TALKING POLITICS Dufault’s broadcast blunder bolsters Carcieri BY IAN DONNIS

Christmas came early for the governor.

Since emerging as an unusually successful political neophyte in 2002, Donald L. Carcieri has deliberately and skillfully set himself against the status quo, particularly public-employee unions and the Democrat-controlled General Assembly. Although this tactic hasn’t always yielded much in the way of results — witness the meager GOP legislative gains in 2004, after the most aggressive push in a generation — the governor has steadily built momentum, at least in the eyes of his supporters, by championing pet causes like pension reform and the first-ever health-care premium co-pays for state workers. Carcieri, who tends to dismiss criticism of him as "politics," has proved a nimble rhetorical warrior, gaining, not coincidentally, a heightened degree of cooperation this year from House Speaker William J. Murphy and Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano.

So when gubernatorial adversary Guy Dufault became the unwitting star of an unseemly unintentional television broadcast that rapped Lieutenant Governor Charles Fogarty’s gubernatorial aspirations, and professed unsubstantiated knowledge of extra-marital dalliances involving Carcieri, it gave flesh to some Republicans’ worst assumptions about the other side. Although Dufault’s weekly advertorial, The Real Deal on UPN, has a relatively small audience, the host’s use of the colorful phrase comattas, as well as his not-ready-for-broadcast banter with former Republican activist J. Michael Levesque of West Warwick, a fellow casino supporter, lent the bright only-in-Rhode Island ribbon to this gift-wrapped self-inflicted wound.

Carcieri was quick to pounce. During a State Room news conference on Monday, the governor said Dufault’s broadcast "allowed Rhode Islanders a glimpse at the dirty underbelly of current politics in the state." He said his "reason for addressing this issue . . . is very simple — I am serving notice that this kind of thing will not be tolerated. I call on the responsible parties, starting with Mr. Dufault, to retract these statements. But this event is about more than just my own reputation. What Rhode Islanders need to know is that this is just the latest example of the coordinated campaign waged against me by the special interests who have had the run of state government for far too long. It is now crystal clear they will stop at nothing to defeat me and anyone else who’ll stand up to them."

Fogarty and Bill Lynch, chairman of the state Democratic Party, wasted little time in disassociating themselves from Dufault’s remarks, and calling for him to apologize to the governor and his wife. Dufault, who apologized to his viewers Monday for the broadcast of the remarks, and then to the governor on Tuesday, didn’t return a call seeking comment.

Fortunately for the Democrats, the election is a year away, and a lot can happen in the interim to return the conversation to Carcieri’s record in office. The last thing they want in the mind of voters is the image of the grandfatherly governor in a legitimately aggrieved state.