Lessons from a Lovefest

You can learn a lot from one largely overlooked confirmation hearing. And WWE mogul Linda McMahon's confirmation hearing Tuesday morning—she's been selected to run the Small Business Administration—was nothing if not largely overlooked. The SBA, founded in the 1950s, is a federal agency tasked with helping small American businesses grow. Along with her husband Vince, McMahon grew a small business into the professional wrestling empire World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

She's perfect for the job, her former political enemies heartily agreed.

McMahon ran for Senate twice, unsuccessfully, as a Republican in her home state of Connecticut—against 20-year incumbent Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in 2010 and then-Congressman Chris Murphy in 2012. On Tuesday morning, the two men who tromped her testified in support of her confirmation to President Trump's cabinet. "She is a tireless leader—and a tenacious fighter," Blumenthal said during his testimony. "I saw firsthand the fight Linda brings to any endeavor she takes on," Murphy echoed, sweetly, during his.

Other Small Business Committee members advocated for their states' interests and asked McMahon about specific SBA programs. Senators Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, and Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican—two of the Senate's youngest, the faces of the future—also both offered bipartisan appreciation for professional wrestling. Scott confessed his WWE fandom and called out McMahon's son-in-law Paul Levesque, former WWE wrestler, by his stage name "Triple H." After Scott broke the seal, Booker couldn't help himself. He challenged Triple H to a competitive workout sesh: "Paul's letting himself slip a little bit, so after this maybe we should go to the Senate gym so I can give Triple H some triple help in getting back in shape."

Senators also commended their colleagues from Connecticut for their magnanimous testimonies, despite two knock-down-drag-out campaigns.