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.

Connecticut Smackdown

Connecticut's U.S. Senate race got down and dirty when noted drug-pushing violence peddler Linda McMahon released an ad that delivered on a promise she made - it exploits Richard Blumenthal's misstatements about his Vietnam-era service record. With Blumenthal holding a lead of only three percentage points in one poll, the McMahon campaign has clearly decided to deliver the coup de grace to Blumie by reminding voters of the controversy from May. And she brought it up in advance of the Senate candidates' debate on WTIC-TV in Hartford last night, aired on C-Span.

Before I go any further, let me comment on the styles and personas of the two candidates. Blumenthal had always seemed to me like an Eliot Spitzer manque, at least before the sex scandal that brought Spitzer down; indeed, many is the time I confused the two. Blumenthal is less personable than Spitzer, though, and he talks with a reedy, almost nerdy voice. But he commands himself very well, given is erect physical structure and self-confidence. While it may have shocked C-Span viewers outside Connecticut that Mrs. McMahon talked like a Southerner, that's because she happens to be from North Carolina, originally, and she very much comes across as a girl from a trailer park who came into a lot of money. Her lime-green pantsuit was hideous. She's not only an outsider in Connecticut politics, she's an outsider in Connecticut preppie culture.

Now, some substance. Blumenthal addressed the Vietnam issue head-on, saying that there was no excuse for his misstatements, apologizing for them, admitting his mistake, and expressing pride for his service. This is what Chris Matthews said he should do and this is also what Blumenthal and others thought he did back in the spring. Matthews will likely have complained that Blumenthal didn't seem genuinely contrite enough by the time you read this, but I don't know what else Blumenthal can do to please his critics in the media. McMahon, for her part, had to defend comments she made that the minimum wage ought to be reviewed. She insisted that she never meant to suggest repealing it. Even though she has no idea how much it is.

On other issues, Blumenthal supported government initiatives to sell American-made goods, such as rules for government contractors to but American products, and he cited the many cases in which he represented workers in Connecticut whose jobs were threatened with outsourcing, and supported middle-class tax cuts and letting upper-income tax cuts expire. McMahon, who wanted to extend all of the Bush tax cuts, recited the old canard how a government official like Blumenthal had no experience in creating jobs, while she contributed to the economy with her business ventures. Unfortunately for her, that business - promoting a rigged, theatrically violent and intellectually impoverished "sport," gave Blumenthal the opportunity to question the value of her business, and he responded accordingly.

Also in the debate was a discussion of the Steven Hayes case in Connecticut; Hayes was just convicted of killing a woman and her two children in a home invasion in 2007; the woman's husband manage to escape. When asked if the death penalty was warranted, both Blumenthal and McMahon came out in favor of it. Some liberal voters might not be so inclined to vote for Blumenthal on the basis of his answer, given the opposition to capital punishment on the left. They might just stay home.

Ironically, it was the legal distinction of another criminal case that may have helped Blumenthal close the sale with Connecticut voters. Linda McMahon noted a case against World Wrestling Entertainment - in which workers have been classified as independent contractors to trim costs - was opened in Connecticut on the day Blumenthal, the state attorney general, announced his Senate candidacy, an occurrence she found more than coincidental.

Except for one thing. The investigation is a criminal case being pursued by the Department of Labor, which is under the control of Jodi Rell, the outgoing Republican governor. Blumenthal pointed out his office has no jurisdiction in such a case; he only prosecutes civil cases.

Asked to respond, McMahon replied, to some audience laughter, "No comment." It was the only time she was at a loss for words.

This issue has surfaced before in the campaign, but never with the the kind of devastating effect on a candidate only possible in a free media format like a debate. If Blumenthal - ahead in a newly released poll by about seven points - manages to win, this will be remembered as the moment he got his groove back.

McMahon is one of three female business executives trying to buy elective office this year. The other two - Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, the "California Girls" - are failing in the Golden State, what with Whitman losing steam in her bid for the California governorship over having employed an illegal immigrant housekeeper for several years and with incumbent senator Barbara Boxer pulling ahead of Fiorina in that state's U.S. Senate race. If McMahon similarly goes down in flames on November 2, it will be a good night for Democrats no matter how many contests Republicans win.

Plan B

The Republicans think they might have an opportunity to win control of the Senate by picking up two Democratic seats - neither of which should ever have been in play. One is a seat the Democrats were expected to hold easily. The other is a seat that is only up for election through because a twist of fate and bad timing.

