2010 senate election

It's Mischief Night tonight, and I hear the "Wild RINO". Linda McMahon has picked out her Halloween costume for tomorrow evening.

(Try not to scare Rahm Emanuel!, Linda)

One thing that Ms. McMahon is eager to portray is being the self-reliant hardscrabble businesswoman who rose to billions solely through single minded hard work and perseverance.

And just like the sport: Wrestling's fake. And so is the WWE's true committment to free enterprise.

That is, unless your definition of "free enterprise" includes sinking one's snout deep, deep into the public trough guzzling corporate welfare.

From the Journal-Inquirer.

A top aide to Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Linda E. McMahon today defended her company’s acceptance of millions of dollars in state tax credits, as both Republican and Democratic opponents pilloried her for what they called McMahon’s “stimulus package” and “taxpayer-funded bailout.”The attacks by former 2nd District Congressman Robert R. Simmons, the leading Republican seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, and by a Dodd surrogate, state Democratic Party spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan, came after the state subsidies to World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. were reported Thursday by the Journal Inquirer. 

The newspaper cited state records that show WWE has collected nearly $3 million in digital and media tax credits, most of which were issued just eight weeks before McMahon resigned her position as its chief executive officer to run for office.

Yep, Linda McMahon's immensely profitable wrestling empire gets subsidized by the Connecticut taxpayer, who are watching the income tax raised on the top bracket, public services reduced, and the state try and borrow its way through the recession. Indeed, unionized state employees even agreed to concessions, which is more than can be said about the state's would-be entertainment titans.

The apologists for the state's highly subsidized entertainment industry accuse McMahon critics of "jumping the shark" .  You see, it was other politicians who wrote these lucrative credits into the law.

Sorry, none of them are spending millions denouncing bailouts when they run a profitable corporation that takes them themselves.  It's "Happy Days" alright for the McMahon family, but the average CT taxpayers feels like they are in remake of "Jaws" 

So the news media has concluded that Ms. McMahon, whose family controls the vast percentage of the WWE's stock, converted tax credits from the state into funds available for her campaign. Maybe this is a form of "public campaign finance"

But it gets worse.

Despite the fact that the WWE was very profitable notwithstanding the recession, shortly before she left her CEO post  at the WWE Linda McMahon went on a frenzy of layoffs and cost-cutting intended to raise profit margins.

Jan. 9, 2009, 9:38 a.m. ESTMcMahon & Co. has announced that it is cutting 10% of its staff, which should result in annual cost savings of approximately $8 million. In exchange for that, the company will take a one-time charge of $3 million. WWE also noted that the company has completed an evaluation of its operating and capital expenditures and has identified "additional efficiencies." In short, more cost cuts are on the way. The company's ultimate goal is to trim $20 million from its expense structure in 2009. 

I'm the last person to lambaste a business that cuts costs to stave off competition, or to stockpile cash, or to pay off lenders and creditors.  And we are going to see a lot of very necessary cuts like that in Corporate America. But the WWE is essentially a monopoly in pro wrestling, they have consistently earned a profit and have $200 million in cash with virtually no long term debt..     So why the urgency to cut costs?  Well, as I noted the McMahon family owns 70% of the WWE  Let's apply 70% of the $20 million in cut costs; well that means $14 million inures to the McMahon family..

So,does the Wild RINO gets to finance most of her U.S. Senate campaign with "new money" without having to dip into the family fortune? Sure looks it.

McMahon's campaign has run a TV ad telling folks how tough it was for her and Vince starting out, even having to declare bankruptcy and losing their house starting their business.

Hey Linda, like that's special. Please.

What really sickens me is it appears she is paying for this ad using the extra profits she earned after firing over 60 Connecticut employees.  

How many of those 60 WWE's employees are going to lose their house so their old boss can finance her U.S. Senate bid without dipping into the accumulated family fortune?  In 2006 Joe Lieberman eviscerated the campaign of Ned Lamont after running this ad.    

It's tough wearing a costume as a free market Republican and expecting people to believe you; Linda.

Especially when you destroy jobs, not create them . And collect subsidies. Not cut them.

We're onto the trick, Linda. You already got the treat.

Can a U.S. Senate campaign double as a reality show?

The befuddled Republicans in Connecticut are asking this question tonight?

