Nutmeg Nut Job

I have noted before how Republicans who fail to get one of the U.S. Senate seats in their respective home states always go for the other U.S. Senate seat in each respective said home state, and sometimes win it.  Add the insufferable Linda McMahon of Connecticut to the list of such candidates, though she hasn't yet won the seat  being vacated by Joseph Lieberman in January.  But she might.

Linda McMahon, of course, is the white-trash wife of white-trash pro wrestling mogul Vince McMahon, and she has cited her executive experience running the WWE wrestling empire as her qualification for the exalted legislative office of United States Senator.  She was unable to defeat Democrat Richard Blumenthal in 2010 for the seat of retiring Senator Chris Dodd, despite Blumenthal's problems with his military record, and, in typical Grand Old Party fashion, she refused to be denied; she's now running for Lieberman's seat.  She defeated former Republican congressman Chris Shays, whose eloquence and moderation would have been a safer bet for the Republicans, in the primary, but that does not make it any easier for Democratic nominee Chris Murphy (a lot of Chrises up there in the Nutmeg State) in the general election.  If anything, that makes it harder.

A little background here: Linda McMahon is stupendously wealthy, having profited from the WWE.  (It was originally called the World Wrestling Federation, which made it sound like it oversaw collegiate and international championship competition in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling - that is, real wrestling - but it eventually changed its name to the more honest World Wrestling Entertainment, and then simply changed the name to the initials, WWE, when it became apparent that its fans don't know how to spell.)  So she can affrod to spend lots of money on her campaign, as she did in 2010.  Also, she will probably benefit from stupendously wealthy super-PACs ready to shower Connecticut with anti-Murphy ads in the week leading up to Election Day.  

McMahon has already started running her own ads, not just ads attacking Murphy (which started before he even officially became the Democratic nominee) but ads re-introducing herself to Connecticut voters as someone who came from practically nothing, yet worked her way up by marrying strategically well and peddling violence to testosterone-crazed teenagers of all ages.  Some of these ads ran on New York City's NBC station WNBC-TV, which serves part of Connecticut (and no doubt ran on WVIT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Hartford), during NBC's coverage of the Olympics.  They're as warm an fuzzy as a WWE show is not.  And although Connecticut is thought of as a "wine and cheese" state where people dress like William F. Buckley and drive Volvos, McMahon is counting on there being enough people in Connecticut who drink domestic beer and eat Kraft singles, dress like bikers, and drive rusting Chevy pickups who will vote for her, a real heroine of the working class (whose policies will screw said working class if they become law) who sneers at the wine and cheese folks as much as they do.

This time it may work, if only because Richard Blumenthal was and is a known quantity while Chris Murphy is less so.  And even in preppie Connecticut, there are plenty of proles who resent the "wine and cheese" crowd,  the Yale professors and Greenwich professionals, because such upper-middle-class folks they think they're better than those who watch wrestling.  Actually, they are.  Sadly, even when you make your way through the bluest states in the Union, you realize that this is a country that encourages exaltation of the life of Andre the Giant, not study of the life of William the Conqueror or Richard the Lion-Hearted, and certainly not appreciation of Peter the Great.  My advice to Chris Murphy is the same advice I gave to Richard Blumenthal at his lowest ebb in 2010: Take advantage of your state's small population and small geography and go on an extensive campaign bus tour.  It may be your best hope.