The Courant, in an article about the debate tonight, reports that Senators Biden, Boxer, and Salazar will be campaigning with Senator Lieberman in advance of the primary. In fact, Senator Salazar has gone so far as to declare his support for Lieberman even if he loses the primary.
In welcoming our guests, I thought it would be fun to use their visit to highlight how Lamont's support (and conversely the opposition to Senator Lieberman) is all about the war and only the war. Oh. And some other stuff. [Ed. - If you are fully committed to the idea that the only reason the left-wing liberal loonies support Lamont is because they hate the war (and by extension - America), CTLP asks you to please stop reading now. Exploding heads are extremely difficult to clean out of keyboards.]
Welcome Senator Barbara Boxer!
Senator Boxer recently "...expressed her support of her esteemed colleague with whom she had worked many times over the years, and said all of the opposition to Joe was based on his support of the war. She said other groups, like women, were backing Joe because he was so good on their issues."
Interesting. Now (PAC and CT) and Connecticut Choice Voice tend to disagree. Click through the CCV link to read 5 compelling reasons why.
Also, lets not forget the infamous Plan B quote, "In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital". I wonder if Senator Boxer thinks that rape victims having to find their way to another hospital to get Plan B is a women's issue that the Senator is "good" on? Hat tip to CT Bob for covering this extensively, but especially for the maps.
Welcome Senator Ken Salazar!
Senator Salazar, along with Senator Lieberman, is one of the 7 Democrats in the gang of fourteen, a group whose purpose is to make sure that only nut-jobs are filibustered. Or something.
As it turns out, one of the Republican members (Senator Graham) coached Justice Alito in his preparation for the confirmation hearings. I am sure that he did not coach him on how to avoid the wrath of the gang of fourteen though. Also, should a Senator who will later sit in judgment on a judicial nominee coach the nominee in preparation for the hearings? Yeah, bipartisanship!
I would like to take this opportunity to formally invite Senator Salazar over for poker while he is visiting Connecticut. Before we play, I may help the decks "prepare" for the game. That's okay, right?
Welcome Senator Joe Biden!
I saved this one for last, because the bankruptcy bill fiasco is when I started contemplating not supporting the sitting Senator from my party.
I am glad that Senator Biden is coming all the way from MBNA, er, I mean, from Delaware to support Senator Lieberman, even though they voted differently on the bankruptcy bill.
Stop laughing. Senator Biden voted in favor of the bill and Senator Lieberman voted against it. Seriously, what's so funny? What the heck is a cloture vote anyway? Why are you crying?
All kidding aside, in my humble opinion, the bankruptcy bill will go down in history as one of the worst pieces of legislation ever bought by an industry (FYI, Senator Salazar voted for it too). But don't take my word for it. I introduce Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, her brief summary on why the law will be a disaster, and her longer study on the same topic. For the attention span deficient: Most of the people declaring bankruptcy are doing so because of a catastrophic medical disaster.
Welcome Senator - Wait, who are you?!?
We are all political junkies, right? Hold that aside for a second and ask yourself if the average nutmegger cares who Senators Biden, Boxer, and Salazar are supporting in the Connecticut primary. I am getting a big no.
But at least the Lieberman folks can still hammer Lamont for having all of his support from out of state. Right?
Sources:
Hartford, Courant, Mark Pazniokas, Faceoff For Heart Of Party, July 6, 2006.
Dnver Post, Mike Soraghan, Salazar to stump for embattled Democrat, July 5, 2006.
Fire Dog Lake, Jane Hamsher, Clueless, June 10, 2006.
NOW Press Release, NOW PAC Endorses Ned Lamont for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, May 16, 2006.
Connecitcut Choice Voice website, Five Reasons Why We Cannot
Support Senator Lieberman.
CT Bob, Lieberman vs. the Day After Pill, May 4, 2006.
Wikipedia, Gang of 14.
Village Voice, James Ridgeway, Alito and His Coaches, January 10, 2006.
Talking Points Memo, Michael Negron, No Title (2 Posts), March 11, 2005.
Talking Points Memo, Elizabeth Warren, No Title, March 19, 2005.
Health Affairs, David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne, and
Steffie Woolhandler, MarketWatch:
Illness And Injury As
Contributors To Bankruptcy, February 2, 2005.
10 comments:
Well, you have to admit that Lieberman's been pretty negative, too. I'd say he's actually been a lot more negative than Lamont.
In this environment? I think voters in 2006 want change. Neither the current crop of Democrats or the Republican majority in Congress has been able to deliver it.
Dangerous for incumbents, including Lieberman.
First - Great post Gabe.
Second - Patricia Rice, sure Lamont's been negative. Lieberman has been even more so. The big difference is that Lamont's negative attacks have been, for the most part, focused on substantive issues while Lieberman's negative attacks have been rather shrill and misleading.
On the subject of endorsements from Democratic legislators... I'm not sure it helps Senator Lieberman's cause to point out that only 32 out of 123 Democratic members of the General Assembly are listed (on the Senator's campaign website) as endorsing him.
Patricia - take the blinders off...
Did you miss State Rep Peter Tercyak marching with Ned in New Briatain parades?
Did you miss State Rep John Geragosian just marching with Ned in the Boom Box parade?
There are many more working behind the scenes...
Derby Conservative said... " stop referring to him as a Republican or Conservative...we don't wan't him either!"
Not when we have a like we haven't had in over 30 years we sure don't.
BTW - anyone familiar with Salazar will think twice about voting for Lieberman ever again.
Patricia - they didn't just march in the SAME parade as Ned...they marched WITH Ned, in the middle of Ned's volunteers are were bringing Ned over to shake hands with people they know.
Ahhh...facts cracking liebermantalking points...world collapsing...
Patricia Rice,
Does voting For Lamont as a delegate count as an endorsement?
You might want to check the roster to see how many state reps were also delegates and voted FOR LAMONT at the convention.
ACR,
Chris Shays (R) has already endorsed Lieberman and if you check a very large portion of Liebermans Donors are also Bush Donors.
You can run From Lieberman all you want but his Republican approval is the only reason he can even consider an indy run.
Hey Turf - I didn't mischaracterize anything - I agree with you 100% on the politics of the FDA with respect to plan B. It just wasn't the subject of this post.
Patricia Rice - Repeating Negative Ned over and over, while alliterative, does not in fact obscure the negative campaigning that Senator Lieberman has engaged in. Especially when his negative campaign materials and robocalls keep coming to my house.
Is that post really not going to lead to one single comment on the bankruptcy bill? Please? Please...
bluecoat, thanks for making me feel better by mentioning it.
On the causes of bankruptcy - Divorce is also a big one -
Bankruptcy specialists said the numbers seemed sound.
"From 1982 to 1989, I reviewed every bankruptcy petition filed in South Carolina, and during that period I came to the conclusion that there were two major causes of bankruptcy: medical bills and divorce," said George Cauthen, a lawyer at Columbia-based law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP.
Credit card debt is not...
"Each accounted, roughly, for about a third of all individual filings in South Carolina."
He said fewer than 1 percent of all bankruptcy filings were due to credit card debt. "That truly is a myth," Cauthen said in a telephone interview.
Post a Comment