More and more Republicans are turned off by the U.S. Senate campaign of Linda McMahon. It is a cynical campaign of no substance, and some Republicans are getting the sinking feeling that they have been had: She is buying a nomination for a hallowed office.
Moreover, she is buying it with blood money — millions of dollars raised by piping violence and pornography into people’s homes through their TV sets.
World Wrestling Entertainment is not “family values,� Grand Old Party values, or any kind of values.
And now McMahon’s campaign has hit a wall. While Republican voters are squeamish, Democrats and independents are positively repulsed. McMahon is not qualified to run for state senator, they think. And they are right. She cannot get the independent and Democratic voters she needs to win a general election.
Meanwhile, at the state Republican convention, McMahon narrowly pushed aside a man of traditional values, a decorated war veteran, and a lifelong public servant — Rob Simmons.
Simmons is the man who scared Chris Dodd out of the race.
Simmons is qualified to be a U.S. senator.
The Army in Vietnam; service in the CIA; five-term state legislator; three-term former U.S. congressman; college professor; state business advocate; staff director for the U.S. Senate committee on intelligence — Simmons has forgotten more than McMahon will ever know about government.
Why can’t we have a qualified Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate? It’s not a lot to ask.
Even Lowell P. Weicker said recently that Republicans could actually win with Simmons.
They could also redeem themselves as a party and show they are not for sale.
Not a bad bargain, that: Showing integrity and increasing your chance of ultimate victory.
That’s not a path often offered in life.
Which is why so many Republicans these days are saying: “I wish Rob were still in it.�
Well, guess what: He is — if Republican voters put him back in it.
Simmons is still on the ballot.
In a year when the voters seem to want to send a message, what a deafening message it would send to choose substance over money. If Simmons wins the primary, Connecticut voters will shock the world.
For Simmons is not just a resume. He is a thinking man and a soldier who still wants to serve. A true independent. He’s a man who carries two things on his person every day: his dog tags from Vietnam and a copy of the Constitution. That tells you who he is.
Simmons hasn’t always been right on every issue, and would not say he has or ever will be, but he has always been thoughtful and honorable.
Simmons has been called a RINO — Republican in name only. But he points out that his two mentors were Rhode Island’s John Chafee, a pragmatic moderate who was secretary of the navy, and Barry Goldwater, father of libertarian Republicanism. Simmons is for small government, no bailouts, a strong national defense, a solid intelligence service (which includes actual spies), private enterprise, individual responsibility, and choice — including a woman’s right to choose whether and how to end a pregnancy.
Simmons mourns the passing of the New England Yankee Republican who thinks for himself, and the collapse of the vital center in America. We don’t have time to fight about abortion, he says; the economy is not recovering. And we should not waste the lives of our finest young men and women on a war we will not and probably cannot win in Afghanistan.
That’s right, this old Vietnam vet says bring the soldiers home. Catch the terrorists — scare the living hell out of the terrorists, in Pakistan and elsewhere — but don’t try to nation-build in a country that brought down the Russians.
Simmons needs to send up some kind of political flare: I am here. You can still vote for me. I would do you proud in Washington. I would not be a stooge of left or right in the Senate but would serve the country and the state.
Republicans don’t have to disgrace themselves. They can still cast a proud vote on Aug. 10.
Keith C. Burris is editorial page editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.
