Friday, February 24, 2006

All Lamont, All the Time

All right, I give up. No matter where I turn there days, there sits Ned Lamont's quixotic non-campaign for Senate. I get the feeling that this race is going to consume us far more than any of the other races out there, if the explosion of media over the past few days about the upcoming primary is any indication. Some of you taking today's poll agree.

A few examples:

Denis Horgan of the Courant, whose columns I have always found very insightful, has written about the endorsement of Lieberman by almost every big-name Democrat in the state this week. The interesting part is this:

Everyone hailed Lieberman as a prince, even as nearly all disagree with him over his and President Bush's war on Iraq. (Horgan)

The personal loyalties Lieberman has spent his career building do seem to go a long way. One has to wonder if there's a breaking point, though.

A Greenwich Citizen article reports on Lamont at a Greenwich DTC meeting.

Folks crowding Lamont after he spoke included such as banker Jeffrey Blanche of Greenwich.

"I have known him for 20 years and I have liked him for 20 years and I am ready to help," he told the Greenwich Citizen. "What will you do?" Blanche was asked. He answered: "Whatever Ned tells me needs done, I'll do." Folks huddled around Lamont seemed of a like mind. Lamont appears to exude charisma. (McCormack)

Not only that, but he saying the right things.

Lamont is adamant about pulling American forces back to the periphery, and letting the Iraqis settle differences themselves. "We might keep a small reserve force in Kuwait but "let's bring the troops home," he declared, drawing a burst of applause from the crowd that packed the Meeting Room.

It was the first of many rounds of clapping punctuating his remarks. (McCormack)

As the situation in Iraq careens towards civil war, will this position become more popular?

Dan Levine reports in the Connecticut Law Tribune about the possible impact the primary could have on the governor's race.

So the central question then becomes: does increased turnout help DeStefano or Malloy?

Again, the answer isn't simple. At first blush, one would think DeStefano. Lamont will bring out antiwar Democrats. DeStefano is generally considered the more liberal of the two gubernatorial candidates, while Malloy is closer to Lieberman's pro-business agenda. A number of the moveon.org crowd backing Lamont lined up early behind DeStefano early. Also, because Occhiogrosso will be working for both Malloy and Lieberman, that will reinforce the connection between those two candidates among insiders.

But Lamont hails from Fairfield County, which Swan and Occhiogrosso agree boasts healthy antiwar sentiment. Since that's Malloy's base, higher turnout among affluent voters in Southwestern Connecticut may want to register an antiwar vote with Lamont and take a fiscally conservative stand with Malloy. (Levine).

The article also notes that both gubernatorial campaigns are pretending Lamont doesn't exist, for now.

Then there's the blogosphere. A new blog, LamontBlog, has appeared. Its sole purpose is to cover the primary, presumably from the point of view of the Lamont campaign.

My Left Nutmeg has become sort of an unofficial arm of the Lamont campaign in recent weeks. Certainly it's a prime spot for Lamont supporters to gather. ConnecticutBlog is also stridently pro-Lamont, as are other sites like the long standing Dump Joe.

There has been a glimmer of support for Lieberman on the blogs, but most of it has come from conservative sites. Even some of them seem to be lukewarm on him (quick update: Sean from CT Conservative has noted in the comments that he is not, in fact, lukewarm on Lieberman).

So that's the Senate Primary News for now. There will no doubt be a lot more to come.

I'm starting to wonder who I would support, were I a Democrat. I'm not, so it's a moot point. But I wonder. Lieberman's overly moralistic stances on everything from video games to movies and music bother me, and I'm not a fan of the war. But then again, I'm not convinced Lamont is a better alternative. His statement that we should bring the troops home ASAP seems too easy. I don't think we can do that at this point, not with the country exploding before our eyes.

Will we see more nuance out of Lamont? Maybe not. His directness may be exactly the sort of thing to rally antiwar Democrats. As for Lieberman, he may very well start floating leftwards in an effort to crowd out Lamont if he starts feeling more threatened. We'll see how the positions of both men evolve over the coming weeks.

But, as ctkeith says, I don't think we've seen anything, yet.

Sources

Horgan, Denis. "A Teeny Weeny Thing." Denis Horgan: Wanderings (Blog) http://blogs.courant.com/travel_columnists_horgan/ 24 February, 2006.

Levine, Dan. "The Two Primaries." Connecticut Law Tribune 20 February, 2006.

McCormack, Patricia. "Lamont, Darkhorse Candidate for Lieberman Seat, Magnetizes Dems." Greenwich Citizen 24 February, 2006.

