Still uncomfortable criticizing his Republican opponent in the U.S. Senate race, Democratic nominee Richard Blumenthal tried to raise questions about Linda McMahon’s position as head of World Wrestling Entertainment Wednesday.
“There are questions Linda McMahon will have to answer about how she’s run her business and how she’s treated the people who have worked for her,” Blumenthal said Wednesday after receiving the endorsement of the CT Council of Police. “There are questions about illegal abuse of steroids and drugs and whether the management at WWE, including Linda McMahon, turned a blind eye to them.”
“The people of Connecticut deserve answers to those questions,” Blumenthal said outside the Meriden Police Department. “I am determined to raise these issues.”
Asked if she’s unfit for office, Blumenthal said “I believe the people of Connecticut will be judging her fitness for office as they seek answers to these questions.”
But Blumenthal refused to answer the questions himself.
“My job is to make sure the truth is told,” Blumenthal said.
However, most of his answers about McMahon and her record danced around the questions by leaving it up to the voters to decide.
“Dick Blumenthal is incapable telling voters where he stands on the issues half the time, and incapable of telling the truth the other half of the time,“ Ed Patru, McMahon’s communications director, said Wednesday. “He can’t begin contrasting himself with Linda until he first convinces voters that he’d do more in Washington than merely be a rubber stamp for the status quo, and until he can convince people that he’s trustworthy. People don’t believe him because he keeps being untruthful.”
Meanwhile, McMahon’s campaign continues to focus on national energy policy.
A recent McMahon mailer alleges that Blumenthal’s support for ‘Cap and Trade’ will increase the cost of electricity and gas in the state while costing it 13,500 jobs and lowering the gross state product by almost $5 billion.
“On Cap and Trade, Dick Blumenthal isn’t who we thought he was,” the mailer says.
“Linda McMahon’s tax attacks are dead wrong,” Blumenthal said Wednesday. “They’re based on phony numbers from a right-wing think tank designed to scare voters and defend special interests who I have fought.”
Blumenthal claims his energy policy will reduces costs and reward Connecticut for being a clean fuel burning state.
“I’m not in favor of an energy tax. I am not in favor of a carbon tax,” Blumenthal said. He said the legislation McMahon’s campaign is referring to is already dead.
But McMahon’s campaign points to an Aug. 31, 2009 memo Blumenthal wrote outlining his concerns with what was then the American Energy and Security Act.
A similar bill called the American Power Act was proposed by Connecticut’s junior Senator Joseph Lieberman earlier this year.