First, this morning, the Wild RINO, Linda McMahon is called out by the Hartford Courant for "an extreme makeover"

Her "outsider" campaign will soon have 16 paid staff and has spent more than $2 million, just in the first weeks. She has hired top political operatives, including the consummate insider lobbyist in Hartford, Patrick Sullivan. There is a "new media" director. The wife of the state GOP chair will be her press secretary and David Cappiello, a prominent former state senator, will run the campaign.McMahon tells us that Dodd has been "right in the middle" of the bailouts, trillion-dollar debt, government-run health care and the "banks and special interests." Yet this former CEO is no stranger to ethically challenged situations.She presided over a business where, according to investigators from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, " steroid use is pervasive" and the "organizations involved have not taken adequate steps to address this problem." 

Sadly, I know one of the new McMahon staffers. I can only presume she is in dire financial straits, as signing up for this lounge act was like when members of the Blues Brothers fronted as "Murph and the Magic Tones" at the Armada Lounge.

I'm not going to belabor the point, but back in 1776 the good guys were the volunteer citizen soldiers; the bad guys were the Hessian mercenaries. I note America's renaissance in the late 20th century coincided with the all-volunteer military...hmmm..   a political lesson herein?

In any case, by the time she starts she's going to be fully engulfed. First, in late morning the McMahon family did what they do so well, mix family melodrama and business; as McMahon's son quit the WWE management. A British tabloid said dad Vince was "saddened"

But methinks this is a lot like the various plotlines where Linda's been cheated on , sent to a santorium, been slapped by her daughter, kicked Vince in the groin, yadda, yadda and yadda. I strongly suspect that Shane will return to the WWE in very theatrical fashion soon enough, probably battling the Undertaker to resume his executive post or something in that vein.    

Of course, by midafternoon the CT Democrats had made like the Supreme Court under Justice Potter Stewart and examined WWE footage for obscenity. Sure enough, they claim to have found it.

Colleen Flanagan, spokeswoman for Connecticut’s Democratic Party, said as CEO of the WWE, McMahon “presided over programming that showed simulated rape, public sex and necrophilia.”

“People across this state, not to mention the millions of women who are the victims of sexual violence every year, would be horrified and embarrassed to know that the person who seeks to represent them condones this kind of behavior,” she added

The Politico is having some run with the hypocrisy of the DC Democrats, who are basically libertines "Bible Belting" McMahon over these turgid videos

Guess this was all before the PG-13 version of the show.

By day's end the WWE made the offensive videos disappear from YouTube.

I dunno about the necrophilia; maybe that's some kind of twisted commentary on the death tax.

But what the Wild RINO can't put in the cybernetic round file is the cold hard truth that at a time when we desperately need a strong voice to challenge the excesses of the Obama Administration, she is Rahm Emanuel's  favorite Republican.  

Yep, that might be even more skeevy than shlupping a stiff.

We've learned more this week about liberal Republican wrestling promoter Linda McMahon, a/k/a "the Wild RINO"

For one thing, we've ascertained that she must be the Pinch Sulzberger approved Republican in the field of candidates in Connecticut. On Sunday, the New York Times decided to put its candidate profile of Mrs. McMahon on page A1 

A Senate Candidate Accustomed to Being Thrown in the Ring

“I don’t think anyone should ever question Linda’s resolve or tenacity,” said Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports, who has collaborated on projects with the McMahons. “If anybody thinks she is the little woman, they are out of their minds. She put the business together.”

OK, any question who the MSM is in the tank for in this race, folks?

Jeez, you wonder what's going through Rob Simmons's head about now. All he did was spend a career in the CIA and on Capitol Hill, a decade in the CT Legislature, won a Democrat congressional district three times, and he's been obscured by someone who produced a soap opera on steroids.   

What is not going through Republican minds in Connecticut is much respect for this stuff. Just this week, a legislator from McMahon's  home town endorsed the thoughtful conservative in the field,  State Senator Sam Caligiuri

 “Representative Camillo’s endorsement is very humbling. As a relative newcomer to the political scene, Fred brings the fresh perspective of an outsider who is very much in touch with the people he represents. The Greenwich community is fortunate to have such a bright, rising star representing them in the General Assembly, and I am honored to have his support,” said Caligiuri.

And McMahon's trouble extend to the stump. Here's what a Hartford Courant political reporter said of her appearance this week in Windsor. "her delivery is about as interesting as listening to an assistant principal read the morning announcements"

On the other hand, Caligiuri's performance won praise

 I'd give Caligiuri a B+ for his engaging, lively stump speech, which told us about how he snatched Waterbury from the jaws of corruption and reminded us of his immigrant roots. He's a proud Reagan Republican and he earns points for at least mentioning the achievement gap.

