Independence and bluntness don’t create similarity to Trump

We are at sea, hence the staccato-style response to the Cyndy Brucato piece on Trump, handlers, and me (“Take it from Arne’s former communications chief: Let Trump be Trump”).  Cindy Brucato is most capable and a dear friend but not blessed with infallibility. Her analysis is faulty and the piece is historically inaccurate.

1. Many political leaders were independent and blunt. Hubert Humphrey and Theodore Roosevelt come to mind. That does not put them into a Trump category any more than suggesting all tall people resemble Abraham Lincoln.

2. Suggestion of handlers managing the words and actions of blunt and independent candidates is pure poppycock. Dogs have handlers. Candidates have campaign teams. My campaigns never had handlers — never.

Even the hint, however unintended, of a relationship to Donald Trump is repugnant. When I was cast aside by the Republican Party for re-nomination as governor, it was due to my firm commitment to human rights for all, including the gay-lesbian community, and my threat to veto any legislation that would alter a woman’s right to choose. That is hardly akin to Donald Trump.

I was one of the first, if not the first, former Republican officeholders to endorse Hillary Clinton. And I made that endorsement without any “handlers.”

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