Forget the fact that regardless of any prior political experience and even after donating to some Democrats she won her party’s nomination for U.S. Senate and is making Democratic opponent Richard Blumenthal sweat.
The true sign that Republican Linda McMahon, former head of Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment, has arrived on the political scene is that she has managed to draw a Kennedy into the race.
Or, in the words of campaign spokesman Ed Patru, “Camelot yesterday bestowed its unofficial seal of approval” on Blumenthal.
By now those of you who care about these things I’m sure have heard about the war of words between Edward Kennedy Jr. and McMahon over her campaign’s use of the late President John F. Kennedy in a web ad defending continued tax cuts for the rich.
If not, CT News Junkie has a nice synopsis. And McMahon’s camp today, rather than backing down, issued a letter to Kennedy defending the ad.
But please just sit back and relish the absurdity for a moment. A member of the Kennedy clan and all the images, positive and negative, that name conjures and a member of the McMahon clan and the images, postive and negative, that name conjures are fighting over the intentions of a long-dead president.
It’s Camelot versus the WWE. It’s a family some of whom chased skirts versus a family that made money off of female wrestlers who took them off (and whose patriarch, Vince, to be fair to the Kennedys, has admitted doing a bit of skirt chasing). It’s a family whose members represented a generation versus a family whose members have entertained generations. A family that has suffered through real assassinations versus one that has staged them for viewers.
“There’s almost a ‘Saturday Night Live’-dimension to it, to see the former CEO of WWE arguing with a member of the Kennedy clan who’s not in politics here in Connecticut,” Gary Rose, chairman of the department of government and politics at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, just told me. “Somehow they both feel compelled to respond to each other. I’m not sure how to characterize this. It suggests that sometimes our politics can really become just almost comical.”
Rose called the Kennedy/McMahon fight an “inconsequential … sidebar” to the race that is of minimal interest to voters.
“The Kennedy name here in Connecticut was at one time a really major name in Connecticut politics,” Rose said. “But I’m not sure there are any voters out there that really would care. We’re talking about a policy that a President had advocated 50 years ago. Maybe very elderly Democrats might feel offended but other than that I can’t imagine anything like this is going to have any impact.”
But Rose did admit that Republicans may be enjoying the show and that McMahon’s getting a Kennedy worked up might even be considered a “badge of honor” in a state where the GOP once only fantasized about beating Blumenthal.
“I think maybe the Republicans are probably saying, ‘This is wonderful’,” Rose said.
This is hardly the first time McMahon has used a respected dead President to defend herself. She in the past, when answering questions about the family business, has pointed out that Abraham Lincoln wrestled.
Paul Littlefield, your posts really amuse and entertain me on a regular basis. I especially like the one above about “Linda’s fight for every American to survive and flourish.” I’m actually the one who is fighting to survive and feed my family since Linda laid me off and 10% of her Stamford staff in 2009. Stop insulting people in the know and trying to hoodwink uneducated voters. I know Linda must really be fighting up at her pad in Conyers Farm.
Brian is really digging deep here.
Brian – “Camelot”, as they like to call it, ended with the terribly tragic deaths of John and Bobbie Kennedy.
Quite frankly, who really cares what the son of Ted Kennedy has to say?
Look at his sons. One has made a killing through questionable Washington lobbying, which I am certain his now deceased father in no way assisted him with, when the son had no prior lobbying experience. Yeah right!
The other son purports to be a Congressman from Rhode Island, but he is better known for his meaningless, garbled rants and tirades and drug and alcohol use than anything else.
None of these persons could hold a candle to JFK or RFK.
Linda McMahon is merely pointing out the obvious, that JFK was a supply-sider, a man who believed in tax cuts to stimulate the economy, and he certainly was no Marxist, like the buffoons running the show in D.C. now.
Try to focus on the point that Kennedy was making instead of all the glitter that goes with the WWE and Kennedy history–real or concocted.
The younger Connecticut Kennedy stated clearly that the economic situation was NOT the same as when JFK proposed his tax cuts. As the current President Obama has pointed out, we cannot afford to pay out $4 Trillion to people like Linda and Vince McMahon at a time when we are in a deficit. Major economists agree that it is ill advised. Middle class is a different story because they SPEND the money in tax relief to boost the economy. Top 2% does not.
The fact that the media insists on getting into who chased skirts and who kicked people in the genitals is irrelevant. The point is that LINDA IS MISLEADING VOTERS in all her ads and the media sits there and says NOTHING. WHY?
Brian, nice try at polishing the Kennedy apple, but you are way off base using terms like “war of words” and “fighting.” You haven’t done your home work when you say JFK’s nephew “who’s not in politics here in Connecticut.” Kennedy,Jr has been active in CT, most recently on behalf of loser Lamont. His letter to McMahon was an additional political tactic as he sent a copy of the letter to the democrat party and to all of the press outlets. He really felt a personal hurt, huh? For Linda,irritation? maybe, but a “badge of courage” hardly.
Brian, it must have been a slow news day, for you to go to all this fussing just to fudge a political fight. There is so much more to analyse about in this race for a seat in the Senate. It is a struggle between Blumenthal/Obama tax and spend America into extinction and Linda’s fight for every American to survive and flourish. Linda has the proven ideas and the gravitas to get America and CT moving in the right direction which includes stopping government intrusion in our personal and business lives, stopping run away congressional spending, reducing trillion dollar federal deficits so that we can all prosper.