-By Warner Todd Huston
We seem to have a trio of sudden Republicans in the news these days. I say sudden because there is a lack of any long history on the part of these three candidates of being Republicans for very long before running for office. In fact, it seems that all three only became Republicans once they stepped up to run for office.
I’ve written previously about California’s Steve Poizner, gubernatorial candidate and current State Insurance Commissioner. Poizner had no public history of being a Republican prior to his attempts to run for election in the local and state elections he targeted once he got bitten by the politics bug. In fact, he had a history of donating big money to Democrats right up until the time he started to run as a Republican.
California has a second one, too. Meg Whitman has no Republican history prior to her running for governor there. Though she has no history of large donations to Democrats that I have seen, to be sure.
And the third one is a new entrant into the arena; Linda McMahon, the wife of professional wrestling entrepreneur Vince McMahon. On September 16 Mrs. McMahon announced her run for the GOP nomination for the Senate to run against sitting Senator Chris Dodd as a Republican, but her history of political donations does not make one envision a staunch Republican history.
From open contribution records it has been discovered that the McMahon’s have given thousands in donations to Democratic candidates, organizations and causes right up until recently.
According to records, McMahon donated $15,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, $13,000 to Democratic Gov. Mark Warner’s campaign and the campaign of Senator Joe Lieberman (a Democrat until the 2006 election when he became an Independent). The most alarming Democrat donation, though, was to Obama’s bulldog, Rahm Emanuel. The McMahon’s donated $7,800 to Emanuel’s leadership PAC.
Of course, McMahon also donated thousands to Republicans. The split comes down at 54 percent to Republicans and 44 percent to Democrats in donations. McMahon’s explanation for donating so much to Democrats is that it was in the interests of their wrestling business.
It is difficult to get past the shallow party past with many of these candidates who are self-funded. The suspicion is that they are buying their seat with their wealth and only picked the GOP side because they felt that was the side that could hand them a win. In a day when principle must come before utility, these sudden Republicans easily raise suspicions.
Being a sudden Republican, of course, is no guarantee of lack of principles just as being a Republican stalwart is no guarantee of perfect principles. Certainly all of these candidates have a lot going for them (especially Whitman). Still, because of this lack of long-standing Republican history, each of these candidates need to be scrutinized all the more before being afforded our support.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as NewsBusters.org, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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