public life

“No one who sees me in action would doubt that I remain the bulldog that I am,” Connolly said at the time, about 135 days before announcing his retirement from public life.

By a vote of 131-84, a supermajority of House Democrats chose to hand one of the most visible positions in Congress to someone who announced their retirement from public life four months later.

He described corruption as a "cancer in public life".

"It has taken a toll, but if you are in public life you have to take that."

He claims that while Sharaa's top circle wants to build "a conservative, economically liberal" state, "they can't stop many of their members – those they've appointed in various positions and rely on because they're trusted – from trying to Islamise public life in Syria."