21 comments:

ctkeith said...

All that and you couldn't Link to Dump Joe.LOL,Just kidding.

By the Way,You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Genghis Conn said...

You're right, Keith, I ought to! Your site's been around a lot longer than the rest. It must be rather satisfying to see all this media attention being paid to Lamont and the primary.

Anonymous said...

GC, this is Ok, when I was growing up everyone loved the Kool Aid mom in my neighborhood

ctkeith said...

There's plenty of better messengers out there than DumpJoe now and I might even shut it down soon.Thats the real satisfaction.

Anonymous said...

Great stuff from Horgan on Lieberman's endorsers and the war (though he is too light on Joe and "other issues"):

It's only one issue. He's so right on the other issues. Only one issue. What issue could be important, then, to those who dismiss war as a footnote. What principle is worth distancing yourself from even your friends if war is not?

ctblogger said...

Good post GC.

As I stated many times before, 2006 is shaping up to be one of the most interesting campaign seasons we've had around here in a long time.

What a interesting time we live in. What a time to be a blogger living in Connecticut, a state that could decide which political party controls Congress...

ctkeith said...

Funny thing GC,

If you watched Fox news today you would have noticed that the new Republican position is Strikingly similar to what Murtha said a few months ago.

The civil war is on and "pulling back to the periphery" was what every Military guy on Fox(who are really stooges for the RNC)was saying we should do.

Genghis Conn said...

So much for peacekeeping.

I wonder what will become of Iraq when we leave?

ctkeith said...

A new Saddam will rise to power.He'll also be a Sunni,Secular a Batthist and every bit as ruthless as the original.

He'll kill hundreds of thousands consolidating his power and if the Iraqi people are lucky in 20 yrs they'll be back to where they were before poppy Bush's ambassador told Saddam the USA didn't care if he invaded Kuwait

Sean said...

GC, interesting post. Thanks for the link to my blog. I wouldn't really call myself lukewarm on Lieberman/Lamont. I strongly support Lieberman of the two, but Lieberman's positions on some issues, like the UAE ports deal (which he seems to have backed off of now) really irked me. I have been pleased, though, overall with Lieberman, and think that he is the better candidate for the position.

Genghis Conn said...

Thanks, Sean. Duly noted.

Would you support a qualified Republican candidate over Lieberman, should one arise (and I've heard one will)?

Anonymous said...

Lamont is adamant about pulling American forces back to the periphery, and letting the Iraqis settle differences themselves. "We might keep a small reserve force in Kuwait but "let's bring the troops home," he declared, drawing a burst of applause from the crowd that packed the Meeting Room. according to the Greenwich Citizen article G.C. referenced in the post. Yeah right, the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites will all kiss and make up on their own. Sound bite city from a guy that's made his fortune through marketing not creating.

And I would never vote for Joe 'what do I need to say today' Lieberman

Anonymous said...

What's the chatter about this "qualified" Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate?

Anonymous said...

Its interesting to see that not one statewide official had the guts to not show up to support Lieberman...

Anonymous said...

I guess I have to change my handle I see from one of the links that a commercial bloggers already is using "wanderings" so back to the drawing board. Again!

Anonymous said...

Lamont has charisma?? Really???

I have seen him speak twice and been introduced to him. Never saw an ounce of charisma, which surprised me, because I figured he'd be a real firebrand.

A friend saw Lamont speak at some kind of gay rights event, and she said he only talked about the war. That's weird. It's a big issue, but is it really big enough to talk about nothing else but that for 6 months?

I am as annoyed with Joe's position on the war as anyone, but I'm not going to waste my time on Lamont. I'll work for Murphy or Courtney or a state rep candidate or something that can make a real difference.

Genghis Conn said...

The chatter is not much, right now. Gallo gave a hint or two about someone jumping in... I don't know whether to believe it or not.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Giordano will run again for the Rs.

Anonymous said...

anonymous 3:47

Now that Giordano is a felon, Republicans won't support him but Democrats may since they are good friends to felons. Maybe Giordano switches parties and joins in with Lamont to primary Lieberman?

Anonymous said...

I think people are focusing so much on Lamont in part because the governor's race doesn't seem to have much steam anymore. Neither one of the democratic candidates has caught fire, and it's difficult to imagine either of them beating Rell. Lamont being on the ballot has the potential to bring more left leaning voters out to the polls in November.

Genghis Conn said...

I'd agree, CGG.