1. The Washington Post is showing the love for Linda McMahon this morning, calling her "a remarkably polished and poised first-time candidate."
McMahon...is ready to embrace the serious success of the company and even the aura of scrappiness it lends her. Then with poise and legalese, she distances herself from wrestling scenes that are sexually explicit and purposefully inflammatory, moments her opponents hope to highlight. That trick is made even tougher by McMahon's star turns inside the ring. While her appearances were nowhere near as regular as those of Jesse "The Body" Ventura, the former governor of Minnesota, her groin-kicking alter-ego nevertheless did combat with her own husband, son and daughter. Watching her recite well-coached corporate talking points to reconcile the two can be a spectacle in its own right.
The Post goes on to lead us through her "well-coached corporate talking points" without questioning their validity. Great journalism, Post!
2. Rob Simmons is not a happy camper. First he was dissed by Joe Scarborough, who gave both Republican Senate hopeful Linda McMahon and Democratic prospective Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal airtime on his Feb 12th "Morning Joe" show. But according to Simmons, ""We inquired, we inquired, we inquired and we didn't get on."
Simmons is also "concerned" about the neutrality of CT GOP head Chris Healy, given his wife Suzan Bibisi's position with the McMahon campaign. According to McMahon's latest FEC report, Bibisi was paid $6,532 on Nov. 30 and a total of $7,206 in December.
A person who "understands the thinking within the Simmons camp" explained:
Another person who understands the thinking within the Simmons camp used far stronger language.
"While the Simmons campaign has held out hope that Healy would prove to be an honest broker, they have since lost confidence based on what they believe are Healy's actions in support of McMahon's campaign and the fact he has a big financial stake that grows each day McMahon remains in the race," the person said.
Healy, during an interview Sunday, said he is still an honest broker and if it can be proved that he asked a delegate or potential delegate to the Republican convention to back McMahon over Simmons, "then I'll quit. ... That's ridiculous." Healy said it is inappropriate for him to support any one candidate, but he said that recently, at the suggestion of some other party insiders, he did ask Simmons whether he would be open to running for the former congressional seat he lost in 2006.
"When people ask me to think about it and make an offer to discuss it with the Simmons people, I have a responsibility to do that," Healy said, emphasizing he was only the messenger.
I remember Anderson Scooper bringing up this conflict of interest at CTLP when we heard the news about Ms. Biblisi hire by the McMahon campaign. He was immediately piled on by the wingers. Wonder if some of those same wingers are amongst those expressing concern now that their candidate is getting buried in McMahon bucks and Healy asked him to bow out of the Senate race and run for Congress. Just as the messenger. #cough#
3. Did you know that Attorney General Dick Blumenthal is the consummate political outsider? Neither did I, but that's the narrative, apparently.
Richard Blumenthal shrugged off the prospect of an Obama campaign visit as "an open question," and has steered clear of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., whose poor reelection prospects contributed to his decision to retire. "I have been independent of Senator Dodd and everyone else in Washington," Blumenthal, the state attorney general, told Yale University students last week.
UPDATE ctblogger:Today, the Government Administration and Elections committee is holding a public hearing on the Citizens' Election Program. You can watch the proceedings online at the CT-N website.
Make sure to watch the video highlights from the Sunday morning talk shows below the fold.
Not a big surprise here as Richard Blumenthal beats all Republicans (Simmons, McMahon, Schiff) handily, as he did in the PPP and Quinnipiac polls.
Senate 2010
Blumenthal (D) 54
Simmons (R) 35
Blumenthal (D) 56
McMahon (R) 34
Blumenthal (D) 56
Schiff (R) 33
More interestingly, both Ned Lamont and Dan Malloy beat the no-name Republicans by about 10, but that suggests a race could develop. Susan Bysiewicz did a little better but has since left the race to run for Attorney-General.
Jodi Rell would win in a walk if she deigns to run in 2012 for the U.S. Senate, but Chris Murphy would clobber the ridiculous Joe Lieberman head-to-head, 45-26.
Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 1/11-13. 600 Likely voters. MoE 4%
Public Policy Polling has just released their new numbers for CT-Sen. A stark contrast to what they had been.
