below)

Interviewer: So, you essentially said "Bring 'em on, I will crush 'em!"

"Yeah, I said that. It wasn't my brightest moment in front of a video camera, that's for sure." (laughter)

Interviewer: "You know, a guy gets angry."

"You know, the age of video papparazzi, I didn't realize I was going to be constantly looked at."

There's nothing "papparazzi" about someone being interviewed WHILE HE'S LOOKING DIRECTLY INTO A CAMERA AT A PRESS CONFERENCE! Jesus!

Then they briefly discussed Amann's reasons for abandoning the party's chosen candidate, and then he then went on to say how people with cameras don't respect other's privacy, but Diane Smith brought up the fact that this occurred at a press conference.

Listen to the entire interview HERE.

So that's what happened yesterday. I decided to put these allegations to rest by uploading the entire UN-EDITED video here. I shot a continuous, non-stop video, and damn my arms got tired holding that stupid camera! It's about 27-minutes long, so go make some popcorn and grab yourself a beverage before watching it.

There's a lot of fun stuff in this video. You get to see Jim Amann's charm up close. Plus, you see Branford Boy cut me off several times while I try to ask questions during the interview I'm conducting. The last time I saw something that rude, it was Dickie Goodstein butting in on a TV interview in Greenwich. Sheesh!

You also get to witness the unmitigated brilliance of CT Keith. The man is relentless and has the reasoning of a pit bull! That's why we love him. In fact, people respect CT Keith so much that even Branford Boy doesn't deign to interrupt him.

If you've been reading this far, you deserve what you're going to see next! Here's the video you've been waiting for! Enjoy; and please leave a comment below.