As noted here yesterday, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is ahead of his Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate, noted drug-pushing violence peddler Linda McMahon, by only three percentage points. Factoring in other polls and computing the averages makes the situation look better for Blumenthal - but not much better. How did this happen? Conventional wisdom suggests that Blumenthal was been hobbled by his misstatements about his Vietnam-era military service. But Blumenthal actually survived that; most Connecticut voters accepted his explanation. (As I noted, it was clear to anyone paying attention that he was speaking in general terms about his and other people's military service in the Vietnam era.) What's hobbling him is a twofold problem. One, McMahon is outspending him and outshining him; she has more money to invest in her campaign and you see her more often in TV ads. Blumenthal is practically a nonentity on television. Two, he's connected with the Democrats and the status quo at a time when many voters in Connecticut and elsewhere in the nation are not so much infatuated with either. One thing about the McMahon campaign that appears to be resonating with voters is that career politicians like Blumenthal are part of the problem and that outsiders have new ideas.

Yes, but a drug-pushing violence peddler? A woman who makes her living having "wrestlers" pretend to bludgeon each other within inches of their lives?

If Blumenthal had deliberately misled voters about his Vietnam-era record, his war stories would be more believable than Linda McMahon's events.

Since Connecticut is regarded as a preppie state, Linda McMahon has high negatives among its voters. But Blumenthal hasn't been much of a candidate; he's almost Martha Coakley (who?) in a suit and tie. He needs to get it in gear.

Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Robert Byrd's seat ended up open to a special election because Byrd died a week before holding such an election would not have been necessary under West Virginia law; an appointed senator would have been able to fill out the entire term. Governor Joe Manchin could have avoided calling a special election on a technicality. See my post from June 28, 2010 explaining it in detail.) Manchin preferred to appoint an interim senator, call a special election, and announced his candidacy for the seat. It was a risk, but one Manchin was willing to take. An election was in fact warranted, and Manchin, who wants the seat, would run for it in a fair and open contest that he expected to win due to his popularity as governor.

But, as reported last week, Republican John Raese has made it a race, running strongly against Manchin. Manchin is still popular, but many West Virginians disapprove of President Obama and his policies and would prefer not to reward him with a senator that would keep the Democrats in control of the Senate. And, by voting for Raese, they can keep the popular Manchin as governor through early 2013.

Manchin hasn't lost yet, though, and he's stepped up his campaign by highlighting his differences with Obama to demonstrate his Independence. (It's a shame that a U.S. Senate candidate has to distance himself from his President, but that's the Democratic party for you.) Plus, there's the problem of Raese's official residence. He's legally a West Viriginia resident but he lives most of the time in Florida. Sounds like someone who likes to have it both ways, if you ask me.

What's my prediction? My gut tells me that Blumenthal will pull through in Connecticut - and he would have been far better off if he'd read my blog and taken my advice on a statewide bus tour. How hard would it be to tour a state of four million people sixty miles wide and ninety miles across? As for West Virginia, I have no idea how that's going to turn out. My knowledge of the state is restricted to a John Denver song and a visit to Harpers Ferry. I wouldn't advice Manchin to take a bus tour, though; the terrain will do a number on the transmission. I would, however, advise him to go to mountains that have had their tops blown off by greedy coal companies to show folks the kind of environmental policies Raese would support as a senator.

The GOP's Plan B to take over the Senate may be blunted elsewhere, though. In Kentucky, Republican Rand Paul is suddenly facing a late surge from Democrat Jack Conway. In Colorado, Democrat Michael Bennet has come out stronger against Tea Party Republican Ken Buck. These were seats Republicans were favored to win not too long ago. Polls now show the Democrats running stronger overall in the congressional midterm elections, in both houses. Can the GOP tide by stemmed if not stopped? I hope so.

Linda and Lisa

Two Republican women whose chances for election to the Senate seemed kaput only a month ago now have plausible hopes for winning their respective bids for office.

First, to Connecticut. Democratic state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal got caught in a web of his own making when he misspoke about his Vietnam-era military service back in May, but he addressed the issue and seemingly put it behind him. And once it was clear that noted violence peddler and steroid pusher Linda McMahon would be his Republican opponent for Chris Dodd's Senate seat, he enjoyed a lead in the polls. Blumenthal still enjoys a lead, but it's beginning to shrink noticeably. The controversy over his Vietnam-era military service, and whether he meant to say that he served in Vietnam when he in fact did not, hasn't gone away. Although his Republican opponent has made a career out of popularizing professional wrestling - which is phony and fraudulent by definition - voters in Connecticut are troubled by Blumenthal's honesty and integrity. Forty-two percent of McMahon supporters, according to one poll, are not voting for her so much as they are voting against Blumenthal, and the fact that steroid abuse in her "sport" led to a Canadian wrestler killing his family and then himself doesn't seem to bother them so much.

