CT Blue

It looks like the New London Day is back into full Rob Simmons support mode, after a brief hiatus in 2006.

This time it’s Paul Choiniere, who starts today’s screed with the following line:

Rob Simmons is the new Barack Obama.

Reading on, we find that there are two points of similarity. Both men are of the species homo sapiens, and both had the idea, which apparently just struck Simmons out of the blue, of raising money on the internet, which no one other than everyone has thought to do. Choiniere express wonder and awe at the fact that Simmons is even using e-mail and youtube. The guy is an innovative genius.

Now, one might dismiss this as simple proof that Choiniere is totally clueless about campaign fundraising trends of the past — let’s say 6 years, to be charitable. He might be interested to know that scarcely a day goes by that an email from one or more political candidates land in my in-box, including from Chris Dodd, at whose website you can also view those uber-innovative video thingies.

But, if we give Choiniere a pass, if we assume utter internet cluelessness, what can we make of this:

Where things could get dicey for Simmons is whether to grab for the big special interest money that will be there for the taking if it appears he has a credible chance at knocking off Dodd. Doing so would neutralize one of his greatest weapons against the Democratic incumbent – criticizing the vast amounts of campaign donations Dodd, chairman of the banking committee, has received from the banking and insurance industries his committee oversees. If Simmons turns to the same, or even different, deep-pocket special interest groups, such criticism of Dodd will sound hypocritical.

Simmons’ campaign manager dodged the issue of whether Simmons will welcome large, special interest and political action committee donations, or stick with the grass-roots variety.

Apparently, there’s another internet thingie Choiniere doesn’t know how to use. Some refer to it as “the Google”. In ten minutes he might have found that the first thing Simmons did after starting his campaign was hold a few “meet and greets” with lobbyists (why you can read about it here and here, among other places). Now, you can believe that these functions had nothing to do with trying to raise money, as Simmons claimed, but that would be requiring you to achieve a level of cluelessness far beyond what Choiniere demonstrates in this column. You might also, using the same Google, look here and see that Simmons has already raised money from PACs, including the National Rifle Association. True, he didn’t raise millions, but that’s because he did a pathetic job of raising money overall during the only reporting period to which we have access. See, I just did what’s called research. I know I’m just a pathetic, irresponsible blogger, and not a member of the responsible press corps, but this is the kind of thing I try to do on a regular basis before asserting a fact, or, in this case, shilling for a political candidate in the guise of reportage. I freely admit I’m a partisan, by the way, something which Choiniere ought to think about doing.

Anyway, Paul, you should get one of your interns to show you how to use “the Google”, it’s really handy.

Finally, if they dodge a question of whether they will accept money from certain sources, that means they fully intend to accept money from those sources, assuming it’s on offer. That’s just common sense, which doesn’t require anyone to be as cynical as me.