WWE CEO Linda McMahon to Slam Dodd

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It’s no surprise that Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd is in trouble. Chairman of the Senate banking committee—during the worst banking crisis in recent history—is not exactly a desirable job. But Dodd can’t seem to catch a break. In June of last year, it surfaced that he received favors from the mortgage company Countrywide Financial as part of the “Friends of Angelo” program, which waived fees and rules for prominent businessmen and politicians close to the company’s chief executive Angelo Mozilo.

With his approval ratings tanking, there has been much speculation about who the GOP will tap to oust Dodd in the 2010 midterm elections. Former Rep. Rob Simmons is the most likely challenger—a recent Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll shows Simmons beating Dodd in a dead heat. But Simmons and Dodd should get ready to rumble, because the uber-rich World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Linda McMahon is likely to join the fight to tag team Dodd. Her spokesman is already talking smack against McMahon’s future rivals: “She plays to win, so if she gets in, she’s in all the way. She has the capacity to bring considerable resources to the race, and she has an established record.”

McMahon’s plan to take Dodd to the ropes comes as he draws criticism from all sides. Controversial documentary film maker (and one-time Mother Jones editor) Michael Moore takes aim at Dodd in his new film “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Speaking to the Washington Post this week, Moore said Dems should ask Dodd to step aside to keep the GOP out of Connecticut. “I don’t know why they’d risk losing that seat just because they’re afraid to tell him not to run,” he said.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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