By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Fox News picked up the story of former WWE CEO Linda McMahon's Republican opponent in the Connecticut Senate race looking to use WWE's "Eugene" character against McMahon.

Rob Simmons, who is running against McMahon for the Republican nomination, is trying to draw attention to WWE's use of the "mentally retarded" Eugene character while media attention is on U.S. president Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, for recently using the word "retards" in a derogatory manner.

Simmons says he wants McMahon to account for the storyline where "Eugene" was destroyed by Triple H in a steel cage match in September 2004.

At the time, WWE defended the character by saying he was designed to be a "hero" encouraging "other people with disabilities to strive to achieve their dreams."

Caldwell's Analysis: Simmons can chase this angle all he wants by looking through the history of racist, sexist, jingoistic, homophobic, and insensitive characters that have come through the WWE pipeline to find some sort of "negative visual" for the general public to attach to McMahon, but this is maybe #5 on important issues McMahon needs to be held accountable for from her time as WWE CEO. #1 is the record of occupational health issues in WWE and pro wrestling with an industry-wide epidemic of wrestlers dying young, steroid abuse, pain pill addiction, independent contractor status when wrestlers are treated like employees, no formal regulatory body protecting wrestlers, and no regularly-scheduled off-season.

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