Chris Matthews - no stranger to injecting himself in a political story - says that Blumenthal ought to come right out and clear up his military record now. Hmm - I kind of thought he did that already! I remember Blumenthal clearly stating that he misspoke, that he never went to Vietnam, and that he was sorry. Maybe Matthews remembers it differently. Maybe I, like other liberals, heard only want I wanted to hear. But I don't think I did. And I don't know what Blumenthal can do that he hasn't done already to get the story - orginally reported by the New York Times with help from the McMahon campaign's opposition research unit - behind him completely.

As for McMahon, pundits have theorized that she could never win statewide office in Connecticut, a state known for having a well-educated, affluent population. But contrary to popular wisdom, Connecticut is not a giant upscale suburb. It has gritty urban areas and blue-collar residents whose style is more like Ralph Kramden than Ralph Lauren, something you'd see if you got off the Merritt Parkway. Some observers might call these folks the unwashed masses; Linda McMahon calls them her base. (If you could count the number of Connecticut residents who actually have read Nietzsche, dress in tweed, or drive Volvo station wagons, you'd be very surprised on how small the actual number would be.) And, she's moderate enough to appeal to the state's Republican voters. To her credit, she's more socially liberal than someone like Jim DeMint or Tom Coburn (perhaps "not as socially conservative" is a beter choice of words), so at least she's not being hypocritical by promoting "family values" even as her chosen profession does not. But that's about the only charitable thing I can say about her.

Richard Blumenthal's biggest problem may be the fact that McMahon is outspending him, and the idea that he's "known" has evidently been compromised by the Vietnam flap. I still say he has to go on a bus tour of Connecticut and be thankful the state is small enough geographically to make it cost-effective.

Meanwhile, up in Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, denied the opportunity to run as the Republican nominee for a second full term in the Senate by Tea Party insurgent Joe Miller, has thrown her parka in the ring as an independent candidate. Democrats hoping that she'll split the Republican vote and benefit Sitka mayor Scott McAdams, the Democratic Senate nominee, have already been disappointed by the polls; a hypothetical three-way campaign showed a close race between Murkowski and Miller, with McAdams (who's likely to be misidentified as the fellow who draws "Dilbert") as a hopeless and irrelevant also-ran. This information, though, is precisely the momentum Murkowski needs to get into the race. At least 43 percent of Alaska's voters are independent, and they have shown partiality to independent and third-party candidates before, such as when they elected Walter Hinkel (an Alaska Independence Party member) governor in 1990. Also, 32 percent of likely Republican voters 54 percent of independents have an unfavorable impression of Joe Miller, giving Murkowski ample room to campaign from the center. You can read all about it in this blog post from noted electoral number cruncher Nate Silver.

As much as I dislike Lisa Murkowski, whose biggest claim to fame is trying to gut the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory authority, I'd rather see her get re-elected than to see Alaska send a dangerous ideologue like Joe Miller - who supports privatizing Social Security and abolishing the Department of Education - to Washington. Geez, the fact that Miller looks like a runner-up in a Chuck Norris look-alike contest scares the Shinola out of me. And a Murkowski victory would certainly tick off Sarah Palin! (Bad blood runs between Palin and the Murkowski family; she unseated Lisa Murkowski's father, Frank, from the governorship of Alaska.)

Time will tell how this all gets sorted out.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Linda McMahon seems to be following the playbook in her U.S. Senate campaign in Connecticut that Cyndi Lauper used so many years ago to get noticed, which is that any public association - even with professional wrestlers - is a good one. It helps that McMahon has actually run a professional wrestling league, and not just gotten someone like the late Captain Lou Albano as her unofficial spokesman. But now that she's actually the Republican Senate nominee in Connecticut, the press is starting to look into her former career. Margaret Carlson of the Bloomberg News Service just wrote a damning column about how McMahon added elements of necrophilia and intrafamily violence even as she got a TV-PG rating to get younger viewers to watch it on the tube. McMahon herself once got into the ring to kick someone in the groin and got beaten up by her own daughter. These are just a few of the salacious revelations Carlson provides.

Recent polls show the noted violence peddler behind Democratic candidate Richard Blumenthal by ten points. Carlson fretted that Blumenthal had once been ahead by thirty points, but it's worth noting that the race almost got dead even in the wake of the news that Blumenthal misspoke about his Vietnam-era military service, only to see the Connecticut attorney general's lead recover after the story (fueled by McMahon's opposition research team) died down. Nevertheless, with a plan to spend $50 million of her own money in the primary and general election cycles, McMahon has put Blumenthal on notice, and he's taken notice. He's vowing to campaign hard. I propose he rent a bus and travel all over the state to meet the voters personally. Connecticut is geographically small enough for a statewide tour. He can do it.

