Unable to Justify Support, Visconti and Others Bail on Linda McMahon
Even The King and the members of his Court must recognize moral courage and conviction when we see it. Below you'll find a scathing email which we were requested to publish on October 29th. Admittedly, we stalled on the request because we wanted to make certain that the author, Joe Visconti, was serious about his decision. As readers know, The King's View hasn't directly called for Connecticut Republicans to withdraw support for Linda McMahon. But that doesn't mean that not supporting her on Election Day isn't the right thing to do given how she and her campaign have conducted themselves during this season.
Here is the email in it's entirety:
Linda McMahon Lost My Vote- I'm Joe Visconti and I Approved This Message.
Just this morning I texted Justin Clark and asked him if the Obama Linda ads were still being aired, Justin texted back to me that they were down. Well I was just watching Channel 3 Eyewitness News with Denise and Dennis and almost fell off the damn couch as an “I’m voting for Barack Obama and Linda McMahon” ad came on.
Last Monday I went on the John Rowland show and asked Linda to take the ads down or I would not vote for her. Last Tuesday I went on Fox 61 with Laurie Perez (4, 10 & 11pm News) while keeping it cool to shield Linda and explained that folks cannot vote for Linda if the ads continue and again I asked for the ads to be taken down. Well today I’m not asking anymore, I’m telling Linda, you lost my vote as a Republican.
I will not vote for Linda McMahon and I will “ENCOURAGE” every Republican I know not to vote for her. Leave the line empty or write in the name “Benedict Arnold” it doesn’t matter to me, but do not vote for Linda McMahon or Chris Murphy (For those who think I would ever suggest voting for him).
Why not vote for Linda many will ask? For many reasons and the first one is our CTGOP Headquarters has fielded countless calls of outrage from Party Loyalists because of these ads and the damage is presently irreparable for which I concur.
Our Chairman is under siege for not calling out Linda while many of his foes stoke the fire of revenge fired by envy of his success for which I feel very sad about. Jerry and his staff have been put in a terrible position and I encourage him to demand the ads be pulled for the sake of the Party Faithful who are sick to their stomachs as I write this.
Also to the State Central Members who Justin Clark promised the ads would be pulled down by last Thursday I feel your pain as you have to continue receiving berating calls from those you represent.
Lastly I spent considerable personal time (as a volunteer) with other volunteers I recruited at the Bristol Victory Headquarters calling every Republican Town Committee Chair in the State (169 total) asking for financial support in the name of Chairman Jerry Labriola so that we (the CTGOP) could purchase thousands of Romney/Ryan lawn signs which were in high demand after the debates.
The response from the RTC Chairs was overwhelming and we raised thousands upon thousands of dollars in that effort. And for what, so that Connecticut Republican voters can be proud to display the Romney/Ryan signs on their lawns just to get laughed at by their registered Unaffiliated and Democrat neighbors who saw Linda join forces with Obama?
Never mind the Linda sellout of DOMA or during her ridiculous debates stating that she would not help her Party (The GOP supposedly) to overturn any Women’s Issues (referring to Roe) but now this financial support for an Obama Get out the Vote Effort?
To sit by and watch as Linda systematically and deliberately sells out the CTGOP for the hopes of gaining African American Votes would be unconscionable.
Does anyone with half a damn brain actually believe Connecticut African Americans by any margin will vote Independent and not vote the Democrat line in Connecticut?
Guess what Linda et al, this next week will be a teachable moment for you, and do you know why? Because your actions have caused the Party Loyalists to think, wait a minute, Mitt Romney is so good and can work across Party lines to get things done when he is President that we don’t need to win a US Senate seat, especially at the price of selling out our Party and what we stand for. And you know what? Many are starting to think America may just be better off and just might heal the divisive damage done by Obama if Democrats retain control of the US Senate. That’s right. This idea is now on all of the minds and tongues of the Party Faithful.
In the end Linda McMahon forgot who brought her to the dance and she also forgot that 30,000 Christopher Shays Primary Voters and I will never forget her betrayals come Election Day.
Vote for Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the entire Republican Under ticket except Linda McMahon.
Joe Visconti
The fact is that we're less than a week out from Election Day and most people have already decided how they intend to vote. Those few who haven't yet decided will likely follow their inclinations based on what they've seen and heard via TV ads, debates, or what's being said around the water cooler. Since neither Chris Murphy or Linda McMahon distinguished themselves on the issues, or gave the public any valid or overriding reason to disqualify support for their opponent, it's more than likely that Connecticut political demographics won't be upset, and Chris Murphy will wind up the victor.
It's The King's view that where Linda lost the election was not through her corrupt purchase of party delegates, lying about her mortgage/personal history, her phony war against the media to attempt to generate sympathy from independents, or even her betrayal of Mitt Romney in her most recent ad, but she killed her electability because of the totality of her candidacy, and the shallowness of her person - simply unfit for the job. Her performance in the debates gave Connecticut residents all they needed to know about her lack of knowledge and comprehension of the issues - if you can't make basic ideological arguments by drawing from details after nearly four years of studying and campaigning, then you're just not electable. How hard would it have been to do the work, and at least prepare for a series of debates and make coherent arguments in a thoughtful and convincing way? Her performance reeked of laziness which we found more frustrating than anything else.
And after all her time as CEO of WWE, the only mildly creative spark came last week in the form of an ad depicting multiple, black and white Chris Murphys surrounding a full color version of herself. But beyond the short-lived giggle even that ad falls short of content. In truth, it's going to take only one Chris Murphy to defeat her on Tuesday.
Through social media outlets, Linda's surrogates are doing everything they can to deflect her decision to move not to the middle, but to the left. Most Republicans realize that Linda must secure the registered 420,000 GOP voters, and a large portion of the 950,000 registered unaffilated voters to win, so the McMahon campaign's intentional decision to abandon its base to reach out to Democrats is a fool's errand. Democrats aren't going to trade all of something for half of who knows what in Linda McMahon. Of course, her last minute get out the vote effort for Barack Obama is as amusing as it is offensive. And now Republicans watching her change positions are embittered, and asking exactly what kind of Republican would Linda be - even if she were elected. The simple answer is not much of one, I'm afraid.
Perhaps fate will see Linda McMahon losing by a small margin which will be attributed to losing a portion of her base. Notwithstanding, future Connecticut Republican Candidates should see this whole episode as a Cautionary Tale, or a Teachable Moment, if you will - being independent-minded, selling out your Party, and abandoning basic Republican principles earns you nothing but scorn and defeat. Despite what they may say, voters elect only confident candidates to go to Washington and unapologetically fight for a set of carefully-articulated and professed principles, not hem and haw, or appear lost in the fog of some vague notion of mediocre compromise, and ambiguity.
At the end of the day, we can only hope and pray that Linda McMahon's negatives don't drown the entire Republican ticket ... for the rest of our CTGOP Candidates, particularly Andrew Roraback and Steve Obsitnik who after running solid campaigns on the issues - deserve so much better than that.
I AM
THE KING
This original blog entry can be found at http://www.thekingsview.blogspot.com/
Disclaimer: This entry and others will be modified/updated at a future date. All entries are for the sole purpose of entertainment. This article does not imply endorsement of the candidate mentioned above, nor has this article been solicited for publication by any political candidate, campaign, or PAC.
Here is the email in it's entirety:
Linda McMahon Lost My Vote- I'm Joe Visconti and I Approved This Message.
Just this morning I texted Justin Clark and asked him if the Obama Linda ads were still being aired, Justin texted back to me that they were down. Well I was just watching Channel 3 Eyewitness News with Denise and Dennis and almost fell off the damn couch as an “I’m voting for Barack Obama and Linda McMahon” ad came on.
Last Monday I went on the John Rowland show and asked Linda to take the ads down or I would not vote for her. Last Tuesday I went on Fox 61 with Laurie Perez (4, 10 & 11pm News) while keeping it cool to shield Linda and explained that folks cannot vote for Linda if the ads continue and again I asked for the ads to be taken down. Well today I’m not asking anymore, I’m telling Linda, you lost my vote as a Republican.
I will not vote for Linda McMahon and I will “ENCOURAGE” every Republican I know not to vote for her. Leave the line empty or write in the name “Benedict Arnold” it doesn’t matter to me, but do not vote for Linda McMahon or Chris Murphy (For those who think I would ever suggest voting for him).
