I was startled while watching a recent television clip of an interview with Tom Foley in which he lamented the fact that Connecticut voters don't have a way to recall their governor.

If there were a recall of Gov. Dannel Malloy, Foley went on, he would certainly throw his hat in the ring again for a new contest.

Really?

Losing twice to Malloy wasn't enough?

I understand Foley wants to make the point — he wants to gloat, really —  that the governor who promised not to increase taxes again seems headed for signing off on a budget deal that will raise taxes a lot.

The continuing budget woes, which Malloy must have seen coming during the election, while successfully denying it to voters, would indeed make him vulnerable in a recall.

Malloy's protection of state union workers seems to especially rankle the public.

This is the governor who promised shared sacrifice for his first huge tax hike but who seems determined this time to let the pain fall anywhere that doesn't impact state union workers.

Malloy has been all over the budget court, proposing big cuts to social services, the state's neediest, and tax increases that made normally mum corporate citizens howl.

But the governor has remained steadfastly loyal to whatever promises he must have made to union leaders, who came through at turn-out-the-vote time.

It is, at its best, unseemly that the governor is prepared to wield his budget ax wherever he turns, on the rich or poor, as long as there are no union salaries, pensions or benefits in the way.

Foley is probably right that Connecticut's budget morass, which has been generating national attention, would make the governor quite vulnerable if a recall were possible.

Indeed, Malloy, who basked in Democratic admiration after winning in an off year for the party, must hate the derision Connecticut is now getting among national Republicans, with big corporations threatening to pull up stakes.

This has been the most acrimonious and discordant budget struggle Connecticut has seen in a long while, and no doubt Republicans, who have been largely shut out of the messy attempts at resolution, would no doubt do well if another election were held soon.

Maybe with Malloy stumbling, the big Republican wins in the last election are a harbinger of things to come. Could the new batch of eastern Connecticut Republicans be the canaries in the mine for state Democrats?

Connecticut voters tend to like Republican governors. There could be a turning point for the General Assembly, too, if the party were to get its act together.

But that will require Connecticut Republicans to come to the inevitable conclusion that neither Tom Foley, Linda McMahon nor any other rich Fairfield wannabes — candidates  with big egos, big checkbooks and no track record of winning elections — is not the solution to the party's ambitions.

Let's be honest — since he's decided to publicly raise the topic again — Foley ran a lousy campaign against Malloy. He was unspecific and vague and, at times, even nasty.

Who could forget the debate in which he seemed to go after the governor's family?

By the end of the election it was pretty clear they both hated each other.

Incredibly, Foley seemed to make a strategic decision early on not to promise cuts for state workers.

Why be coy? Did he really think he was going to get much of the union vote? After all, he once busted a union at a factory he owned.

I would suggest to Republicans that sharing the sacrifice, a term ironically coined by Malloy, would be the best new campaign slogan against Connecticut Democrats, if they want to get back in the game.

And Tom Foley, if he doesn't like the way the story is turning out, should consider himself partly to blame.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct