Iraq was a wrong war, and Lieberman seems to be paying the price. He has found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time. Gore's running mate from 2000 who did not quit his Senatorial campaign, the most senior person on the Hill to happen to be Jewish, a centrist who was too far to the right for many hard core Democrats, Lieberman has seen a few ups and downs.
I could not tell you too many of his biographical details, but what is happening to him is clearly a convulsion within the Democratic Party on the Iraq war.
No Democratic Senator voted for the Iraq War that unfolded. Bush was authorized to exhaust all other options before going to war. Instead he went to war to exhaust all other options. If that was a fault, that was Bush' fault.
Since then Bush has engaged in emotional blackmail. You might not have agreed with me when I went in, but now that I am in, it is your patriotic duty to support me in whatever decision I take, and it is my decision to stay there as long as it might take.
It is unrealistic to expect troops at war to one fine day just pack up and leave, although it would be prudent to devise a strategy to leave as early as possible.
But Lieberman has more than Iraq eating at him. A new kind of politics is about to beat the old kind. It is called the grassroots and the netroots. Bloggers are coming out in force. The tide be turning. It is telling that a Lieberman-Lamont debate was nationally televised. This story is big.
This is also a story of rich Republicans like Lamont in the Northeast abandoning the Republican Party like poor whites abandoned the Democratic Party in the South. There is something going on.
Hillary is safe for 2008. She has not been parroting Bush. She has been one of the most anti-Bush Senators. Just when you thought hubby Bill took one more fishing trip with Bush Sr. Hillary has often come out lashing at this Bush administration.
On the war, she is no lefty looney, granted, but she appreciates the enormity of the task at hand. This Long War is the same scale as the Cold War. There are ways to minimize the violence, and you do that by being very proactive politically. But disengaging is not the answer, and she knows it.
Not just war, but also peace depends on being strong on defense. Hillary is strong on defense. Bush is married to ideology, Hillary to Bill Clinton. You can't possibly hang Bush around Hillary's neck.
Hillary 2008
2008 Countdown: Hillary-Obama
Critiquing A Critique Of The Iraq War Critiques
Karl Rove, Hands Off Hillary
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker
Hillary In Person
On The Web
Ned Lamont for Senate
Ned Lamont - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lamont unsuccessfully ran for a state Senate seat in 1990, finishing in third place........ Lamont is the great-grandson of former J.P. Morgan & Co. Chairman Thomas W. Lamont, and has an inherited net worth estimated between $90 million and $300 million. ..... last voted for a Republican in 1988. He has told The Hartford Courant that "Eastern Moderates no longer have a place in the GOP." ...... Lamont initially supported Lieberman's 2006 re-election bid, even donating $500 to Lieberman in February 2005....... Lamont has spent over $1.5 million of his fortune on the campaign and has pledged to spend another million of his funds in the primary. Also, Lamont pledged not to take money from lobbyists. ........ Lieberman, who has been criticized for being too conservative due to his support of the 2003 Iraq War and perceived closeness to the George W. Bush administration. His campaign began with support from "grassroots" and "netroots and " Democratic progressive activists, including DailyKos and MoveOn.org ...... insisted that he was a "bread and butter Democrat" and on a number of occasions asked, "Who is Ned Lamont?" ...... Lieberman stated, in response to Lamont's assertion that he supported Republican policies, that he had voted with the Democratic caucus in the Senate 90% of the time.
Ned Lamont for Senate
MyDD :: Ned Lamont, the Political Entrepreneur I don't normally ask for this, but please forward this post far and wide to everyone you know, especially people in Connecticut....... that's what neophytes in the political process bring to the table, enthusiasm and energy without discipline....... I know how bad Lieberman is. It's not just the war vote, it's how he introduced the Iraq war resolution and undercut all the other Democratic Senators who wanted to authorize force with more restrictions. It's not just the consistent Bush-kissing, it's how he grandstands against Alito and the Bankruptcy Bill and then votes for cloture ........ He's with us when it doesn't matter, and he's against us when it does........ I was scared that we'd throw a sacrificial lamb at a DLC giant....... After my time in Connecticut, I am 100% behind Ned Lamont....... His favorite politicians are Bill Clinton and Bill Bradley, and the reason is because he believes we need a more entrepreneurial style of politics...... a new crop of entrepreneurial leaders who seek to occupy and create new political space, not to swell on the legacy of the New Dealers ........ Building a telecommunications company takes guts, bravado, perseverance, and savvy. It means calculated risk-taking, not blind recklessness or excessive caution. Yet even as he was building his business, he worked on policy with the Brookings Institute, fiscal policy and health care........ his business background and reputation in the state makes it very difficult to pigeonhole him as some unrealistic liberal. ....... there were 125,000 in the uncontested Presidential primary in 2004 and with a volunteer list above 1000, that means that almost 2% of the total necessary primary vote is volunteering for Lamont. ....... Moveon.org has 50,000 members in Connecticut. That's low-hanging fruit for Lamont........ Massive swings are taking place towards outsider progressive candidates, 31 points for Deval Patrick in MA and 24 points for Matt Brown in RI. These are specifically Northeastern states, with very similar dynamics in terms of ossified political machinery........ I want to be able to say that I was there when Ned Lamont first decided to beat Joe Lieberman and put America back on the road to a bright progressive future....... the netroots is as usual more in touch with the local party activists than the DC conventional wisdumb.......
Daily Kos: CT-Sen: Lieberman freaking out about Lamont Old world politics versus new. Insurance and corporate interests versus people-power. A Fox News Democrat versus a real one...... I plugged in to the gossip mill while in DC over the weekend, and this race has got everyone talking.
LamontBlog: Ned Lamont for CT
TIME.com: Lieberman Punches, but Lamont Remains Standing -- Page 1 millionaire cable executive Ned Lamont ...... the debate, which was broadcast nationally on C-SPAN and MSNBC...... after Leiberman said Lamont had taken "his fifth position" on Iraq withdrawal and Lamont responded by largely restating his view that the U.S should withdraw troops soon, Lieberman sighed and noted Lamont had taken his sixth position........ has infuriated Democrats with his vocal defense of President Bush's Iraq policy. ...... criticized Lieberman for supporting an energy bill that had tax breaks for big business and attacked him for his support of school vouchers...... Lamont's highest elective office was serving as a city councilman more than a decade ago .......
'Political Junkie', Diary, I just met the progressive Dem who will dethrone Joe Lieberman, January 6, 2006 After spending an hour talking with Ned Lamont yesterday, I can assure you, he is the real thing. He has a tremendous intellect, but doesn't condescend or talk like a patrician....... and then proceed to Washington to take back the power in this country from the huge corporations, special interests, big-money lobbyists and their obedient minions in Congress....... Stay tuned. And remember - you heard it here first.
In The News
Lieberman trails anti-war foe in Senate primary Reuters
Poll: Democratic Challenger Lamont Pulls Even With Lieberman
Norwalk Dems urge Lieberman against independent run
Jane Hamsher: Lamont Leads Lieberman in Polls, Bill Clinton On the ... I think the Lieberman retinue has been collectively freaked out by the way their internet opponents express displeasure. I think that has kicked them all into a very paranoid mode. Paranoid people make bad decisions. I think this has started to look, to them, less like an election and more like some kind of nightmare or fairy tale in which they are pursued through the woods by thugs and rabid dogs. They’ve almost forgotten that they’re running against Ned Lamont. They’ve identified, as their true opponent, a mob of crazy bloggers who will say anything and stop at nothing. The rest of the world, however, can’t see the bloggers, so a lot of Lieberman’s desperate flailings don’t seem to make much sense......... the starling admission by Lieberman communications director Marion Steinfels that she doesn't even watch the powerful YouTube videos made by Lamont's supporters that have spread like wildfire through the internet and done so much damage to the Lieberman campaign. Joe’s answer to the beating he’s taking from video bloggers? Don’t watch them, and pretend they don’t exist.
On the road with Sen. Joe Lieberman Connecticut Jewish Ledger, CT
Lamont Over Lieberman Yahoo! News
Jewish Democrats voice their opinions on Lieberman and Lamont Connecticut Jewish Ledger, CT
Joe Lieberman to Accept Endorsement From Noted Moral Degenerate Wonkette (satire), DC
Primary politics USA Today
Letter from Washington: Lieberman is an inconvenient Democrat
Bill Clinton Defends Lieberman's Iraq Stance Boston.com "If we allow our differences over what to do now in Iraq to divide us instead of focusing on replacing Republicans in Congress; that's the nuttiest strategy I ever heard in my life" ...... "Why send a signal to the people that are trying to keep Iraq divided and tear it up when we're gonna go" ...... "We've got a world of differences between ourselves and the Republicans" "So I think the Democrats are making a mistake to go after each other ... for a situation none of them created."
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