Who Really Won In Connecticut?

Chris Matthews has often pointed out that Republicans run for office repeatedly before finally getting elected or giving up on their own, while Democrats see to it that those in their party who lose one chance of getting elected to office are not allowed a second.  Matthews was referring to presidential elections, but, as I've often pointed out, these standards apply to other offices as well, particularly with regards to U.S. Senate seats.  Republican Senate candidates who lose a bid for one Senate seat in any given state eventually make a bid for the other, and they mostly win that second bid.  Losing Democratic Senate candidates simply disappear into some party-sponsored witness protection program.  Anyway, you can read my earlier, more detailed post on the subject here.

I bring this up because noted violence peddler Linda McMahon, having failed to win the Senate seat vacated by Chris Dodd in Connecticut, has announced her bid for Connecticut's other Senate seat, which is being vacated by Joseph Lieberman in 2012.  McMahon, who made name for herself - her husband's - running World Wrestling Entertainment, had a realistic shot of winning Dodd's seat last year when her Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, was plagued by inconsistencies over his military service record, but even though she lost, she was widely expected to run again if Lieberman retired.  She has since lived down to expectations, making her the latest Republican to run again for a Senate seat after she was denied one in a previous attempt.  Hey, not taking no for answer is a Grand Old Party tradition.  (Giving no for an answer also is.)  Had Blumenthal lost in Connecticut last year, he would have been rendered politically dead. 

Or is he?  Once Blumenthal was sworn in as a senator, he was pretty much forgotten by the mainstream media.  Although Blumenthal was the only freshman Senate Democrat elected to a full six-year term last year, I kept seeing Delaware's Chris Coons and West Virginia's Joe Manchin - both elected in 2010 to complete unexpired Senate terms - on MSNBC instead.  When Chris Matthews led a discussion on his show about Senate Democrats in early 2011, stock footage of sitting Democratic senators - Charles Schumer, Harry Reid, Richard Durbin, Chris Dodd - was shown.  Wait - Chris Dodd? Wasn't he already gone from the Senate?  Didn't Blumenthal take his place? What was up with that?  It was as if MSNBC didn't want to acknowledge Blumenthal's existence, especially after the uncharitable things Matthews said about how the Connecticut Democrat handled his military record in the 2010 campaign.

Then this past May, Chris Jansing reported a news story about a bill pending in the Senate and had Blumenthal on for an interview.  MSNBC had finally realized that he was Connecticut's new senator.

Perhaps I'm being unfair.  Unlike a right-wing Republican senator like South Carolina's Jim DeMint, who attempted to leave his mark on the Senate from the day he set foot in the chamber, Senator Blumenthal has likely been easing himself into the job, as freshman senators are supposed to.  Or maybe his pet cause - fighting for consumer rights and protections - gives him few opportunities for visibility in a Congress where Republicans have successfully kept the issue from coming up, much less coming to a vote.  But even though she lost last year, Linda McMahon created a lot of buzz and got a lot of media publicity for the WWE - and, coincidentally, herself - and has thus won the promise of more interest and coverage when she launches her candidacy for Lieberman's seat in 2012.

And God help Connecticut and the Senate if she wins this time.