Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon likes to trumpet the company’s multi-national connections. For instance, under her direction, the WWE opened an office in Shanghai, a fact she proudly pointed out at a Republican party event in Vernon last weekend.
Rob Simmons, McMahon’s GOP rival, immediately saw an opportunity to one-up her. He didn’t just open an office in China, he said, he spent the time there as a CIA agent. And, as if to to prove his superiority on all things Chinese, he quickly tossed off a few sentences in Mandarin.
The Simmons camp released a video of the two candidates’ edited comments, which you can see here.
Other critics quickly piled on, citing the comment as evidence of McMahon’s lack of foreign policy experience. A blogger at Connecticut Political Reporter invoked Sarah Palin’s Tina Fey’s famous “I can see Russia from my house” remark.
Contrary the implication of an earlier post, McMahon’s campaign says she wasn’t trying to brandish her foreign policy credentials when she mentioned the Shanghai office — she was simply citing her international business experience.
“Fluency in Chinese is not a top issue in the state of Connecticut,” McMahon spokesman Ed Patru said, “Job creation and economic growth are. In six years in Washington, Rob Simmons supported job-killing measures like cap and trade and card check. Perhaps there’s a province in China that could use a job-killing public official like Rob.”