Connecticut’s Democrats will make their endorsement today. Ned Lamont needs 15% of the delegates to vote for him and he will automatically be on the ballot. If he doesn’t reach 15% he will still get on the ballot but he will have to do it through signatures. Joe Lieberman is shitting bricks. And so is Al From:
“A very simple thing happened that changed Democratic politics dramatically, and that was that the war turned bad,” Mr. From said, adding of the senator’s critics: “There’s a group in our party that makes a lot of noise and I don’t think they’ve ever won an election. They’re trying to take out one of the great statesmen our party has and that’s wrong.”
Joe Lieberman is a nice man. He is not an ogre. But he is the wrong man to represent the people of Connecticut. I haven’t had much to say about Ned Lamont’s challenge because I am not tremendously interested in challenging Democratic incumbents in this election cycle. That doesn’t mean I don’t fully support Lamont because I do. It’s just a matter of focus. I can’t expend that much Nedreneline on the Connecticut primary and still have the energy to fight more important battles. I also think the netroots needs to choose its battles a little more carefully. If you want influence you need to win some of these battles, and taking down Lieberman is a long-shot. The latest Quinnipiac University poll has Lieberman leading Lamont 65 percent to 19 percent.
That being said, Lieberman could still lose this thing. The same Quinnipiac poll showed that 83 percent of Democrats thought going to war in Iraq was wrong and that could spell trouble for the war’s chief Democratic cheerleader. Lamont received the endorsements of the popular and independent Lowell Weicker (the man Lieberman beat to become Senator), and the National Organization for Women. He’s a serious candidate and he has already spent almost $400,000 of his own money to run this race. If you feel bad about that, you can contribute to his campaign here. It will make Al From cry, which is another good reason to give Ned some coinage.
The Netroots has invested a lot of political capital in the Ned Lamont race (they didn’t ask me first) and it’s important that he do well. The last thing we need is Joe Lieberman serving us our ass and the DLC crowing about how irrelevent we are.
There’s a group in our party that makes a lot of noise and I don’t think they’ve ever won an election.
I didn’t realize he was addressing the mirror when he made that comment.
Oh, he still takes credit for 8 years of Clintonism, so he’s not listening to arguments about the last 3 election cycles or the causes of the debacle in 1994.
I know! Isn’t that a scream?
And ironic. The only reason he was picked was not b/c he was a “moderate”–there are lots of VP wannabes who were moderates–but because he scolded Clinton on the Senate floor. That’s just what we need! said the Washington class, and unfortunately, the Gore campaign bought it hook, line and sinker.
Of course, shrub is years late from a drubbing the on the Senate floor, but all Lieberman can do is slob him down at every opportunity.
Greatest statesmen, my ass. Lieberman is a shameless, sanctimonious press whore who wouldn’t know leadership and vision if it smacked him in the head. It got him a VP nod, didn’t it?
I wouldn’t worry too much about him crowing to the DLC crowd, even if he wins. He’s actually paying some attention to CT voters. That’s a good thing.
And he won’t soon forget the reason why.
I don’t know what Lamont’s chances are. The most hopeful signs are coming from Lieberman’s camp. They are definitely rattled.
The James Woolsey wing of the party is very upset about this and I take that as a very good sign.
But, aside from that, I am having trouble believing in the potential for victory in this one. I guess I am waffling. LOL.
Yeah, I don’t want a moral victory, either–I want Lamont to win. Nobody said defeating an incumbent would be easy.
But I’m heartened by this, b/c they are SOOOOO rattled. ((Snicker)) It’s not enough for Lieberman to know that he will never even SMELL a presidential nod–he’s been put on notice that the fight will be taken to him.
I’ll bet he ignored Lamont before. That’s certainly not happening now.
Not even Ben Nelson grovels all over shrub as Lieberman does. Idiot.
would make a nice balance to having Casey shoved down our throats.
