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Linda's new frontier

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The panda took her logo — and now her heart.

Linda McMahon recently visited a panda preserve near Chengdu, China, and posted this photo on her Facebook page.

You’d never know it that the McMahon family’s billion-dollar entertainment business — formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation — had to relinquish its use of the WWF name to the World Wide Fund for Nature in 2002 following a branding lawsuit.

A panda has been the logo of the WWF — the other one — since its founding in 1961.

The subject of rampant speculation on whether she has another run for public office in her after two unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate, McMahon was in China to speak at a global business forum sponsored by Fortune magazine.

She was part of a panel of women entrepreneurs that discussed the efforts of the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) to connect with females and the company’s commitment to “corporate social responsibility.”

“We have mommy bloggers who will go to different environments. They Tweet during the show. They talk  about the experience that they’re having,” McMahon, the former chief executive of WWE, said in a video taken at the forum.

McMahon’s visit to the world’s most populous nation coincided with an announcement that WWE Live will return to Shanghai, China, in August.

In preparation for the Fortune Global Forum, Chinese media reported that the government generated artificial rain to reduce the pollution in Chengdu and spray-painted a meadow green near the venue to make it look more appealing.

Organizers of the forum were also criticized by local media for limited access during the conclave, where journalists were said to have been forced to watch the proceedings on closed-circuit television feeds.

It’s been a busy month for McMahon, who told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers in late May that she had no plans to run for political office and signed up to do some unspecified consulting work.

Last week, McMahon posted a photo of herself on Facebook with former U.S. Secretary of State and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative Conference in Chicago.

WWE, meanwhile, finds itself embroiled in another controversy after a 13-year-old New Orleans boy was charged this week with the murder of his 5-year-old half-sister, whom he body-slammed and punched while babysitting. Authorities said the boy had been imitating moves he learned from watching WWE programming.

WWE released the following statement Tuesday night:

“The death of Viloude Louis is a tragedy, and our condolences go out to her family. WWE urges restraint in reporting this unfortunate incident as if it were the result of a WWE wrestling move.  As in similar cases, criminal intent to harm and a lack of parental supervision have been the factors resulting in a tragic death. Authorities have already charged the accused with second degree murder and determined that this was not an accidental death due to a wrestling move.”

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Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (D) makes an impromptu stop at a Hartford luncheon where Texas counterpart Rick Perry (R) courts Connecticut businesses to move to his state, including firearms companies. Photo courtesy of Andrew Doba’s Twitter feed.

Cue the “Spaghetti Western” soundtrack.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (D) conveniently found a block of free time in his daily schedule Monday and used it to make an impromptu stop at a luncheon in downtown Hartford hosted by his Texas counterpart, Rick Perry, who is trying to entice businesses here to relocate to the Lone Star State.

“So he swung by. It was very collegial,” said Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Malloy. “The governor just welcomed him to the state and said that he knows we’re in competition with one another.”

Malloy spent about five minutes with the former GOP presidential candidate at the Max Downtown, mere blocks from the Capitol, where lawmakers overwhelmingly passed what is widely regarded as the toughest gun law in the nation earlier this year  in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Perry, who gave a keynote speech at the annual convention of the National Rifle Association in May in Houston, was scheduled to meet with several firearms companies as part of a recruitment tour of the state that will wrap up in Fairfield County this evening and Malloy’s home city of Stamford.

“He wanted to show some good old-fashioned Yankee hospitality,” Doba said.

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GOP sweepstakes

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Falling to Rosa DeLauro seems to be a prerequisite for leading the Connecticut Republican Party.

Two of the three contenders for the GOP chairmanship have mounted unsuccessful challenges to the Democratic congresswoman in the 3rd District, including current party boss Jerry Labriola Jr., who mustered 35 percent of the vote in the 2010 House race.

Labriola, 55, a Wallingford lawyer who comes from a political family and has roots in Naugatuck, is seeking a second two-year term as boss of a party that has not won a statewide race since 2006.

“I am very confident that I will be re-elected by a committee of my peers,” said Labriola, whose fate as chairman will be determined June 25 when the Republican State Central Committee votes on party leadership.

The  competition is Wayne Winsley, a veteran radio broadcaster who lost to DeLauro in 2012, and Tea Party Patriots organizer Ronald Wilcox.

“I wish Wayne and Ron well,” said Labriola, who declined to comment further on his opponents.

Winsley, who had been seeking to become only the second black politician elected to Congress from Connecticut, said Republicans must make inroads in cities and other parts of the state where they have traditionally struggled.

“I believe that the Republican party has the right message, but we have to become more effective at telling people about that message and reaching all of the people with that message,” Winsley said. “You do it by showing up, number one. There should be no area in this state where Republicans don’t go. We can’t afford to write off any district, neighborhood or any voter.”

Winsley, 49, a New Milford resident, was outspent by more than 10-to-1 by DeLauro, who captured 68 percent of the vote in the 3rd District.

“The most important thing that I learned from my congressional race is that the conservative message resonates if delivered to everybody,” Winsley said. “Every citizen in Connecticut wants to have a job to go to, wants to know that their children can be properly educated and have a bright future, and that their retirement is something that they can look forward to without fear.”

