Rell Looks in the Rear-View Mirror

Gov. M. Jodi Rell was a calming, reassuring presence in July 2004, when John G. Rowland was chased from Hartford by an impeachment inquiry and federal investigators. She leaves office knowing something else is required now, someone with a harder edge. And that's not her.

"My mother used to have this expression, I'm sure all mothers do: 'You're at any given place at any time for a reason,' " Rell said Tuesday, sitting in the corner office she will yield to Dan Malloy on Jan. 5. Ten days later, she boards a southbound cruise ship in Cozumel, Mexico.

On July 1, 2004, Rell was an obscure lieutenant governor, unknown to a majority of the state even after 9½ years in office. The reason for being in that place at that time, she said, was an ability to project calm as Rowland resigned as governor, eventually bound for federal prison.

"I am pretty much a calming effect," Rell said, smiling.

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