Lamont: Building Exclusion One Bit at a Time

A few weeks before the Democratic Nominating Convention, Ned Lamont visited the Weston DTC pitching his candidacy in an earnest way. Where Lamont has been well received in small towns, many in eastern Connecticut, his message has not appealed quite as well closer to home. Nor, after a glance at the delegate map of the convention does it seem to resonate much in the urban corridors as well.

That night revealed two things about the Lamont campaign and what they didn't want to emerge as an issue. The first concerned Lamont's membership in the Round Hill Club. A few days before, according to Lamont's scheduler, he had resigned his membership to the club because he did not want it to become a campaign issue. The reasons for it becoming an issue vary, according to people who were there than night. The Round Hill Club does have a certain reputation, that actually much of Greenwich has, concerning just who can become a member. Perhaps it is better expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who wrote in a preface to his book:

“If Greenwich is the Republicans’ Mecca, then the Round Hill Club is the Kaaba. In the foyer I passed beneath an oversized photograph of Senator Prescott Bush, a former Greenwich resident and the current president’s grandfather. Somebody pointed to an anteroom and commented: “That’s where George met Barbara,” referring to the president’s mom and dad. It was the club’s annual meeting—always well attended—and as I stepped to the podium I looked out over a sea of skeptical faces, the faces of affluent conservatism.” by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy

Membership to an exclusive club in Greenwich for a successful businessman is hardly a contentious issue. It just so happens that it is common knowledge that this is the Bush family's club, and according to Vanity FairPrescott Bush, grandfather to George W., was once president of the club.

Maybe such coincidences wouldn't be so interesting were it not for the campaign Lamont is running against Joe Lieberman. Since the Lamont campaign is so fixated on Senator Lieberman's rhetoric about all things George Bush, perhaps they don't want it known who Lamont actually hangs out with on the golf courses, cutting deals and otherwise engaging in country club business.

The second item that the Lamont campaign wished to downplay was the business record of Lamont. Some business people, like George Soros, align their business interests with their politics. That is quite an admirable thing to do and It is generally a good indicator of one's political philosophy, though not necessarily one's political affiliation.Lamont Digital Systems, according to its web site, Lamont Digital Systems builds and operates advanced telecommunications networks for college campuses and residential gated communities serving over 175,000 subscribers. Residential gated communitiess are not quite the type of housing one expects from a liberal thinking executive, especially in North Richland Hills, Texas.

Senator Lieberman has a long record of support for the people who don't live in gated communities, and don't belong to exclusive Greenwich country clubs. The blogsphere would have you believe that Ned Lamont would never support a single Republican agenda. Except of course, if there was a digital video system in a gated community involved.