One of the reasons that McMahon is having problems on the stump is she keeps having to explain why she claims to be a Republican today despite having done little in the past to demonstrate a modicum of interest in the party's agenda or principles.

Here's another story about McMahon's painful performance in Windsor.  

The tens of thousands of dollars given to the Democratic party and Emanuel is simply the cost of doing business, McMahon said Thursday night following a meeting of the candidates at a Windsor restaurant.

“I’ve been the CEO of a publicly traded company, which has given money to both Democrats and Republicans,” McMahon said.

McMahon said it had nothing to do with politics or personal beliefs. She said she has known Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ari Emanuel, for years.

Ari Emanuel runs a talent agency in Hollywood, California, which does business with WWE, she said. She said he called up and let her know his brother would be in Stamford and “may do a little arm twisting.” She said when she gave money to Emanuel, he was still a Congressman from Illinois, not the current president’s chief of staff.

OK, a billionaire who thinks throwing cash at liberal Democrats (Emanuel was getting Pelosi elected House Speaker at the time) is just a "cost of doing business" Now THERE'S a committed principled conservative if I ever heard one. Or perhaps she's a plant by her good friends the Emanuel family sent to muck up the Connecticut primary and save Chris Dodd's sorry keester.   

While we are on the topic of Rahm Emanuel and his brothers, maybe we could elicit an opinion from the Wild RINO on the topic of "death panels"....then again, she might think it's a new form of steel cage bout 

Maybe subsidizing leftists makes friends for Linda in Hollywood, the White House and with the New York Times, but it most certaintly is not endearing her to her opponents,

"For me it’s not just business,” former U.S. Congressman Rob Simmons said.

Simmons said McMahon’s donations undermined his efforts in 2006 and allowed his opponents, who are now expanding government to win elected office.

Simmons wasn't done

“If donating tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats was ‘the cost of doing business’ for Linda McMahon and her professional wrestling empire, one wonders what she aimed to get in return for her generosity. This sort of influence peddling would not make her ‘a different kind of Senator.’ It would make her exactly the same as the one we have.”

Sam Caligiuri wasn't very pleased with this lame effort to defend the indefensible, either. His spokeswomen issued this statement.

“What we’re hearing from Republicans as we travel around the state is that they are insulted by Ms. McMahon working against their efforts to elect Republicans, then trying to sweep these personal contributions under the rug as if no one would ever notice.  Pro wrestling might be fake, but this practice of choosing expediency over principle is the very real way in which Washington currently works, and is exactly what Sam is fighting to fix.  If McMahon is already a part of the problem, it is hard to believe she can ever become part of the solution,” said Grossman

Linda McMahon says she'll be a "different kind of Senator", but if that means she'll be a liberal glad-handing gazillionaire there's quite enough already, don'tcha think?  We need someone who cares more about folks in Hamden than Hollywood.

There's nothing "different" about hypocrisy in politicians, Linda

====UPDATE====

In this morning's' New London Day, a columnist suggests that McMahon will run a third party bid for the Senate similar to that of her political mentor, former liberal Connecticut Governor and WWE Board member Lowell Weicker

If this wouldn't be a premeditated sabotage of the effort to oust Chris Dodd, I don't know what else would be

As expected RINO wrestling promoter Linda McMahon ( a/ka/ "the Wild RINO")  has blanketed Connecticut with a media blitz announcing her candidacy against Chris Dodd

Now, local blogger Authentic Connecticut Republican has gotten a glimpse of her next ad, which shows Mrs. McMahon as a woman of action.

Enjoy!   

We thought that the genre was extinct,  but the show business geniuses behind World Wrestling Entertainment have revived a controversial style of character from past seasons.

Without further adieu, WWE presents its 2010 U.S. Senate candidate in Connecticut, Linda McMahon...a/k/a "the Wild RINO". 

(the Wild RINO argues with loving hubby, Vince McMahon)

Now those familiar with the WWE know that often it creates "good guys" and "bad guys" and the various wrestlers get to change roles as the season progresses.  Who can forget when Sergeant Slaughter portrayed a turncoat when paired with the Iron Sheik?  