Why not vote for Linda many will ask? For many reasons and the first one is our CTGOP Headquarters has fielded countless calls of outrage from Party Loyalists because of these ads and the damage is presently irreparable for which I concur.
Our Chairman is under siege for not calling out Linda while many of his foes stoke the fire of revenge fired by envy of his success for which I feel very sad about. Jerry and his staff have been put in a terrible position and I encourage him to demand the ads be pulled for the sake of the Party Faithful who are sick to their stomachs as I write this.
Also to the State Central Members who Justin Clark promised the ads would be pulled down by last Thursday I feel your pain as you have to continue receiving berating calls from those you represent.
Lastly I spent considerable personal time (as a volunteer) with other volunteers I recruited at the Bristol Victory Headquarters calling every Republican Town Committee Chair in the State (169 total) asking for financial support in the name of Chairman Jerry Labriola so that we (the CTGOP) could purchase thousands of Romney/Ryan lawn signs which were in high demand after the debates.
The response from the RTC Chairs was overwhelming and we raised thousands upon thousands of dollars in that effort. And for what, so that Connecticut Republican voters can be proud to display the Romney/Ryan signs on their lawns just to get laughed at by their registered Unaffiliated and Democrat neighbors who saw Linda join forces with Obama?
Never mind the Linda sellout of DOMA or during her ridiculous debates stating that she would not help her Party (The GOP supposedly) to overturn any Women’s Issues (referring to Roe) but now this financial support for an Obama Get out the Vote Effort?
To sit by and watch as Linda systematically and deliberately sells out the CTGOP for the hopes of gaining African American Votes would be unconscionable.
Does anyone with half a damn brain actually believe Connecticut African Americans by any margin will vote Independent and not vote the Democrat line in Connecticut?
Guess what Linda et al, this next week will be a teachable moment for you, and do you know why? Because your actions have caused the Party Loyalists to think, wait a minute, Mitt Romney is so good and can work across Party lines to get things done when he is President that we don’t need to win a US Senate seat, especially at the price of selling out our Party and what we stand for. And you know what? Many are starting to think America may just be better off and just might heal the divisive damage done by Obama if Democrats retain control of the US Senate. That’s right. This idea is now on all of the minds and tongues of the Party Faithful.
In the end Linda McMahon forgot who brought her to the dance and she also forgot that 30,000 Christopher Shays Primary Voters and I will never forget her betrayals come Election Day.
Vote for Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the entire Republican Under ticket except Linda McMahon.
Joe Visconti
The fact is that we're less than a week out from Election Day and most people have already decided how they intend to vote. Those few who haven't yet decided will likely follow their inclinations based on what they've seen and heard via TV ads, debates, or what's being said around the water cooler. Since neither Chris Murphy or Linda McMahon distinguished themselves on the issues, or gave the public any valid or overriding reason to disqualify support for their opponent, it's more than likely that Connecticut political demographics won't be upset, and Chris Murphy will wind up the victor.
It's The King's view that where Linda lost the election was not through her corrupt purchase of party delegates, lying about her mortgage/personal history, her phony war against the media to attempt to generate sympathy from independents, or even her betrayal of Mitt Romney in her most recent ad, but she killed her electability because of the totality of her candidacy, and the shallowness of her person - simply unfit for the job. Her performance in the debates gave Connecticut residents all they needed to know about her lack of knowledge and comprehension of the issues - if you can't make basic ideological arguments by drawing from details after nearly four years of studying and campaigning, then you're just not electable. How hard would it have been to do the work, and at least prepare for a series of debates and make coherent arguments in a thoughtful and convincing way? Her performance reeked of laziness which we found more frustrating than anything else.
And after all her time as CEO of WWE, the only mildly creative spark came last week in the form of an ad depicting multiple, black and white Chris Murphys surrounding a full color version of herself. But beyond the short-lived giggle even that ad falls short of content. In truth, it's going to take only one Chris Murphy to defeat her on Tuesday.
 |
| Funny, but pointless. |
Through social media outlets, Linda's surrogates are doing everything they can to deflect her decision to move not to the middle, but to the left. Most Republicans realize that Linda must secure the registered 420,000 GOP voters, and a large portion of the 950,000 registered unaffilated voters to win, so the McMahon campaign's intentional decision to abandon its base to reach out to Democrats is a fool's errand. Democrats aren't going to trade all of something for half of who knows what in Linda McMahon. Of course, her last minute get out the vote effort for Barack Obama is as amusing as it is offensive. And now Republicans watching her change positions are embittered, and asking exactly what kind of Republican would Linda be - even if she were elected. The simple answer is not much of one, I'm afraid.
