[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 2 (Thursday, January 24, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S97-S98]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                        TRIBUTE TO MICKEY MIANO

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today with sorrow and 
profound respect to honor the life of Michael ``Mickey'' Miano, a 
Connecticut institution and personal friend who passed away earlier 
this month, just 2 months shy of his 96th birthday.
  By trade, Mickey was a restaurateur and businessman, but that doesn't 
begin to describe the depth of his influence on Connecticut's capital 
city or the State that was his home. Anyone who wanted to understand 
Hartford's social and political life in a glance needed only to visit 
Mickey in his restaurant or in the office of one of the many other 
businesses he ran over the course of his life. He was a political 
leader without political office--a man who understood that communities 
are held together not by government but by the private citizens who 
live, work, own homes, and raise their families in them.
  Mickey came to this country from Italy at age 6 in 1912, left school 
after the fifth grade to work in the tobacco fields, later joined the 
merchant marines, and then went into business. His life's trajectory 
exemplified the rise of a whole generation of Italian-American 
immigrants, and immigrants of every nationality throughout American 
history. The fact that Mickey had an uphill climb did not slow his 
ascent one bit. By age 30, he was well on his way to being a force in 
Connecticut politics, earning it all through his hard work and the 
power of his personality. Mickey's place in the history of Connecticut 
politics is secure. It was an attempt to secure that place that led me 
to include him in two books I wrote about Connecticut politics earlier 
in my own life.
  And over the years that followed, as more people came to learn how 
generous he was in spirit and how committed he was to improving his 
city and state, he grew more and more instrumental in Connecticut's 
political life, and my home State grew more and more indebted to him.
  I was privileged to have Mickey as a friend. Despite many attempts to 
draft him into official public service, Mickey never ran for political 
office--perhaps because he understood that in America, there's no 
greater honor or privilege than an active and caring private citizen. 
That is what he was: a grassroots leader who cared about the common 
good and got results. I know that his optimism and patriotism will 
continue to inspire all those who knew him as long as we live. I ask to 
print the following tribute to his life by Tom Condon, another good guy 
who also happens to write for the Hartford Courant, in the Record.
  The tribute follows:

               [From the Hartford Courant, Jan. 16, 2002]

                        Mickey Miano Dies At 95


           Restaurateur Helped Define An Era In City Politics

                            (By Tom Condon)

       Michael ``Mickey'' Miano, restaurateur, businessman and an 
     enduring figure in Hartford politics for much of the last 
     century, died last weekend, two months shy of his 96th 
     birthday.
       Miano, street-savvy and stylishly stout, feisty and 
     flamboyant, got his start in politics at age 9, handing out 
     fliers for Woodrow Wilson in the 1916 election. He gained 
     local prominence in the rough-and-tumble world of East Side 
     politics in the 1930s.
       He was part of the first generation of Italian American 
     politicians to gain power in the city, a group that included 
     such figures as Anthony Zazzaro, Rocco Pallotti, Joseph 
     Fauliso and Dominick DeLucco.
       Miano declined many requests to run for office, preferring 
     the behind-the-scenes neighborhood and committee work where a 
     job, a favor or a remembered birthday translated into votes 
     and power. He was so good at it that even in his 80s, when 
     he'd lost a step and his influence had waned, politicians 
     still stopped at his memento-filled Franklin Avenue office to 
     pay homage. ``You don't want him against you,'' then-State 
     Rep. Anthony Palermino told a reporter.
       He was a soft touch for a favor, but if a situation called 
     for a firm hand, Miano provided it. As a precinct moderator 
     in 1933, he twice settled disputes with his dukes. But he 
     could also be a diplomat.
       His East Side restaurant, Mickey's Villanova, was the hot 
     spot for politicians and reporters in the World War II years. 
     Shortly after a bruising municipal election in 1943, heads of 
     the three factions that had been fighting it out all appeared 
     at Mickey's. Miano tactfully seated them in different corners 
     of the restaurant, and shuttled back and forth until each 
     group was buying drinks for the others.
       Miano was born in Sicily and came to this country at age 6 
     in 1912. He left school after the fifth grade to work in the 
     tobacco fields. After a stint in the merchant marine he came 
     back to Hartford and went into a remarkable number of 
     businesses in the next 70-plus years.
       He sold wholesale grapes, drove a fruit wagon, brought the 
     circus to town, promoted fights, ran a nightclub and finally 
     got into the restaurant business. Mickey's Villanova, on 
     Market Street, was central to the political action in a way 
     that Frank's, Scoler's and Carbone's would later be. During 
     the war, Bob Steele, Willie Pep and others broadcast to 
     American troops from the restaurant.

[[Page S98]]

       The Constitution Plaza redevelopment project took away the 
     restaurant and the beloved East Side neighborhood, over 
     Miano's strenuous objection, but he persevered. He made salad 
     dressing, started a rubbish removal company and sold 
     incinerators.
       In his last decades, he was in real estate and mortgages 
     from the Franklin Avenue office. He made no concession to 
     age, his son Paul Miano said, and was as hungry to do a deal 
     at 87 as he was at 17. ``The only way we got him to stop was 
     by closing the office when he went in for surgery. He was 88, 
     and we wanted him to take it easy.''
       But Mickey came through the surgery, lost more than 100 
     pounds and was raring to go again. During his last illness, 
     at 95, he'd say to Paul, ``When I get out of here, let's open 
     up a little office, just a couple days a week.''
       His daughter, Michelle Bradley, said the family was never 
     more proud of her father than when U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman 
     was nominated for vice president. Lieberman mentioned Mickey 
     in both of his books about Connecticut politics. ``The Power 
     Broker'' and ``The Legacy.''
       ``That a prospective vice president of the United States 
     would write about this man of humble origin is remarkable,'' 
     she said.
       And, Paul said, his dad got a lot of mileage out of the 
     mentions. He was vacationing in Florida during the 
     campaign.

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