As a witness to the Republican State Convention this weekend I left utterly disappointed and uneasy about the chances for our Republican party come November. At the convention I saw a sea of delegates, the party faithful turn their backs on those who have carried the party, towed the line and fought in the hard years for our state and party. We turned our backs on them for new candidates whose only qualification is a pocket full of cash.
The party leaders clearly had their preference for the candidates that can write their own check and any semblance of fairness was thrown out. While I watched Rob Simmons and his staffers being pushed off the floor no effort was made to remove Linda McMahon and her entourage from blocking the aisles. I understand that raising money is hard and tedious but it is the foundation of campaign work, it is where you find the true believers and the foot soldiers that knock on doors, make calls and stand at the polls on a cold November election day.
Chris Healy has chosen the easy route by picking the candidates that have never been tested or vetted. Mr. Healy has chosen the candidates that still have the shine and glimmer like all of those glossy mailers that have choked my mailbox. He has chosen the path that will let him be the sound bite man for our party, the go to guy for the one-liner and not the party leader who has to organizer chicken bakes and pancake breakfasts. Chris Healy has sent the message loud and clear and that message is "if your rich, your welcome to run, if your not... well then the train is full".
I am sure that if Mr. Healy were to read this blog he would say it was not him but the delegates who have spoken, and to this I say bullshit!!! The favoritism shown to Linda McMahon knew no bounds, it was obvious to anyone who watched, from the way Mr. Healy's staff cleared the Simmons people off the aisle, or Mr. Healy deciding which delegations made it to the podium in time to switch their votes. I talked with a delegate from Seymour who said that Chris Healy himself turned them away when they attempted to switch their votes from Schiff to Simmons. They were told they were too late, it did not matter they had been delayed by Linda and her entourage of WWE superstars or her personal film crew that was blocking the aisle. If the Seymour delegation had been breaking for Linda would they still have been to late??? Or that Mr. Healy and his staff supplied the video of Dick Blumenthal talking about "his service in Vietnam" to the McMahon campaign so they could claim credit for the hit.
Interesting how Mr. Healy can even claim to be objective while his wife is making over $120k for work on Linda's campagin!!
In the end we as Republicans will get what we ask for. We will get a candidate that will spend millions of dollars on a carefully crafted message of its time for something different. Well in the end neither Linda McMahon or Dick Blumenthal offer anything different than Chris Dodd. Connecticut will simply get another Senator with a glaring lack of character and integrity. In putting forth untested candidates that have never shown loyalty to the party we should not be surprised when they are exposed for what they are, self-serving opportunists.
John Gault
Well done.
ReplyDeleteI inadvertently hit "reject" instead of "publish" and deleted your comment on my own blog - please resubmit
sadly Gault is right. developing a strong party requires hard work. no aspect should be overlooked. chris healy obviously is unwilling to do the work.
ReplyDeletefor too long when democrats lose an election, they rigure it out and say lets get to work. republicans figure out what they did wrong and say who can we hire to do the work.
chris healy is the poster child for the historical lazy attitude of the republican party. rather than build an army of footsoldiers, he hires mercenaries. And who is more of a mercenary than linda mcmahon.
so chris won't have to do any major fundraising for the party. great way to build an army. avoid recruiting the very people who are willing to dig into their pockets and contribute to republican candidates.
instead we get linda mcmahon who gives to Rahm Emanuel who targets inclumbent CT republicans.
I too watched the convention and was appalled by the favoritism show to candidates with money and who were opposing republicans who have labored in the vinyards doing the hard work. Fedele and Simmons were victims of the Healy hyopocracy. He made up his mind that candidates with a proven ability to win races were to be discarded to those with money. nice work chris.
do you think chris wants to cash in just as his wife has?
Well chris unless your mcmahon candidate avoids becoming the next brook johnson your record will continue to stink.
how much credit are you claiming for managing the simmons race that he lost by 83 votes?
even worse, in a business where loyalty should count for something what does chris show to rob simmons who literally picked him up during healy's personal struggles. rob stood by chris when few others would. chris stood by linda and the money.
i hope chris can sleep at night because he will sure give republicans sleepless nights as he elects dick "i served in Viet Nam" Blumenthal.