Perhaps fate will see Linda McMahon losing by a small margin which will be attributed to losing a portion of her base. Notwithstanding, future Connecticut Republican Candidates should see this whole episode as a Cautionary Tale, or a Teachable Moment, if you will - being independent-minded, selling out your Party, and abandoning basic Republican principles earns you nothing but scorn and defeat. Despite what they may say, voters elect only confident candidates to go to Washington and unapologetically fight for a set of carefully-articulated and professed principles, not hem and haw, or appear lost in the fog of some vague notion of mediocre compromise, and ambiguity.
At the end of the day, we can only hope and pray that Linda McMahon's negatives don't drown the entire Republican ticket ... for the rest of our CTGOP Candidates, particularly Andrew Roraback and Steve Obsitnik who after running solid campaigns on the issues - deserve so much better than that.
I AM
THE KING
This original blog entry can be found at http://www.thekingsview.blogspot.com/
Disclaimer: This entry and others will be modified/updated at a future date. All entries are for the sole purpose of entertainment. This article does not imply endorsement of the candidate mentioned above, nor has this article been solicited for publication by any political candidate, campaign, or PAC.
10 comments:
Let's kill two birds with one stone. Murphy is up by 6 points in the past two polls. Murphy is going to win and Linda's army of incompetence has already lost the race for her.
Justin Clarke will resign as soon as he takes the helm of Tom Foley for Governor soon after November 6th.
Overall, Justin Clarke is totally dependent on CT GOP to feed his growing family and his own flab-o-lanche. He's a man without a soul who supported George Aniskovich for Chair because he was told to.
Visconti needs to understand he can't stand in the middle of an avalanche and expect to save the town that sit's beneath it. For even if we set up a human wall, when your dealing with the forces of corruption who sign their documents with disappearing ink, shake your hand and cut the same deal with your enemy, and are only out for their own well being, he is wasting his time.
I commend Mr. Visconti for his bravery and passion. There's an ounce of honesty to fill an eye dropper within the ranks of State Central members. The rest are swimming in a pool of stagnant and smelly waters. He's the sally at the card table with mirrored glasses when playing with these fools.
Thank you King for sharing this, and thank you Joe for standing up to the corruption of the McMahon machine, Linda is simply an opportunist with not much to offer tea partiers or social conservatives or even CT Republicans, and over the past week she lost my unenthusiastic vote, I'll just have to rely on and help Romney, Ryan, and other deserving Congressional Republicans to stop Murphy, Blumenthal, Larson, & DeLauro and their dangerous progressive agenda... Sincerely, A Friend of Joe's
Voting for Linda tells the CT GOP that all is well and nothing is wrong. Voting for Murphy obviously isn't the answer.
Send the GOP a message by voting Paul Passarelli. The more votes he gets, the more the CT GOP will actually be forced to change.
Where is the Letter of support Mitt Romney was suppose to send to all State Central Members? Are these people just straight out liars?
Judging by how Clark either out and out lied to Visconti just Monday he must think everyone is that stupid they wouldn't notice Lindas 24/7 Campaign to re elect Obama. Doesn't it seem strange that Linda thinks Obama has coatails for her?
And where is Jerry Labriola? Couldn't he do something? Anything? All he had to do is tell Linda to pull the ads but he's got no Cojones like Visconti. Jerry has brought respect back to the Party I'll give him that but for crying out loud its time to call out Linda now.
Chairman Jerry Labriola could do something, but he won't. And I'm receiving tons of angry email about his apathy on the matter. The King is just as disappointed as the rest of the CTGOP world. But fear not, Chairman Labriola supports Mitt Romney; look for him to be standing alone in the cold on Election Day at some obscure polling place in Wallingford holding a plastic Romney Campaign sign while trying to close his ears to the cruel, but deserved mockery from his opponents.