(It will be fascinating to hear Chris Matthews's take on this election, as he blasted Blumenthal as someone unfit for the Senate for his allegedly deliberate misrepresentation of his military record, but that was when Vietnam veteran and former congressman Rob Simmons had a fighting chance of being Blumenthal's Republican opponent. As for Matthews, he's conveniently away this week.)

Something Linda McMahon may want to consider, though, is that while Cyndi Lauper's association with professional wrestlers got both her a large audience and got professional wrestling a larger audience, Lauper herself didn't last long and became an answer to an eighties trivia question, the musical equivalent of a Members Only jacket. Lauper, a Democrat, got a lot of credit for popularizing professional wrestling before McMahon made it even bigger. I'll bet Cyndi regrets doing that now. . . .

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.

Blumenthralled

Connecticut Democrats endorsed state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to run for the Senate seat currently occupied by Chris Dodd despite Blumenthal's misstatements about his military service during the Vietnam War and despite Chris Matthews's repeated attacks on Blumenthal for saying he had served "in" Vietnam rather than "during" Vietnam. It was done the old fashioned way, at a state party convention.

Blumenthal may have the ability to get through this crisis unscathed. Saying that you served in Vietnam when you meant during Vietnam seems like a plausible mistake to make and an easy one to let go unnoticed because it involves a deviation of one word. A reservist who said he served in Vietnam but in fact remained stateside may not necessarily be referring to the country or the war, but rather the times. For many, the word Vietnam means an era. It's a word that conjures up a time in American history when this country's involvement in that war tore the country apart at home and pitted one American against another over the role of the United States abroad. The fractures that resulted never really healed.

If you served in the military in the late sixties and early seventies - a time when the war in Southeast Asia made an association with the military an undesirable one - you may not have served in the place called Vietnam, but you served in the state of mind called Vietnam. And since Blumenthal used the phrases "during Vietnam" and "in Vietnam" more or less interchangeably, and since he referred to Vietnam and the Vietnam era intermittently, I think it can be said that Blumenthal never meant to mislead anyone and got himself in trouble for reasons that boiled down to semantics.

(You might chalk up my observations to partisanship, but in fact I gave George Walker Bush a pass when he referred to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan allowing terrorists in its harbors, though Afghanistan is a landlocked country. Many people agreed with me that Bush was speaking metaphorically.)

Despite Blumenthal's record of service to veterans as a state public official and an impeccable record as Connecticut's top law enforcement officer, none of what I just said is going to stop the Republicans or either of their U.S. Senate hopefuls from using his own words against him. Linda McMahon had already planned to do so before the New York Times reported this story; indeed, her campaign helped the paper with its research. Rob Simmons, who did serve in Vietnam - the place - will make it an issue if he is the Republican nominee. Simmons is favored to win the nomination at the Republican state convention but if McMahon gets 15 percent of the delegates at the convention, that would force a primary between the two, setting up a primary campaign that noted wrestling impresario McMahon could outspend Simmons in and possibly end up winning. Then, imagine what she could do to Blumenthal.

I endorse Rob Simmons for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Connecticut. It would be a travesty if Linda McMahon were to be the next senator from that state, especially given the fact that she became president of her wrestling league in the early nineties as a legal maneuver when her husband, wrestling mogul Vince McMahon, was implicated in a steroid scandal. That she is proud of her tenure as the president of an institution that has had such a toxic influence on our culture - she's not the affable personality Jesse Ventura is, either - is enough to cause concern.

And before Chris Matthews starts acting high and mighty, do I have to mention his own legendary gaffes?

Blumenfalling?

Update: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he misspoke when he said he served in the Vietnam War. I got the impression that he did not actually say "I served in Vietnam" in those exact words, and I accepted his explanation.

Then I saw the video from the event showing what he said.

The video, dated March 2008, shows Blumenthal speaking at an event in which he clearly says, "I served in Vietnam." Blumenthal has now said he meant to say he served "during" Vietnam, and that he takes full responsibility for the error. "But," he added, "I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to our country."

Except that he made this misstatement more than a few times and never bothered to correct the record, despite being well-known for calling journalists to clarify or correct points.

Oh yeah, he said he was the captain of the Harvard swimming team and was never even on the Harvard swimming team. Maybe he didn't even go to Harvard, for all I know.

