Simmons and the Teabaggers: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em 11.03.2009

As we wait for the special election in upstate New York to play out today, pitting Democrat Bill Owens against conservative Teabagger Doug Hoffman, much has been written about what this means for other candidates, including Rob Simmons in Connecticut.

While the Connecticut Republican Senate Primary has become a circus in its own right, simply considering the quantity of candidates and the baggage those running carry with them (Did someone say necrophilia?), the most interesting part of the race thus far has been Rob Simmons’ realization that this seat is no longer his to lose. He has an independently wealthy candidate to his left and two more conservative candidates to his right. He doesn’t have the money Linda McMahon does and he doesn’t have the conservative bona fides Sam Caligiuri and –to an extent – Peter Schiff have.

What’s a defeated former moderate, New England Congressman do when his hopes for a Senate seat seem dashed? Seeing an opening with the Teabaggers here in Connecticut, Rob Simmons has espoused the familiar adage, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Instead of waiting for the conservative Teabaggers to get behind a more ideologically compatible candidate in the Connecticut Republican Senate Primary, Simmons is trying to turn himself into that candidate, casting aside his former moderate stances, and going so far as to carry a teabag in his pocket (with the Constitution, of course).

SIMMONS HAS ATTENDED SEVERAL CONNECTICUT TEA PARTIES

• Connecticut bloggers take a look at Rob Simmons’ rhetoric at the Tea Parties, including his insistence that he’s never seen any offensive signs or people at these events.

SIMMONS PANDERS TO TEABAGGERS, NEEDS PRODDING WHEN ASKED TO DISAVOW BIRTHERS

• Hartford Courant Columnist Rick Green takes a look at where moderate Congressman Rob Simmons has gone, replaced instead by hard right Senate Candidate Rob Simmons.

• CT News Junkie reporter Christine Stuart was the first to report that Rob Simmons, further pandering to a group he’s had nothing in common with in the past, has taken to carrying a tea bag in his pocket, in addition to the U.S. Constitution.

SIMMONS HAS RECENTLY TAKEN HARD RIGHT TURNS ON SEVERAL KEY ISSUES TO THE TEABAGGERS, INCLUDING THE PUBLIC OPTION

• Congressman Simmons supported Cap and Trade. Senate Candidate Simmons? Not so much.

• Ditto on the Employee Free Choice Act.

• Most recently, Rob Simmons told the New Haven Independent that the public option should be on the table for discussion along with other ideas and options. But last week, when Joe Lieberman said that he would join Republicans in filibustering the healthcare bill, Simmons tweeted that Lieberman was “right to oppose” a government-run healthcare option.

FreedomWorks founder Dick Armey is coming to Connecticut on November 11 to hold a “strategy session” with others involved in the movement to discuss the Connecticut Senate race. Any bets on whether Rob Simmons will just happen to be at the Circle Diner in Fairfield that day?