I was sooooo pissed at Tweety the other day, when he was talking to Murtha about his opposition to the war and saying how the Democratic leadership wasn’t on his (Murtha’s) side…I wanted to reach through the screen and strangle him while saying, “You asshole, the people aren’t on the Democratic leadership’s side!” The DLC folks are in the “prevent defense”…when, just as in football and hockey, the only thing prevented is victories. (Yeah, I’m still ticked off about the Sharks…)
I understand you’re not in the business of challenging Democratic status quo because we’ve got to regain power in Congress to regain the balance of powers…but what good is a Democrat who’s going to side with the Republicans?
it’s not that I am not in the business of challenging the status quo…
Actually, Lamont represents the exact strategy I am promoting. A party within a party, powered by the people, not corporations or the traditional monied interests.
My problem is that we need to show the viability of such a strategy and taking on powerful and popular Senators is not how I would demonstrate the viability.
But they didn’t ask me about which races to use as a test and now we are all invested in this.
I’m still not convinced that Casey will win vs. man-on-dog. Really I don’t.
Even if he does, it won’t be much of an improvement. And will folks have hear him go on and on about how much of a martyr his damned daddy was? Bleh.
I don’t know what I’d do if I lived in PA. Geeze, the arrogance and entitlement of both Casey and Santorum is enough to make you just want to slap them both. Ugh.
Fortunately we have a Governor’s race (Rendell vs. Lynn Swann) and we have 5 competetive races for Congress in the Philly suburbs. So, we have plenty of reasons to GOTV and Casey will benefit from that without us having to lift a finger for him.
There is a high likelihood of Casey running for Governor in 2010, so we may not even have to endure a full term from him in the Senate and Rendell may get to appoint someone to fill out his term.
If the price of Casey winning also involves gaining all the committee chairs and subpoena power, plus removing the number 3 GOoPer from the Senate to go along with Frist and DeLay, then I am willing to stomach it. But it still sucks.
The problem with hoping that Casey won’t serve his full term in the senate is that we might still have to deal with him (and his shitty positions on the issues) as governor. Look what a great job his father did in that role…
But you’re right about needing to get rid of the even bigger assholes than Casey.
If the price of Casey winning also involves gaining all the committee chairs and subpoena power, plus removing the number 3 GOoPer from the Senate to go along with Frist and DeLay, then I am willing to stomach it. But it still sucks.
I agree. Talk about having to hold your nose, though.
HAving seen casey in the “primary debates” (BWAHAHAHAHA, was THAT a waste of my time), I am concerned that Rick will cream him on the stump.
Rick has a lot of catchign up to do, but he’s a strong campaigner, charismatic, and is generally everything Casey is not.
But don’t blame me: I voted for Pennachio.
move something now…….it’s probably time. The netroots taken and the plant has vitality. I’ll have to see if I can scrounge up a twenty to shoot them.
Lieberman’s a nice man? Doesn’t he still support the Iraq war? In my books, that doesn’t make him a “nice man”. It makes him a mass murderer.
the more Democrats that “support the war”, the harder it’s going to be for them to come up with a plan for a gradual withdrawal.
The aforementioned Tweety Matthews was hammering on Jack Murtha about how Hillary is in favor of the war…as if it’s a done deal that she’s going to be the 2008 nominee (FSM help us…).
The same goes with any progressive policy. Republicans already love to play the “But don’t you know that even your own ultra-liberal party doesn’t agree with you on gay marriage?” card.
Image from FireDogLake piece about Joe’s angst.
Oh, that’s good. Love it.
The last thing we need is Joe Lieberman serving us our ass and the DLC crowing about how irrelevent we are.
But what if we are irrelevant? It makes me feel sick, but I see conservatives winning the mind game at least in my area. It is true that I live in conservative Lancaster County PA, but I see the voters getting more conservative around here, not less. In the recent primary on this past Tuesday, at least 3 big local Repub incumbents to the State Legislature lost their primary battle, including a big-wig in the state senate (Brightbill), BUT the repubs who beat all these guys are either the same or more conservative than they were. Now that scares Me!