Linda McMahon, Über-Carny

Linda McMahon — who gets her first unfiltered media exposure on Sunday’s Face the State – is the target of a new hit piece from the Rob Simmons campaign entitled “Linda McMahon’s Many Myths.”

The subtitle deconstructs the rival Connecticut U.S. Senate Republican candidate’s tall tales “about her former company’s health policies and her commitment to the Republican Party and conservative fiscal principles.” See http://joinrobsimmons.com/articles/linda-mcmahon-s-many-myths.

I’m not going to touch the second half of Simmons’ charges, because they involve internal partisan politics that Nutmeggers can sort out for themselves.

But I’m obviously delighted to see the occupational health and safety record of World Wrestling Entertainment front and center in the consideration of McMahon’s candidacy.

As someone who knows a thing or two about the carnival-world-on-steroids that spawned her, I also have a few observations on “Linda’s myths.” Here I think the Simmons campaign, if anything, understates the case.

From where I sit, Linda is the banal corporate face of one of the sleaziest operations in America, and that’s saying a mouthful. People assessing her fitness for public office should, first, acknowledge that she is a top-rank businesswoman by her own terms. Then they should regard Linda, like her husband Vince, not as a garden-variety myth-maker so much as an Über-Carny. By that I mean that the McMahons tell huge lies, whoppers, then dare “respectable” society to call them out for them — and risk exposing their own hypocrisy in the process.

The wrestler death mill that they run out of Stamford is the main focus of my reporting. As far as other big lies go, I’ve spotted two of them so far. I’m sure there will be more.

Linda McMahon launched her public life with her appointment to the state Board of Education, a patently ill-fitting assignment. Like a football coach overselling his credentials as an “educator,” she originally put on her resume a degree she never earned; when caught, she wrote it off as a misunderstanding. Now she’s proceeding with the narrative of the girl who wanted to be a French teacher before fate took one of its odd turns and she wound up building the biggest brand in junk entertainment.

Somewhere Linda’s son-in-law, Triple H, along with the Undertaker and Chris Jericho, must be sitting in a production truck busting a gut over that one.

Linda’s second whopper is in the current controversy over her contributions to the Congressional campaign of Rahm Emanuel, a Clinton and Obama top adviser. Again, remember that I personally couldn’t care less whether she gives money to Democrats, Republicans, or True Finns (like the former WWE main eventer who just offed himself at age 47). I’m only interested in the Truth Squad dimension of her explanation of this, which is now circulating on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABSFY9Pn-2M.

McMahon explains these donations as business investments. And she asserts that they were “not politically motivated.”

Bill Clinton, famously, acknowledged smoking marijuana but maintained, “I didn’t inhale.”

Watch yourself, Linda McMahon, Über-Carny. You’re getting into Bill Clinton territory here. The problem with that is, you’re no Bill Clinton.


Irv Muchnick