When Chris Dodd retired last night his seat went from one of the most vulnerable to one of the safest for Senate Democrats. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads all three of the Republicans in the race by at least 30 points in polling we conducted Monday and Tuesday night before Dodd's announcement.
Blumenthal is unusually popular, especially in hyper partisan times when voters like few politicians. 59% have a favorable opinion of him to just 19% who see him negatively. It's no surprise that he's liked by 71% of Democrats and 60% of independents, but even Republicans view him favorably by a 37/35 margin. It doesn't take a lot of hands to count the number of Democratic politicians with positive numbers among GOP voters these days.
Blumenthal leads Rob Simmons 59-28, Linda McMahon 60-28, and Peter Schiff 63-23. It would take an epic collapse for him not to be Connecticut's next Senator.
He seems to have his eyes on Joe Lieberman's seat, which is just as well as that would end Lieberman's career in the Senate. Richard Blumenthal also denied flatly that he had any interest in running for Governor. From The New Haven Register:
Blumenthal's daily schedule is chock full of such appearances, press conferences, dinners and parades. Is this the time Blumenthal will take all that political capital and run for governor, now that Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell has announced she will not seek re-election, giving Democrats their first good shot at the top job in 18 years?
Blumenthal said no, he's running for attorney general "because it is a job I love because it enables me to fight for people and make a difference. I have no plan to run for governor."
On the other hand, asked if he would run in 2012 for U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's seat, Blumenthal said: "It would be a challenge that I would welcome, if it were the right time to do it, and I thought I could make a difference. Stay tuned."
HARTFORD - Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is questioning why $400 million is going to the big three credit agencies that he says helped created the economic meltdown.
Blumenthal said Monday he is investigating why a $1 trillion government bailout program steers money to Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's.
Blumenthal has written to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asking him to revise the program. He ways the program gives the three rating agencies an advantage and assures that their seven smaller competitors can't compete for the work.
Blumenthal also makes the point that these agencies are violating the spirit of antitrust laws -- with Bernake's help!
Blumenthal's letter to Bernanke says, "Further, limiting the number of acceptable credit ratings agencies under the TALF program solely to the three major credit rating agencies contradicts and undermines Congress' intent to enhance competition; solidifying the major credit rating agencies' market dominance to the detriment of the other qualified NRSROs (Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations). Even more inexplicably, it rewards the very incompetence by Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings, that helped cause our current financial crisis. In effect, the policy handsomely rewards failure. Indeed, it enables those specific credit rating agencies to profit from their own self-enriching malfeasance. [...]
Blumenthal's letter continued, "I strongly urge the Federal Reserve to reassess and revamp its current policy and to adopt a policy that gives all properly registered NRSROs the same chance to compete for work rating securities for the Federal Reserve liquidity enhancement facilities, such as the TALF. The Federal Reserve should not be favoring large market participants, whose mistakes helped precipitate the current crisis, over smaller ones seeking to break into the market."
Good luck with that, Dick. But don't hold your breath. This is yet another reason why Congress needs to be writing laws to regulate the financial industry. The Fed won't do it.
When someone robs a bank, they go to prison. What's the penalty for when bankers' rob a nation?
If Senator Dodd had a serious challenger in 2010, he could lose. Fifty-one percent said they were unlikely to vote for Dodd in 2010 -- and that includes 32 percent who said they definitely won't vote for Dodd.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal remains popular, and if he ever decided to run against Lieberman, Blumenthal would likely win in a route. In a head-to-head race, Blumenthal leads Lieberman in the poll by 58% to 30%.
Governor Rell remains popular, and the Democrats running against her have a lot of work to do. Susan Bysiewicz has an early big lead over the other Democratic contenders.
"If the Democratic primary for governor were being held today and the candidates were Dan Malloy, Susan Bysiewicz and Jim Amann, for whom would you vote?"
Forty-four percent of Democrats polled answered Bysiewicz, Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy followed with 12 percent and former Speaker of the House James Amann trailed the pack with 4 percent.
Check out the poll here. What else jumps out at you?
Calling the lender's practices "oppressive, unethical, immoral and unscrupulous," Connecticut joined California, Florida and Illinois among U.S. states suing Countrywide, which last year made one in six U.S. mortgage loans.