Well, central casting has decided that long time WWE CEO Mrs. McMahon now gets to play the role of a conservative Republican in her bid against Senator Chris Dodd.

I got her glossy brochure in today's mail. It mentions she ran a 500 employee NYSE company--but doesn't mention which one.  OK, that a bit dodgy. don'tcha think ?

And McMahon's slick mailer pledges undying opposition to socialized medicine and adamant devotion to the concept of limited government.

Unfortunately, a quick look at Mrs. McMahon's actual record suggests this is as realistic as the plot lines for this week's RAW telecast  

I mean, of all the people whom she could have been a regular contributor to, you think a true believer in conservatism might have excused themselves from writing huge checks every election cycle to Rahm Emanuel?  

And Connecticut liberals are gleeful that Mrs. McMahon contributed over $10,000 to the DCCC, money which went directly into making Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House.  (Nancy Pelosi held a closed fundraiser in Hartford Friday... wonder if Mrs. McMahon wandered by with another check?)

And please don;t think this was all part of some old, repudiated phase in her life....like Reagan being a New Dealer.  Just months ago she was bankrolling Virginia Democrat Mark  Warner's U.S. Senate bid.

McMahon did something lots of Connecticut Republicans did in 2006 --contribute to Joe Lieberman's campaign. Of course, most of Lieberman's contributors also made the effort to vote in the 2006 election. McMahon didn't bother to cast a vote ; perhaps it's easier to write checks than to wait in line at some Greenwich polling station.    Getting things done in the U.S. Senate can be pretty tedious, too

In fact, it appears McMahon wrote more checks to elect Democrats to the Senate than Republicans. But ok, she says she's a Republican? Well, what kind of Republican?

* One who supported various PACs affiliated with liberal Republican Christie Todd Whitman, the former NJ Governor. PAC's whose very purpose was to oppose conservative Republicans. 

* One who contributed to Whitman's daughter 's unsuccessful NJ congressional race

* One who has had turncoat  former liberal Republican Senator Lowell Weicker on her corporation's board of directors for over a decade

I mean , what more could she do to convince me she's a liberal Republican? Although she says she'll spend $30 million to convince me otherwise.

Hmm, hire as top consultant part of the NRSC's brain trust that wrote a blank check to Lincoln Chafee? Perhaps they pine for the days when Linc and Arlen were part of the caucus getting in everyone else's way

Now Mrs. McMahon says she's "against the special interests".  I'll save the bandwidth tonight. It's pretty obvious to even casual observers that the WWE is itself a special interest and has been for well over a decade. 

Connecticut Republicans have a great chance to elect a strong voice for responsible government to replace the spent  hulk of insider liberalism, Chris Dodd.

Thinking that person is Linda McMahon is as vain a hope as the thought another guy with money and star power wouldn't go girlie man once it became fashionable.  If she's the nominee I'll vote for her just to be rid of Dodd, and then expect her to be just another ineffective political celebrity waiting for a script to be written to make her audience happy.   

The Wild RINO might end up being great political theatre, but as far as doing what she says wants to do; c'mon... Wrestling's fake! 

 ===UPDATE==

Liberal CT Post columnist Jonathan Kantrowitz said some very kind things about this article, and linked to it, but posed one question I thought he deserved a response to:

Oddly enough, no one is attacking Rob Simmons for being too liberal, despite his support of gay marriage and abortion rights. In fact, most mainstream conservatives, and even some further right, are rushing to support him

I think the point here is everyone pretty much knows that

a) Rob Simmons is a moderate

b) Rob Simmons is a Republican

I have much more faith in an honest moderate with a track record than some woman off the street waving the conservative banner when her record displays zero prior interest in the cause.

One can have honest differences with the other Republican candidates in the field; but they are running as who they are. Unlike Mrs.McMahon, I am reasonably certain Mr. Simmons, Mr. Caligiuri, Mr. Foley and Mr. Schiff have believed in their campaign platforms for more than a couple of days.

Remember long ago when Chris Dodd first faltered in the polls.....like in the winter of '09.

It didn't get any better for him.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone poll finds that Republican challenger Rob Simmons leads Dodd 49% to 39% in an early look at next year’s potential match-up. Five percent (5%) say they’d prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are not sure.

 

While Simmons, a former congressman, is the strongest early challenger to the Democratic incumbent, there are several other Republicans in the running. Dodd finds himself essentially even with state Senator Sam Caligiuri, former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley and Peter Schiff, the high-profile president of Euro Pacific Capital. In each of those match-ups, Dodd earns between 40% and 43% of the vote while the Republicans all fall in the same range.

