Connecticut House Speaker James Amman of Milford is sticking by Lieberman. He says Lieberman has called him three times since last Tuesday's primary asking him for support. Amman says he has not heard anything from Ned Lamont, the Greenwich businessman who won the primary. (AP)He just wanted to feel appreciated. Is that too much to ask?
Source
"House speaker stands by Lieberman." Associated Press 14 August, 2006.
38 comments:
When you have one of the largest Democratic Primary turnouts in modern CT history with the largest change in U to D registration as well as new voters, no Jim Amann is not setting a good example as party leader. It is a slap in the face to the Party. "I support the Democratic Party so long as it nominates people I like/agree with" - Amann
"He just wanted to feel appreciated."
Please... if someone showed determination and effort in pursuing your support versus someone who was probably taking it for granted, who would you support?
For some reason, if the situation were reversed, and Lieberman had won the primary and this story ran, I don't think it would have made this blog.
MLN seems pretty pissed off about it. Frankly, I don't think Amann's endorsement would have moved votes either way...
I like Lamont, but sometimes party loyalty can go a bit far.
What doesn't MLN get pissed off about.
Dodd and Larson should take some charcter lessons from the speaker. Instead, they will back Jesse and Al's boy.
Has anyone noticed that it's always the moderate Democrats who are splintering the CT Democratic party?
The moderates will denounce the liberals up and down. They'll say the party's "left them". But they're the ones who constantly cut their own deals and leave the liberals out in the cold.
Remember when Irv Stolberg was dumped as Speaker? It was a moderate cabal that did it.
Remember their hatred of Bruce Morrison, hatred so vitriolic that he was lucky to get the 20% necessary for Democrats to keep their automatic ballot spot?
I agree. If this fellow wants to support Lieberman he should give up the speakership and join Lieberman's party.
Can we all at least agree that the Republican Party is now the "Big-Tent" Party?
Amann is trying to save what is left of the Democratic party. He is a moderate and is quickly learning that he is out of place in the new Sharpton-Jackson party.
We need more Democrats to come forward like speaker Amann and stop the bleeding.
Ned has ceded the "slime and evil" vote of Waterbury, and has now lost Mr Speakahhhhh. No doubt the forces of Jackson and Sharpton can turn the tide on this sinking ship.
Is it possible that Schlesinger gets a percent of the vote so low that the R party needs to petition to petition to get on the ballot the next time a US Senate seat comes up? What's the %? 1%?
Bruce, everyone, calm down.
Amann was elected Speaker by the caucus. LET THE CAUCUS ask him to resign for backing Lieberman.
A lot of guys are saying that Amann has the guts to do publicly what he -and they- feel privately.
Let's face it- this is a choice between two Democrats. One is the nominee, one is not. Either way, a Democrat wins.
The more you guys play politics with this; the more Stalinist the purge, the more extreme you guys look. Leave him alone- if you strong arm him, it will look good for Lamont.
As someone who is now firmly Joe, I hope you do go after Amann, though. So get to it! Circular firing squads are just tremendously entertaining to watch.
Jim Amann deserves a lot of credit he sticks to his principles instead of the subscribing to lets force everyone on the "Red Ned" Bandwagon with some of the pinheads on that wagon who are way too left wing for me.
I am supporting Joe Lieberman too I dont care what DFA,Howard snd Jim Dean, Keith and Peter Crane,Tom Swan or any of the Lamont faithful have to say.All these people are about as popular as Al Sharpton, Jesse jackson and Lowell Weicker what a braintrust we have with the above mentioned names oh lets not forget George Soros.
Old Bug eyes Left Said Ned will not have my vote and I believe Joe Lieberman wins in November.
I just placed Amann on notice.
You might recognize some other names on that list...
Funny item in the CT Pest:
Lamont spent about $4 million of his own money in the primary. He said he doubted he would have to provide a similar-sized cash infusion for the general election, but he vowed to remain competitive in fundraising.
"We're not going to be badly outspent," he said.
Stop it, Ned. My sides are splitting. You won't be "badly outspent", is my guess. Unless Hadassah wins the lottery.
This is shocking to me. No, not that Speaker Amann has the courage of his convictions, but that so many Democrats would villify him for doing so. Oh, wait, that is what you did to Joe. FGMS is right: this is a battle between 2 Democrats.
I would love to have BR or other critics of Amann answer this question: if you were an elected official and you were faced with a choice between voting the way your party wanted you to vote, on the one hand, or the way either your conscience or your constituents (all of them not just the Democrats) wanted you to vote, on the other hand, which way would you vote?
