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Stone Cold Linda McMahon won the Republican Senate primary in Connecticut yesterday and The Hill reports that it is going to be an old fashioned barn-burner the likes of which Connecticutians (Connecticutidiots?) have never seen.
McMahon has been slowly gaining on Blumenthal in public polling since June. The latest Qunnipiac numbers have Blumenthal up just 10 points on McMahon — 50 percent to 40 percent.
Democrats see McMahon’s tenure as WWE CEO as a potent general election attack. They have already attacked her over the content of WWE programming as well as the company’s record on policing steroid and other drug use.
Critics have seized on the content as degrading to women and charge that McMahon and the WWE are in the business of peddling inappropriate sexual content to young viewers.
“Connecticut Republicans today nominated a corporate CEO of WWE, who under her watch violence was peddled to kids, steroid abuse was rampant, yet she made her millions,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement on Tuesday’s primary results.
The reaction from the Democratic National Committee was even harsher.
“Today the party of Bob Dole, Jack Kemp and Dick Lugar nominated a candidate who kicks men in the crotch, thinks of scenes of necrophilia as ‘entertainment,’ and runs an operation where women are forced to bark like dogs. This is what has become of the once grand old party,” DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan said in a statement.
Last week, McMahon’s husband spoke to the Associated Press and accused critics of mischaracterizing the WWE. “They haven’t been to a live event. They really haven’t watched on television at all,” McMahon said. “All they’ve seen is like one little snippet and try to make up their minds as to whether or not it’s acceptable programming.”
McMahon defended the content during an interview with ABC’s “Nightline” Monday. The interviewer cited one WWE storyline where McMahon’s daughter entered the arena as the crowd chanted, “slut, slut, slut.”
“As a mother, was there ever a time when you were sorta creeped out by your own product?” ABC’s Bill Weir asked.
It’s a “soap opera,” she said. “So sure, there are story lines that are better than others.”
The whole state of Connecticut hasn’t been this excited since J. Crew came out with a crew neck sweater in a color they call Winter Watermelon. I know. Soooo cute…
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As usual, the Democrats don’t get it. McMahon will appeal massively to the demographic who secretly get a raging hard-on (or discrete ladywood, YMMV) when they think of Sarah Palin shooting wolves with an automatic rifle from a helicopter.
The fact that the people of Conn. voluntarily elected rape-gurney Joe as an independent should quickly put to shame the notion that morally questionable behavior would somehow be a predicament when running for public office in the Constipation State.
But can she win in a match that isn’t rigged?
And is she going to call for “no holds barred” debates to take place in a “steel cage”, wearing colorful spandex outfits?
Connecticutians (Connecticutidiots?)
Nutmeggers, actually. Based on the fact that Connecticut was a hotspot for fake wooden nutmegs back in the day.
Let’s just combine Connecticut with Staten Island and give the whole hot mess to Queen Elizabeth on her next birthday.
To those who think the electorate would never stoop that low, two words:
Jesse Ventura
Senators Lieberman and McMahon. It’s like New England would be getting its very own Oklahoma.
Let’s see… Linda spent $21 million of her own dollars to collect 58,206 votes! She spent $361 per vote, and still couldn’t win a majority of the Republicans.
In second place was Rob Simmons, who got 28% after taking out an ad a week before the election to say that, despite all appearances, his name was still on the ballot. Bringing up the rear was the candidate who was endorsed by the Tea Party movement, Peter Schiff.
While she was spending all this money to get within 10 percentage points of Blumenthal, he was saving his money for the general election, where he should be able to get his voice out.
And the media see this as a bad sign for the Democrata?
I recall reading Greg Boyington (the real ace not the TV guy)’s book about when he was down on his luck and referring wrestling matches during the first big wrestling craze in the 50s. He quoted one wrestler as saying to him: “You know what really scares me is that each of these people in the audience have one vote just like me.”
Who the hell is Vince trying to kid?
You don’t see to see a live event or be a frequent watcher of their programming (as I am) to know they do everything they’re accused of, not least of which concerns steroid use and abuse, the degradation of women and the peddling of violence and sexual content to young viewers.
Hard to tell which is the more out of touch McMahon.
Senators Lieberman and McMahon. It’s like New England would be getting its very own Oklahoma.
I was going to strike “Oklahoma” and put in “Mississippi” but that would be an insult to the state that managed to produce William Faulkner in spite of itself. It’s more like Foghorn Leghorn meets Vampira.
To be fair, in the last election John Stewart fabulously portrayed Holy Joe as Droopy Dog. Fred Dalton Thompson was Foghorn Leghorn. I’m with cobernicus–we need to stop fretting, the Thuggies have given us another lovely gift.
Living in a Winter Watermelon…
Sorry, someone had to do it.
If you read the comments (ROBERT BLAKES) from the article from the Hill, I think you get some insight into the current conservative mindset:
Absolutelty Loonie.
Your comment recalling the nutmeggers elected LieberICantEvenTypeHisName is highly instructive, as is MManion’s “Jesse Ventura” reminder @5.
Hey! You know what? I’m from Connecticut. We gave you guys Roger Sherman and the Great Compromise of 1787! And…and…Ah, fuck it.
Look, you can’t hold Lieberman against us forever. In two years we finally get to decapitate his zombie career.
But bigger picture, McMahon will get about 40% of the vote. Blumenthal’s pretty popular and even his Vietnam “confusion” hasn’t seemed to hurt him much.
But at least we’re INTERESTING. Connecticut will not be IGNORED!
When Lieberman and Lamont went at it, I nearly slipped into a coma… and I LIKE Ned Lamont.
New Hampshire is just chopped liver since they elected Shaheen, eh?
Hey, Hawes. In my many years here in MA, I’m happy with any excuse to go to CT (which reminds me in many ways of NJ, where I grew up). Incredibly beautiful in the rural areas (and in the ludicrously rich places like Greenwich and New Canaan — there’s no law against driving through those places), along the Long Island Sound, along the CT River. Then it’s got lots of grittiness in many areas and lots of different ethnic groups to keep things (including food) interesting. And towns that mix it all up (like Middletown). (And among the state’s contributions, don’t forget the Enfield rifle or submarines.)
I lived in West Springfield, MA, for a couple of years, and worked near Hartford for a few months of that. I was told by a friendly co-worker there that many residents of his fair state who saw my license plate on the highway would refer to me as a “Masshole.” I found this mildly humorous, and concocted a likely rejoinder (involving the placement of an N near the end of “Connecticut”) but never used it. It was merely an intellectual exercise in reflectivity.
Wow Hawes, you sound almost exactly like my BFF, a CT resident her own self! Based on what I hear from her, that’s pretty much the election there.
The SyFy channel this afternoon screened See No Evil , produced by aspired first gentleman Vince McMahon. It had quite a bit of what Joe Bob Briggs would call poked-out-eye fu, and starred some wrestler named Kane. It’s a shame McMahon is not a Democrat — it would be fun to watch the media hound her to denounce her husband.
Well, since what passes for “political discourse” in this country has in the past few decades decayed into the verbal equivalent of staged wrestling matches (particularly on cable), I suppose this was inevitable.
Connecticutians (Connecticutidiots?)
when I lived there, I preferred Connecticuties. ymmv.
Connecticut’s got Lime Rock and (the memory of) Paul Newman