Rasmussen's internals are rather gruesome ,too, as 39% of CT voters have a "very unfavorable" opinion of Dodd. Mind you, this is in a state whether both President Obama and his health care plan are still fairly well received as per Rasmussen.

You have to wonder what Dodd has to do to make his neighbors feel the love again. He's had a tremendous amount of press over the last few weeks dealing with his recovery from prostate cancer    , getting a dismissal of a an ethics complaint,  his eulogy for his best bud Teddy Kennedy, 

and getting a health care bill out of the committee he was running for Ted.

And it didn't move the needle a millimeter.

Yep, looks like this sign might be true.

A few weeks ago, Chris Dodd was eager to take over the official chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee as a tribute to his good friend Ted Kennedy, so as to continue Ted's life work of bringing socialized medicine to the United States.

Tonight, Dodd decided to stay with the sinking ship he's already been piloting, the Senate Banking Committee 

This is quite a surprise, since the conventional wisdom just days ago was the Dodd would benefit politically from quitting the Committee responsible for the 2008 Financial Meltdown and going to the committee that is writing the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care bill. (not that anyone can figure out exactly what it says, anyway)

So what happened?

Maybe Dodd decided that being blamed for only one sinking ship was enough, and once Obamacare sank it would be wise to be out of the line of sight when folks went looking for scapegoats.

What also happened is one of Dodd's Republican opponents, Sam Caligiuri,  has been hammering Dodd for trying to run two committees at once, and failing at both jobs. 

I  am calling on Senator Dodd to decline the position of the HELP Committee Chairman, if it is offered to him. He should be finishing the job he has barely started of fixing the financial sector problems that got us into this economic disaster in the first place, and not spending his time promoting ill advised health care legislation.

Guess Mr. Dodd couldn;t conjure up a coherent response to Senator Caligiuri's challenge. 

Of course, there's been no progress on reforming the financial regulatory system all year, because Dodd was out pretending to be Teddy Kennedy. Now Dodd returns to a reform effort in tatters. , as nothing has been done in months to advance the complex issue.

Hey, it's not like we didn;t have a financial meltdown recently or anything that would warrant making this a priority.

Well, let's give Dodd credit.  He's staying on the same sinking ship he's already captained. After all, Captain Smith is treated more kindly by history than Bruce Ismay.   

The passing of Teddy Kennedy has given Chris Dodd a dicey dilemma to deal with.

For months Dodd has been the de facto head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sheparding a partisan public option health care bill through the committee in Kennedy's absence.

All the while, Dodd was still supposedly chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which now, as the bailout era has reached a pause, reverted to the same lassitude it displayed in 2007 and 2008 as the financial system proceeded to meltdown.

Nevermind that financial market reform was supposedly a high point of President Obama's agenda, and that Secretary Geithner recently took to reaming out other bureaucrats for their lack of support of the administration's effort.  The bill has yet to even be scheduled for committee mark-up.

Now, Dodd can do what Washington politicians suggest would be a good career move--abandon the albatross of his failed chairmanship of the Banking Committee and take over for Teddy on the Health Committee--with the avowed goal of passing Obamacare as a trillion dollar tribute to the late Senator.

Amazingly, the clueless Dodd thinks the entire protest movement over socialized medicine will fade away in the good vibes generated by the Teddy funeral.

Yep, this guy really is so haughty he thinks we will meekly agree to whatever the power brokers on Capitol Hill think is really, really good for us.

Some Connecticut Republicans have other ideas. Like Senate candidate Sam Caligiuri      

Sure the lefties are upset but someone has to call out Chris Dodd on this!

Caligiuri is outraged that Dodd would leave the Banking Committee without cleaning up the monumental mess that the chairman has made of the financial economy.

Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Sam Caligiuri today started an online petition calling on Senate Majority Leader Reid to force Senator Dodd to do his job at the Banking Committee rather than leaving it to take over the chairmanship of the Health Committee left vacant by the death of Senator Kennedy. Caligiuri issued the following statement:“At the end of my tenure on this committee," Senator Dodd said in early 2007 of his role at Banking, "I want it to be said that the safety and soundness of our financial institutions was not weakened on my watch.” (See the full article here) As of today, it must be said that Chris Dodd failed and the safety and soundness of our financial institutions has been badly weakened over the past two-and-a-half years since Senator Dodd’s comment. Now, at a time when our economy and our financial institutions need oversight and attention to ensure our country is on the road to financial recovery, Chris Dodd has conveniently taken on a new and massive undertaking with the current health care debate – yet he still is grossly negligent in the job he is supposed to do – protecting our financial institutions. It is time for him to actually complete the task assigned to him at the Banking Committee, not to try and pass it along to another senator and sweep his failings under the rug. 

If you think Chris Dodd should clean up the mess he already made, before making a new mess out of the nation's health care system, you can sign this petition here.

We'll how eager Harry Reid is to anger Connecticut voters even further by letting Dodd pull a switch akin to that of Bob Torricelli. 

Chris Dodd thinks he can move on to something more pleasant and leave the nation's damaged economy to someone else to fix. He abandoned the Banking Committee before to run for President. Now he wants to abandon it again so he can pretend to be Teddy Kennedy and improve his fading chances for re-election.

Connecticut voters are a little smarter than that, Chris.  You may try and quit us; but we're ready to fire you.  

I was going to give Chris Dodd the rest of the month off to recuperate from surgery, but, sorry, what he said today simply can't go unnoticed.

Indeed, upon reading this all I could think of was Saddam Hussein's chief flack  "Baghdad Bob", insisting that the Americans were far from the Iraqi capital getting their butts kicked in the desert.

I attach, verbatim, the Senator's statement on health care reform from the Hartford Courant's "Capital Watch" blog

 At this historic moment, faced with an urgent crisis in our health care system but blessed with an unprecedented opportunity to fix it, we cannot let politics as usual prevent us from delivering on the promise of change,'' Dodd said in a statement.

A senior member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Dodd, a Democrat, was tapped by committee Chair Sen. Edward Kennedy, to help lead the committee's healthcare effort. "The Senate HELP Committee has passed a uniquely American bill, one that cuts costs, protects patient choice, and guarantees every citizen access to affordable, quality health care.  It also includes a strong public option that has earned the support of moderates in both the House and the Senate,'' Dodd said. He acknowledged winning passage will take "hard work, careful consideration of all perspectives, and a commitment to get to the finish line no matter what obstacles are thrown in our way by the cheap politics of the status quo." But Dodd offered the following prediction: "When Congress returns in September, the misinformation and anger of a hot summer will subside - and we will continue to move forward. "In fact, we will pick up exactly where we left off.  There will be a good bill on the floor.  There will be a spirited debate with ample opportunity for all ideas and perspectives to be heard.  But we will get this done.  And we will pass comprehensive reform this year." 

Chris, about those "moderates" backing the Public Option Bill .....mind telling us who they are?

This seems to be a bit more representative of reality, Chris

When a questioner, Ray Evans, said he believed the President wants to do too much at once and asked whether Boyd would "be willing to scrap everything" and start over to do pursue reform more incrementally, the congressman responded: "I think that is an excellent idea … we may end up there."

But what do we expect from Chris Dodd? This time last year he was insisting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "fundamentally sound".  Didn't quite work out that way, did it?  

Chris, don't worry. If the Senate thing doesn't work out for you there's plenty of work out there for propaganda ministers.

Oh yes, for all those who think Connecticut politics is a world of preppie decorum, we have received word that World Wrestling Chairwoman Linda McMahon is thinking about jumping into the race against Chris Dodd.

McMahon recently was appointed by Governor Rell to the State Board of Education and was confirmed; evidently convincing the Democratic controlled legislature her expertise in running a major local corporation overcame some of the less, hmmm, restrained, elements of their presentations.

That said, Democrats are already posting on local blogs the WWE has both received major tax credit assistance from the state at the same time they've laid off employees. Yep, times are tough, but they'll throw as many chairs at her as her employees have thrown at each other.

Besides, while she apparently spoke at the 2000 GOP convention she is also reputed to be a significant contributor to Rahm Emanuel's committee, and that's a pretty big problem in my eyes,

I'm left asking one question: Why?  The race already has a popular former Congressman, an up and coming legislator, and a wealthy former ambassador. It's not like there's a huge void that we need to fill right about now?

Indeed, where we may need a candidate is against freshman Democrat Jim Himes. At this writing, he's going to face someone with far less financial firepower than McMahon. But I suppose they all want to start at the top....sigh...