And, the ten Democratic Senate seats the Republicans need to take control of the upper house in November - what Jeff Sessions needs to block Obama judicial appointments - are suddenly within reach.

This doesn't look good. . . .

Blumenfall?

Imagine an accomplished, impeccably credentialed state attorney general in a New England state who becomes a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, only to trip up and go into a Senate race damaged enough to possibly lose to an undistinguished and somewhat vulgar Republican with prole appeal.

Martha Coakley in Massachusetts? No, Richard Blumenthal in Connecticut!

Blumenthal, the Connecticut Attorney General and a popular and widely respected figure in his state, was sort of the Eliot Spitzer of New England - a tough elected state law enforcement agent (Spitzer, remember, was New York State attorney general before becoming governor of New York) who fights on the side of the people. When Connecticut Democratic senator Chris Dodd announced his decision not to seek a sixth term in November, Blumenthal declared his candidacy for the seat, and he was considered a shoo-in against the likely Republican challenger, professional wrestling impresario Linda McMahon (wife of Vince).

Then word came out that Blumenthal apparently said he served in the Vietnam War when he did not in fact do so.

It seems Blumenthal could go down like Spitzer did, but over war and words, not women. Like Coakley, he could lose his Senate bid to a Republican of the opposite sex who has a connection with unlettered beer swillers. The idea of such a reputable state attorney general losing to a woman whose career has been promoting a low-class form of entertainment that appeals to guys like Scott Brown must be giving Connecticut Democrats agita.

Blumenthal received several deferments between 1965 and 1970 before joining the Marine Reserve, and he made statements that led people to believe he had gone to Vietnam and seen action. His Democratic primary opponent, Merrick Alpert, has attacked him for lying about his military record and using privilege to avoid serving in Vietnam. Republican Senate hopeful Rob Simmons has also come out swinging. Mrs. McMahon simply posted the New York Times article that broke the story on her Web site, without comment.

Blumenthal has responded quickly, calling the Times article a distortion of what he said and insisting that he never tried to insinuate that he fought in Vietnam. He said in 2008 that he was aware of the taunts against Vietnam veterans because he had been in the Marine Reserve, but somehow he forgot to mention that his unit was never called up. He has, though, reminded voters that he made his nonservice in the war clear in a Senate primary debate in March when he said, "Although I did not serve in Vietnam, I have seen firsthand the effects of military action."

Some experts think the Blumenthal can survive this damage because Connecticut voters are familiar with him and can trust him. But if the effect on popularly elected state attorneys general is to become more ambitious for higher office and ultimately kill their own political careers because of their own character traits, I'm kind of glad the New Jersey state attorney general serves at the pleasure of the governor.

Fade Out

Two Senate Democrats have decided they will not seek re-election to their seats. Last night it was Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who decided he wanted to pursue other interests. As I type today, though, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut is announcing his own decision not to seek another term.

The Dorgan announcement was unexpected and unwelcome. Dorgan has been a reliably progressive senator, fighting for cheaper imported drugs and working to help small family farms. Chris Dodd is a different case. His poll numbers in Connecticut are below forty percent, and he hurt himself by running for President in 2008 and practically moving to Iowa with his family the previous summer. All he did was anger his constituents and make himself a running joke for Jon Stewart. However, his role in getting lenient treatment for executives of the bailed out insurance giant AIG and questions over a reportedly favorable deal he got from the scandal-plagued mortgage giant (he was cleared of any wrongdoing) in the midst of a subprime mortgage crisis proved to be no laughing matter.

Dodd's withdrawal - possibly encouraged by the Obama administration - may be a blessing in disguise, as it has cleared the way for Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to seek the Democratic senatorial nomination. Blumenthal is a popular figure in the Nutmeg State, with a reputation for fighting for the little guy -sort of like Eliot Spitzer without the sexual peccadilloes (I hope!). He is likely to be a heavy favorite. If Democrats can get enough congressional candidates like Blumenthal - candidates to inspire the party base - perhaps they can regain the momentum and excitement from the Obama campaign that has since been lost.

As for Dorgan's seat, North Dakota John Hoeven, a Republican, is an early favorite, though MSNBC commentator Ed Schultz has been urged to move back to North Dakota to run for Senate. (He can't; he has to be a North Dakota resident for at least two years to qualify.) Although it's a Republican state, Democrats are very good at winning Senate elections there because of their ability to connect with voters on a personal level. It's not only one of the least populated states, it's one of the most rural. That may be in part why no Republican has been elected to Congress - House or Senate - since Mark Andrews won a single Senate term in 1980.

More intriguing is Democratic Colorado governor Bill Ritter's decision not to run for a second term this year. He was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party.