Dems: McMahon a "mama grizzly" in sheep's clothing

Democrats from Hartford to Washington, D.C., are trying to sell Connecticut voters on the premise that Linda McMahon is cut from the same ideological cloth as former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and is a tea party favorite.

Among them is U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, who is trying to regain the momentum in the U.S. Senate race after a wave of McMahon attacks about his congressional committee attendance record and a past threat of foreclosure.

"Linda McMahon is a tea party, Sarah Palin-endorsed Republican," Murphy spokesman Ben Marter told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers Tuesday.

Marter was responding to a story about McMahon's political contributions to fellow Republicans such as GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney; House Speaker John Boehner, R! -Ohio; a nd Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass.

"She said she would cut funding for Planned Parenthood and allow employers to deny access to birth control and cancer screenings for their employees," Marter said. "She would consider eliminating the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency, and has openly questioned the existence of global warming."

McMahon's name is absent from the list of endorsed candidates -- so-called mama grizzlies and papa grizzlies -- on the website of Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC.

"Linda McMahon is associated with only one political movement and that's the one to rid Washington of professional politicians who can't seem to compromise," McMahon spokesman Todd Abrajano said in a statement Wednesday.

However, a 2010 interview between the former Alaska governor and conservative talk show host Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel gave McMahon's Democratic foes a sound bite they could latch onto when Palin was asked about the pro wrestling matriarch.

"There needs to be passion and aggression, a healthy aggression based on truth," Palin said. "That's what the rise of the mama grizzlies is all about, mama grizzlies, papa grizzlies, too, who understand that when there's a th! reat to future generations, to their cubs, they have to rise up on their hind legs and they will defend what is theirs and they will make sure that future opportunities are there. That's what the mama grizzlies is all about, and Linda is part of that."

Palin did not respond to phone and email messages left Wednesday with her PAC in Washington, D.C.

Leaders of the Connecticut tea party movement scoffed at attempts to link McMahon with their brand, saying that while they support McMahon over Murphy, they haven't endorsed her.

"I support her, but I'm not doing cartwheels about it," said Tanya Bachand, who started the tea party movement in New Haven and lives in Wallingford. "We're certainly not working hand in glove with her. That's for sure."

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is playing the Palin card.

"Of course Linda McMahon is a tea party candidate, that's why Donald Trump and Sarah Palin are on her list of supporters," Shripal Shah, of the DSCC, said in a statement to the newspaper.

Bob MacGuffie, co-founder of the tea party-aligned, Fairfield-based political action committee Right Principles, said Murphy is the extremist in the race who supported $6 trillion in new debt.

"Linda McMahon did not come up through the tea party movement; however, she stands for fiscal responsibility, limited, constitutional government and a free-market capitalist economic system," MacGuffie said.

McMahon has had a minimal presence at the group's events, according to MacGuffie, who said the tea party is a handy "tar bab! y" for D emocrats to draw a linkage to all-GOP candidates.

"It's junior high school stuff," MacGuffie said.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy