First the details.
According to Hartford TV station WFSB (named, as most of you already know, after the great Frederick S Beebe - no kidding), Lamont won by about 10,000 votes or roughly 3.55% of the total number of votes cast. Not bad for a guy who came out of nowhere, huh? Lieberman wasn't happy with the results.
And now the analysis.
I grew up in Connecticut. I was born in New Haven (where the best pizza on the planet can be found, by the way) and went to school in North Haven and then in Storrs. Not that it gives me any greater insight to the race, I just wanted to plug Southern Connecticut pizza on the blog.
Anyway, in his "concession" speech last night, Senator Leiberman failed to heed to the voters of his state and instead pledged to run as an independent. From the AP:
But Lieberman, undaunted, vowed to run as an independent against fellow DemocratThis is the part I don't understand. More people voted for Lamont as voted for Joe. The Democratic Party of the State of Connecticut rejected Joe's candidacy last night. Yet as far as I can remember, the words "the people have spoken" were nowhere to be found in his "concession" speech.
Ned Lamont. "For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and
will not let that result stand," he said of Tuesday's Democratic primary results.
And so, as he has all along, Joe has decided that he knows what's best for everyone - the party, and the state and the country. And what's best for everyone, according to Joe Lieberman, is six more years of Joe Lieberman. Too bad his party doesn't think so.
If he were loyal to the party he's so valiantly working to protect, he'd accpet the will of that party's voters and step aside. Gracefully and with some shred of dignity.
From the other side of the aisle, get ready to hear all about the "purge" of the moderates by the MSM and the other blowhards on the right. About how the "Democrat party" is damaging itself by "purging" its moderates. Funny, I don't remember hearing this when Pat Toomey challenged Arlen Specter for not being conservative enough, but hey why should we expect consistency from the right side of the political spectrum? Where are those pesky WMDs again?
Fact of the matter is, in this country's democratic process (and we're still living in some sort of democracy, right? maybe I should go check), a political party gets to choose its candidates.
That's what happened in Connecticut last night.
Democracy
Joe Lieberman, sore loser and Bush's favorite "Democrat."
Technorati Tags: Joe Lieberman, Ned Lamont
White "Clam" Apizza (per Wikipedia)? That's just wrong.
ReplyDeleteWell, I can't fault Joe for wanting to run in the main. He lost by only 3.5%, or something like 48% to 52%. He is saying his half of the democrats plus the fractions of republicans that will vote for him will win in a three way race. That does show a lot of hubris, but isn't that the definition of a candidate, and to be fair, Lieberman has a lot of support.
What to take away? Who is Ned Lamont anyway, a guy who isn't Joe Lieberman? There are certainly signs of a liberal backlash, but since Connecticut and PA are blue states, I don't see anything earth shattering. Of course, it would be nice to have a democratic senator from PA. Speaking of splitting the vote on the Santorum/Casey front, could someone from the democrats please apologize to the Greens in Pennsylvania for dis-ing their candidate? Go ahead and get him taken off the ticket, but do it with courtesy, don’t call him a puppet. Casey could use some support from the left.
Between now and November, the Lamont campaign should run clips of Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Tom DeLay et al endorsing Joe Lieberman.
ReplyDeleteMy brother lives in California and I sent him an email message telling him to call or write Sens Boxer and Feinstein urging them to strongly endorse Ned Lamont.
If Sore Loserman does not abandon his childish and egotistical independent candidacy, I urge every Democrat to call or write Sen Harry Reid asking him to remove Lieberman from any and all Senate committees.
Did he really SAY THAT?
ReplyDelete"Lieberman later added, "Plus I think the perks of being on the Republican team are much better. You get paid vacations from corporations, get to make fun of Democrats for being soft on everything, you get to hang out with Bill O'Reilly, and all you have to trade for it is your morality.""
Who here voted for Gore Liberman in 2000?
ReplyDeleteThats what I thought, oh how quickly the might fall.