...snip...
"Countrywide conned customers into loans that were clearly unaffordable and unsustainable, turning the American dream of homeownership into a nightmare," said Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, in a statement on Wednesday. He also called Countrywide "an insolvency enabler."
Connecticut is demanding that Countrywide make restitution to affected borrowers, give up improper gains, and rescind, reform or modify all mortgages that broke state laws.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal earns $110,000 annually, 28 places and tens of thousands of dollars behind highest paid AG Jerry Brown of California, according to LegalNewslist.com's ranking of pay for all 50 state attorneys general.
Brown, a former governor and presidential hopeful, rakes in $184,301. A minimum wage and some overtime behind him is Alabama's Troy King, who pulls in $163,744. Winning the bronze is New York's Andrew Cuomo at $155,500.
As it stands, there is not a lot of competition in the health care marketplace: non-profits, small businesses, and municipalities do not have bargaining power on their own to negotiate lower rates, and no one entity among them represents a large enough group for insurers to vie for their business. These small unaffiliated groups are forced to pay higher rates than they would as members of a larger pool. By signing HB 5536, Governor Rell will increase competition in the health care marketplace because all of the state's major insurers will be able to bargain for the contract to cover what seems to me would be the second largest insurance pool in Connecticut.
I just heard this AP/Susan Haigh story picked up on MSNBC.
HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut lawmakers unveiled legislation yesterday that would require MySpace.com and other social-networking sites to verify users' ages and obtain parental consent before minors can post profiles...
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who met with other attorneys general on Tuesday, said 10 to 20 other states are considering similar legislation.
"The technology is available. The solution is financially feasible, practically doable," he said. "If we can put a man on the moon, we can check ages of people on these Web sites."
Under the proposal, any networking site that fails to verify ages and obtain parental permission of users under 18 would face civil fines up to $5,000 per violation. Sites would have to check information about parents to make sure it is legitimate. Parents would be contacted directly when necessary.
Off the top of my head I can think of MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Yahoo Messenger, AIM and Live Messenger as "social networking" tools that allow communcation with adults based on honesty alone.
Those who attended the anti-Broadwater rally in Branford hoping to see ctkeith or CTBob misbehave were disappointed. Both were on their very best behavior ... which is a good thing! (No, really.)
What they got instead was a made-for-TV propaganda availability designed to let our elected officials posture in front of various types of cameras as champions of the people and the environment by railing against the Broadwater LNG platform in Long Island Sound, a project which every last one of them knows is a done deal.
Why a done deal? Simple. Congress has given FERC dictatorial power to decide on the project. The Bush/Cheney Energy bill reinforced FERC's power. Bush appoints the FERC board. Q.E.D.
Just as important, the lobbyists and corporate special interests who fill our politicians' campaign coffers and (dare I suggest it?) perform other acts of kindness that are less visible know it too. Of course, like so many other turds smelling up the living room of our political process, no one is allowed to mention this, least of all the press. Heaven forfend!
Imagine you are on chemotherapy. Suddenly, Health Net pulls the rug out from under you, and you learn you are responsible for a 20% co-pay on your bills.
Attorney General Dick Blumenthal puts Joe Lieberman's collusion in the rape of Long Island Sound in harsh perspective.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal disputes claims by U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman's campaign that President Bush's energy bill "in no way hurt" Connecticut and New York's ability to keep a floating natural gas platform out of Long Island Sound.
"There are a number of areas that are still unclear, and the energy policy creates some of the doubts and questions as to the rights of states like Connecticut," Blumenthal said last week. He said the bill places states that deny energy company's permits for projects such as the gas platform at a significant disadvantage in federal court. ...
After the bill was signed in August, Blumenthal issued a statement calling it "a blank check to the energy industry" that strips states of authority over siting massive projects such as the 400-yard natural gas platform.
"The stakes for Connecticut are huge -- virtual emasculation of power over energy projects that impact our environment, economy and public health," he said at the time.
Joe Lieberman apparently doesn't think the rape of the Sound is any big deal. After all, it's just a short ride to another sound, right?
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