While the last State Chairman pushed the accelator to the floor, and drove the bus off the cliff, this one is sitting in a lawn chair watching Linda slowly steer it downhill to certain doom.
But the damage is done. Speaking out now (or after the election) won't accomplish anything. In fact, bringing it up after the fact is likely to further antagonize his internal critics. The time for action on his part has come and gone. Because of his unwillingness to lead, he will have to face the music after Tuesday.
Given Labriola's lack of willingness to show support of the Romney-Ryan ticket, I wouldn't be surprised if the RNC moves the Connecticut Republican Delegation from the back of the room to an offsite location in 2016. Well, there's always hope that the next Chairman will mend ways with President Romney long before then.
I respect Mr. Visconti for standing for his principals and showing some conviction in the Connecticut Republican brand.
Labriola is another weak CT GOP chairman. He has no conviction and has appeared extremely moderate for my tastes. He is playing it safe with McMahon on the frill prospects that if she wins that she will provide the CT GOP plenty of money. The party in this state seems to have been sold out. A new wave of leadership that doesn't answer to the corruptable old guard or is easily bought out by someone's bank account is needed.
Every Republican should support Miit Romney first and foremost...that includes Republicans running in our state. If you can't do that, then you shouldn't have any Republican's vote. McMahon was wrong to air that ad and wrong to hire the people that are running her campaign...plain and simple.
This is mostly about the shameless paid for by Linda McMahon campaign who completely screwed up in the final stretch and failed to recognized once again, PEAK McMahon. All her positive numbers happened before Murphy could film a single commercial. So they became desperate and reached out to Obama supporters which should have been done by target mail to independents, polling, and robo call. TV was a huge mistake and was an over reach to say the least. Campaign managers who think they are smart but lack real judgement and more importantly zero wins and only lost by the least in past elections. Unfortunately, Linda Bucks and Tommy Bucks have taken control of the party for the time being. It's amazing who the party triggers it's booby traps over and over again.
I'm an African American Democrat and Im voting for Barack Obama and Chris Murphy. My whole family is laughing at the Linda McMahon ads showing Black Folk voting for Obama and Linda. This is the biggest joke in the world and Republicans sure look stupid putting up Linda signs.
Think about it, Linda has the nerve to suggest to our people that we are voting for Obama and her and she thinks we don't know her silly trick is just that?
While Chris Murphy is no caring friend to African Americans by what he has done in Congress, he still carries the Democrat Label which is akin to being our Savior. Lincoln may have freed us but those kind of Republicans don't exist anymore except for maybe with this man called Joe Visconti.
I admire Mr Visconti because he is saying what we all know, I saw him on TV last week and said to myself " I don't like him because he is a Republican but I sure do admire and respect his commitment to what he believes in". So in the end people can see through dishonest folks like Linda.
My friend in Church choir in Bloomfield told me about this blog. I read some of it and its too White Wing for me but I guess the people who write it believe in what they say.
Go Barrack!!
Would Wayne Winsley or Steve Obsitnik run an ad pledging to work with Chris Murphy in Washington if they were elected? That might actually help each of those candidates. The fact that LINDA MCMAHON is trying to distance herself from Mitt Romney speaks volumes as to her ego. If I wasn't a Republican facing 35-40 years of a Blumenthal-Murphy senate delegation I might really watching this on election night.
How upsetting is it that McMahon has opted to "win at all costs", even if the cost is throwing the very Presidential candidate under the bus that Republicans have worked hard to support?
Here's a true story and how the ad has damaged Independent voters:
I convinced a Vietnam vet who had not voted in over 30 years to start voting in 2010. Yesterday, this man called my home and asked me what he should do. He stated he will not vote this year for that b****. I had to ask him who he was referring to and he named "McMahon". When asked why he felt that way, he screamed about the Obama ad and how he could not trust her in Washington. I know this gentleman is a conservative business man and gave him background on Murphy and Passerelli. I urged him to go to the polls and take any action for/against McMahon, but to not hold other Republican candidates responsible for her bad behavior.
When I voiced my concerns with Linda's campaign staff over this ad, I received the same song and dance The King and Mr. Visconti have noted. I already made up my own mind to vote for the Libertarian candidate since the GOP has once again provided me with no choice.
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