Ready To Rumble In Connecticut

I hope I don't let this blog turn into a consistent series of apologist statements for Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, but watching the insufferable Linda McMahon, who apparently will be the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in the Nutmeg State, leak this "war story" story like so much oil in the Gulf of Mexico is beginning to make my stomach turn.

I've offered explanations for how Blumenthal's remarks could have been misconstrued, and now I find myself offering another. Another one of his statements from a speech to Connecticut veterans was when he said that "when we returned from overseas, we were spat on." Okay, that sounds self-incriminating, but as a Marine reservist, Blumenthal was likely speaking in general terms when using the plural first person. He was most likely referring to servicemen collectively, which would include himself, and probably never intended to suggest he had ever served in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Jean Risley, a chairwoman of a group involved with the Connecticut Vietnam Veterans Memorial, has come to Blumenthal's defense. She said she was misquoted by the New York Times article that broke this story and that Blumenthal never meant to suggest he actually went to Vietnam.

"He has always been completely straightforward" about his military service, said Risley. "I never once heard him say that he was in Vietnam."

Even if Blumenthal did speak of Vietnam in the plural first person, you know how many people who speak of an action that took place that they weren't personally involved in speak like that? How about when an American basketball team wins a gold medal at the Olympics, and American fans yell, "We won!" Well, of course the fans didn't win the gold medal, the athletes did, but the fans are clearly referring to the country in the use of the word "we."

Chris Matthews - who has made it clear that he thinks Blumenthal doesn't belong in the Senate but seems ready to accept Kentucky's Rand Paul in the same chamber - may say there's a lot of difference between a sporting event and a war. Pity Linda McMahon doesn't see the difference, as her professional wrestling league consistently stages events with the word "war" in their names.

Oh, wait - I'm sorry. Professional wrestling isn't a sport.

It's McMahon's involvement in this league that should be the issue. World Wrestling Entertainment has not only peddled its violent, sadistic entertainment to impressionable children, but it's been known to encourage and sometimes even require its "athletes" to take illegal drugs. Some of those wrestling stars have died as a result. In 2007, one wrestler, Chris Benoit of Canada, went berserk and killed his entire family and himself. This is a record Linda McMahon is proud of??

Well, she can certainly take pride in making Blumenthal the issue and cleverly avoiding scrutiny of her own record as a "businesswoman." Blumenthal misspoke. I get it. But Linda McMahon is a crass peddler and perpetrator of violence, and I hope the voters of Connecticut wise up and consider that issue. I hope Chris Matthews does the same.

It's been said that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina in California is the worst businesswoman who could possibly run for the Senate this year, but I don't see how that could be true.