Lisa Moody on the hot seat

Oh my, this is great television. Get over to CT-N and watch as Lisa Moody get grilled by the Democrats. Okay, maybe grilled is too strong of a word but it is amazing watch fall on the sword for team Rell.

Here's what the Hartford Courant had to say about Moody's performance. Again, it's better if you just watch the proceedings on CT-N as you can view the entire thing online (what a great newtwork).

Gov. M. Jodi Rell's chief of staff apologized publicly several times today for distributing invitations to a Rell fundraiser being investigated by a legislative committee.

The Government Administration and Elections Committee wants to know what role Rell's campaign played in a settlement between the state Elections Enforcement Commission and 16 state agency commissioners and deputy commissioners accused of illegally distributing the fundraiser invitations to subordinates.

Chief of Staff M. Lisa Moody was the only witness on the fifth day of the hearing. Most of the questions from committee members Tuesday focused on the events leading up to the fundraiser rather than the settlement.

Moody acknowledged that she gave 13 commissioners and three deputy commissioners invitations to a December fundraiser and asked them to distribute them.

It was not illegal for her to give the invitations to the commissioners, but it was illegal for them to hand them out to subordinates.

[...]

"I will never forgive myself for that," she said. "Having been through what I have been through for handing out invitations is frankly, in my opinion, incredible, but it was my responsibility and I take the blame for it."

Moody said that when she heard a reporter was asking questions about the fundraiser, she called elections commission Executive Director Jeffrey Garfield to find out if she had done anything wrong.

When she learned it might have been illegal for commissioners to hand out invitations, she said she wrote him a letter explaining her role.

"I frankly brought the complaint myself," she said. "I turned myself in. There was an investigation because I brought this to their attention."

I'll post highlights from the entire proceeding later.