Wilcox, 64, is a former state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots who hails from Newtown and remains heavily involved in the organization.

“Like many Republicans, I’m a Tea Party Republican because I do believe in limited government, free markets, things like that,” Wilcox said.

Republicans make up the smallest bloc of the electorate in Connecticut after unaffiliated voters and Democrats, who hold every statewide office,  all five congressional districts, both U.S. Senate seats and majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.

“I feel that we certainly need to strengthen our base,” Wilcox said.  “Part of what I hope to do is attract those unaffiliated voters with some positive messaging.”

Wilcox said that the people of Connecticut have not been served well by Democrats.

“So if we continue the one-party system in Connecticut,  I don’t see us digging out of that,” he said. “I see us spiraling down further.”

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Rick Perry’s surrogates deny that politics are behind the Texas governor’s courtship of Connecticut businesses, most notably members of the firearms industry.

Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Perry, emailed Hearst Connecticut Newspapers the following statement in response to comments by Connecticut’s economic development commissioner Catherine Smith calling Perry’s upcoming visit here a “head scratcher.”

“As CEO of the state of Texas, the governor shares our positive message of job growth and a healthy economy with companies across the country,” Nashed wrote. “It is his job to recruit employers to Texas, and like you said in your last email, these companies are unhappy with CT, so it is clear Texas’ economic success story isn’t falling on deaf ears.”

Friday is the six-month anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Perry will meet with gun manufacturing reps Monday in Hartford, which Smith characterized as “untoward.”

Nashed said it was important to note that Perry is not visiting Connecticut on the anniversary itself.

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Sarah Palin is rejoining Fox News Channel. The network said Thursday, June 13, 2013, that Palin has signed on as a contributor to Fox and the Fox Business Network. Her first appearance is scheduled for Monday on the “Fox & Friends” morning show on the same day CNN is premiering a morning show to great fanfare. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, dropped by Fox News last winter, has been rehired as a commentary by the conservative Cable TV channel that serves as unofficial broadcast arm of the Republican Party.

Over the last six months, Palin punditry has largely been limited to angry tweets and Facebook entries, as well as such gigs as appearing — and using a super-size soft drink as prop — at last winter’s Conservative Political Action Conference.  She was recently featured as a high school graduation speaker in Republic, Washington.

A reentry into politics has also appeared unlikely.  Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski dismissed the prospect of a 2014 Palin candidacy for the 49th State’s other Senate seat, appearing to say that Palin no longer lives in the state.

Fox News boss Roger Ailes indicated that a much-rumored feud with Palin has been patched up, announcing:

“I’ve had several conversations with Governor Palin in the past few weeks about her rejoining Fox News as a contributor.  I have great confidence in her and am pleased she will once again add her commentary to our programs.”

Palin will make her initial appearance on “Fox & Friends,” and will be a guest on both daytime and nighttime program, as well as serving as a talking head for the Fox Business Channel.

The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has lately been writing a book about the alleged “War on Christmas.”

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A House Republican drew fire Wednesday from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, Calif., after suggesting that the number of incidents of pregnancy resulting from rape is “very low.”

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz. spoke at a Wednesday House Judiciary Committee hearing on his abortion bill, which proposes banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. His comments addressed a proposed Democratic amendment to exempt cases of rape and incest from the ban.

Franks said the amendment introduced topics that diverted the issue at hand.

“Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,” Franks said, as quoted by the Washington Post.

Franks went on to suggest that the amendment is essentially a non-issue due to the time-frame that his bill would impose.

“But when you make that exception, there’s usually a requirement to report the rape within 48 hours,” Franks said. “And in this case that’s impossible because this is in the sixth month of gestation. And that’s what completely negates and vitiates the purpose for such an amendment.”

Lofgren and other House Democrats on the committee immediately fired back at Franks, questioning the veracity of his assertions.

“I just find it astonishing to hear a phrase repeated that the incidence of pregnancy from rape is low,” Lofgren said. “There’s no scientific basis for that. And the idea that the Republican men on this committee can tell the women of America that they have to carry to term the product of a rape is outrageous.”

Franks clarified that what he had meant was that abortions occurring after the sixth month of pregnancy, those which his bill would prohibit, are rarely the result of rapes.

For Democrats preparing for mid-term elections, Franks’ comments may provide further fodder to undermine the image of Republican’s stance on women.

Lofgren noted similarities between Franks’ comments Wednesday and those of then-Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., in 2012, wherein Akin suggested that the female body could prevent pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.” Akin later apologized for the assertion, and his statement was shown to be scientifically not proven.

Akin’s remarks alienated many women in the GOP, and many are foreshadowing a similar backlash this time around.

Politico reported last week that Democrats and liberal groups are seizing on comments by Republicans — like Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., blaming hormones for sexual assaults in the military and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant saying working moms are the reason kids are failing in school — to rally together support and put Republicans on the defensive with women voters.

Last year House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, dismissed the so-called “war on women” as created entirely by his “colleagues across the aisle for political gain.”