CT Blue

We learn today (or yesterday if we watched television) that Janet Peckinpaugh most likely voted for Joe Courtney back in 2008. Or, to be more accurate, she’s not willing to say who she voted for, which leads to the obvious conclusion.

The truth is, that Janet is a person who hitherto had no very fixed political principles or passions, and is now perfectly willing to don any ideological clothing necessary to win an election. If the incumbent were a Republican, she would be perfectly comfortable running as a Democrat.

Janet appears to be the poor man’s version of what seems to be an increasing phenomenon-the vanity candidate. Linda McMahon is perhaps the best exemplar, with the billionaire duo from California running right behind her. These are people who have no obvious interest in politics, no particular issue they can point to as motivating their participation, and no history of committed political involvement. Having earned their laurels in other fields, or, in Carly Fiorina’s case, having spectacularly failed but still made lots of money, they look to cap their careers by acquiring a title. For McMahon, it’s U.S. Senator, for Peckinpaugh, who by dint of money and second rate celebrity status, it’s the lowly Congress.

I assert, without taking the trouble to prove it, that this is a relatively new phenomenon. There was a time, after all, when our betters felt that involvement in politics was tawdry, something to be avoided by the better sort.

Is it simply coincidental that the acquisition of these titles, like the buying of titles in England, is taking place while the actual power wielded by the office holder is waning? Wikipedia has this to say of the Roman Senate after the fall of the Republic:

After the fall of the Roman Republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the Roman Senate to the Roman Emperor. Though retaining its legal position as under the Republic, in practice, however the actual authority of the imperial senate was negligible, as the emperor held the true power in the state. As such, membership in the senate became sought after by individuals seeking prestige and social standing, rather than actual authority. (Emphasis added)

We Americans offer two levels of social prestige, one for billionaires and one for millionaires and washed up celebrities. We call them the Senate and the House of Representatives¹ . As the executive absorbs more power will we be seeing more of these candidacies?

I don’t think that Tom Foley, with all his millions, fits into this category. I do him the honor of believing that he has a true political objective in mind-he wants to do to the State of Connecticut what George Bush did to the country. Not a terribly laudable ambition, but a political ambition nonetheless.