The CIA Agent Emerges and Trips Again.
If Rob Simmons’ on-again, off-again primary campaign is his notion of cunning stealth, it makes you wonder what he did in the CIA. No one who has watched the former intelligence officer straining to keep himself in circulation was surprised to learn that he is airing television commercials reminding voters that he is on the August 10th Republican primary ballot for the United States Senate.
It has been a steep, bewildering fall for the three-term former congressman. A year ago, he was far ahead of beleaguered incumbent Christopher Dodd in opinion polls. He was also the odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination. Dodd’s January withdrawal from the race left Simmons without a credible claim to have a chance of winning the general election against Democrat Richard Blumenthal. In May, delegates to the Republican convention inflicted a humiliating defeat on Simmons. It was a reversal of fortune that precluded him from delivering an acceptance speech that probably would have included Simmons reaching into his pocket, taking out his medals, and displaying them to the crowd, creating an emotional, memorable moment. Instead, knowing he would fall short or maybe practicing, he showed them as he walked among delegates that Friday night, creating some awkward moments for that sort of thing only works with the distance of the podium.
To lose at that convention to Linda McMahon was galling for the Stonington Republican. The dominant Republican deference gene had been trumped by the party’s taste for what the Simmons campaign saw as a parvenu with with a taste for politics. It just isn’t done.
It has been painful to watch the energetic, calculating retired state employee try to transform himself into Connecticut’s Alvin Greene since he suspended his campaign a few days after the convention. Somehow the path to victory would be paved with winks and nods offered far enough out of the race to avoid another barrage on his liberal record by the McMahon juggernaut, but still wishin’ and hopin’, plannin’ and dreaming that Republicans would be true to him in a primary. They won’t. He disappeared from the wider stage, and there was no outbreak of enthusiasm for him to come back to the arena. McMahon has pulled away from Simmons. This is a vanity production with Simmons as Archie Rice in The Entertainer, the faded and embittered trouper.
Losing the convention to McMahon was an indignity for Simmon., For her to win in November would be an assault on his sensibilities. So he sacrifices all logic and dignity with a meaningless lunge at the prize he thought was his a year ago.
7 comments
By remaining in the race, McMahon has been prevented from going more seriously negative on Blumenthal (damaging her own ratings in the process) or moderating her policy profile (damaging her chances in the primary). I see Simmons’ semi-stealth effort as a play to cripple her in the general.
Simmons 2012?
Get Smart!!
Ah, there you go again Kevin, taking pot shots at Rob Simmons. You can’t help yourself can you.
Simmons is running a few tv ads and Linda freaks out. Linda shuns debates with Schiff and Simmons. Linda gets asked a question in East Haven about the DOJ investigation of the police department in that city and because she hadn’t been briefed on it before the event, she goes “deer in the headlights.”
It seems that anything out of the total control of Sullivan & LeShane McMahon has a very bad reaction to.
Not a good pathway to becoming US Senator.
@Saul – If SImmon’s is just “running a few TV ads” is nothing to ferak out about, tell me, sir, what the intent of the ads is? If you neglect to say “play spoiler to Linda’s campaign”, then you, sir, are jaded.
PS – Linda’s been visiting towns and fielding questions for 6 months straight now. She’s up to some several hundred visits across the state – even hitting some towns multiple times to show her sincerity. If it took 3oo visits to catch her off guard, then so be it. “Not a good pathway to becoming US Senator” would have been Linda being caught off guard at town stop 10 with a question on the National Health Care bill, not being caught off guard at stop 315 on something local like an investigation into the town’s police department.
PS – “Republican candidate Linda McMahon said Thursday that challenger Rob Simmons’ sudden re-entry into the U.S. Senate race won’t affect her campaign much.” http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x613850485/McMahon-brushes-off-rival-s-re-entry
Linda is focused on the goal: winning in November’s general election against a popular opponent with instant name recognition. She cannot permit being sidetracked by fringe senate wannabees. Linda is winning the name game and is gaining in popularity by meeting the voters where they live, talking the issues they live with. She doesn’t mess with the politics, Linda does business that builds goodwill and integrity.
We need Linda in the Senate to work for us, reducing tax burden, shrink trillion dollar federal deficit, slow the burgeoning beaurocracy.
Linda McMahon cannot beat Richard Blumenthal so none of this matters. Lots of people are getting rich taking all of her money.
Where Kenny Langley on this one? Why isn’t he whining about her “buying an election?”
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