Our Hartford geniuses strike again

and as a backup ….

State Senate is reimposing mask requirements for … reasons.

[A] new round of COVID infections in the state Senate has prompted legislative leaders to order mandatory masking for staff, elected officials and the public on the third floor of the State Capitol building as well as the fourth floor Senate galleries.

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, made the announcement late Monday night in an email to Capitol reporters, citing "a number of positive COVID tests" in the Senate. Daily rapid COVID tests will be performed on senators and staff, and senators who test negative will be allowed to take off masks on the Senate floor.

Looney's announcement, made after consulting with Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, came several hours after Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, an eighth-term veteran of the General Assembly, announced that he tested positive for the virus. "I had a good run," Lesser announced on Twitter. "Unfortunately last night I tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time. Symptoms so far are minor. Isolating and taking anti-viral medication."

Masks for visitors and guests will be required in the public areas of the third floor, which include lobbying areas where mounted TVs broadcast Senate sessions. The center of the third floor is the vaulted Senate chamber, with its 36 member desks called "the circle," the center of which is the elevated dais where Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz presides over the Senate business and procedures.

“Yeah, I know that masks are looney” the Senate President admitted to FWIW, “and that they’ve been determined to not only be useless against the little bugs, but are probably harmful because of all the CO2 they trap, but we’re talking theater here, man — the public loves it. Besides, we’re freaking morons, after all, and so we can’t be blamed.

“Say”, he continued, “did you know that we’re also bringing in a genuine Golden Hill witch doctor to cleanse and purify the Chamber? That’s gonna be a helluva crowd-pleaser, I guarantee you.”

These are the people spending your money and running your state.