in M. Lisa Moody, her widely
feared, intensely political but
infrequently seen chief of staff.

\u201cI have always had full confidence
in Lisa Moody as my chief of
staff, and will continue to do so
unless there\u2019s any reason not to,\u201d
Rell responded immediately.

It\u2019s great to have that much
support from your boss \u2014 but it\u2019s
not so great to be in a position
where your boss is asked that

It\u2019s a familiar position for Moody, though, at the center of a political storm.

Moody, 50, a longtime GOP
legislative staff operative from
Vernon, has inhabited that place
repeatedly since Rell\u2019s first
full year as governor in 2005.
In December of that year, Rell
suspended her for two weeks
after newspaper revelations of
Moody\u2019s improper on-the-job
political activities at the Capitol.
She had told top Rell appointees
to distribute tickets for a Rell

This time, the storm revolves
around a $223,000, taxpayer-
funded study by a University of
Connecticut professor and polling
expert under a no-bid contract
with the Rell administration.

The study by UConn polling
expert Kenneth Dautrich is now
the subject of official inquiries
by state auditors, state Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal,
UConn and election enforcement

The big question is whether
taxpayer funds were misused to
provide Rell with political advice.
Rell denies that, and defends
the study as a valuable effort
to streamline government. But
the governor again finds herself
responding to questions about the
actions of Moody, who, according
to e-mails and memos, has clearly
been Dautrich\u2019s main contact.

Democrats have been blasting
Rell and singling out Moody for
criticism since the matter arose
two weeks ago \u2014 and while
Republicans have defended them,
their defense of Moody could be,
well, a little more spirited.

For example, here is what House
Republican leader Lawrence
Cafero, a representative from
Norwalk, said when asked last
week whether Rell is well-served
by Moody\u2019s continued presence as
chief of staff: \u201cThe opinions that I

respect for the governor, I would
share with her first before I would
share them with anyone.\u201d

Senate, Republican leader John
McKinney of Fairfield, did
offer an enthusiastic defense.
He called legislative Democrats
hypocrites for attacking Rell
and Moody now over alleged
misuse of public funds on politics
when they refused earlier this
year to sanction two Democratic
state senators, Thomas Gaffey
of Meriden and Joseph Crisco
of Woodbridge. Those two

respectively, by the state elections
enforcement agency for violating
state election laws, and \u201cthey
admitted to ... worse\u201d than any
\u201cmistake\u201d that Moody ever made,
McKinney said.

oath during a legislative hearing
that she \u201cdid not fully read ...
and absorb\u201d an ethics memo to
the governor\u2019s staff, which she
violated in the 2005 Marco Polo
affair even though she was listed
as its author. It was later revealed
that she made handwritten editing

was missing from documents that the governor\u2019s office produced in response to a Courant Freedom