The Speaker was elected to represent the people of Milford - all of the people, not just the Democrats by the way the Milford Democrats voted for Lieberman)-and his only obligation is to represent them to the best of his ability. He is doing that.
I hear Senator Finch may also stick with Joe. Good for him.
By the way, how can you respect an elected official who on Tuesday says, "Joe Lieberman is the best candidate, Ned Lamont does not even rate with Joe" but then on Wednesday says, "Ned is the best guy for the job"?
I can't respect that.
So... is Ned's event in Naugatuck (on the green) tomorrow a little close to that certain intersection that Swan was talking about?
Ned's gotta do better in the Nauga Valley. Remember how the Valley vote hurt Weicker in '88?
Speaking of the Nauga Valley, I hear that they will be serving Pinot from the Nauga Valley Vineyards at the event.
yes, yes, we can all admit the R party is now the "big tent" party. So what's going on in Rhode Island, again?
O, right.
BRubenstein said... ...
if he can't be loyal then he should resign and support Joementum if he wishes.
I'm an old Bozzuto guy.
My party screwed Dick royally but to this day I'd go through a wall for him. (Hell, I'd commit a capital crime for him if he asked me nicely.)
Loyalty is not a big thing.
It's the only thing.
That Amann has the fortitude to loyally stick with his ally speaks well for him regardless of the eventual outcome.
Clearly Jim's handshake can be taken seriously. That's increasingly rare these days.
I can see everybody going nuts if DiNardo, a particular Town Chair or State Central member endorsed Liberman, but Amann is not an official of the Democratic Party. Time is far better spent making the case for Lamont than engaging in purges.
Amann has just kissed his position goodbye.
He should be supporting Ned Lamont in his position.
This is a disgrace to the Democratic Party and its voters in Connecticut.
Amann should resign from the Democratic Party now
TrueBlueCT said...
Many of us read those kinds of statements as racist.
You do?
I just naturally assumed it was one of those masonic conspiracy nuts out to attack a couple of my fraternity bros.
I truely hope I'm right and you're wrong; otherwise we may need to find a young version of John Brown and hand him an axe. (the only fitting end to a racist)
The only disgrace to the Democratic party is the way every one of those elected officials--Dodd, DeStefano, Sullivan, Blumenthal, etc. all abdicated their pledged loyalty and friendship to Joe, cultivated over 20-30 years in most cases, for a one-shot-wonder who rode one issue and a ton of unwashed hippies to victory in a closed primary. That is shameful.
OK, Brube,
I won't use Stalinist because people might think I'm calling a faction of the Dems "commies." I'm not a fan of name-calling- and it wasn't my intent to do so.
My point has nothing to do with ideology, just tactics. If you aren't pure and following the party line, you are banished to the Connecticut Democratic party version of Siberia. Party Loyalists will put pressure on dissenters to reform or face severe consequences.
Analytically, I think you are playing right into Joe's message about extreme partisanship. This strong-arming plays poorly. Strong-arm at your own risk. You don't have enough Dems in your corner? You need EVERYONE, Brube?
Kick out Ken Salazar and Mark Pryor, too.
Bruce,
I recommend re-reading the Federalist Papers and then shredding them. Or at least redacting the portions warning about the dangers of factional extremism.
That may be too heavy for the pols in the state, but you're well-read enough that you probably have a dog-eared copy handy.
The Lieberman Campaign has put all the Lamont Followers on Double Secret Probation since the beginning of The Campaign. One More Slipup and this campaign has had it in Connecticut(LOL)(LMAO)
Mary Glassman said the other day, according to Al Terzi, that the Democrat party is the big tent party. Looks like she's the one who's out of touch, maybe she should step down from running for Lt. Gov?
True Blue: Can you point to anything at all that suggest racism? If just the mere mention of the name Jackson-Sharpton gives you racist thoughts you should ask yourself why do you have such thoughts?
If Ned can be proud enough to have Reverend Al and Revered Jesse at his side during his victory speech than you should be just as proud as he is. If I were you, I wouldn’t try to play the race card although that is a favorite move of the new Democratic Party’s leadership (Jesse and AL).
C'mon, let's get True Blue to break out in a sweat... Jackson - Sharpton; Sharpton - Jackson....
Scary stuff, aint it.
I will take it even further as a Democratic Connecticut voter.
All of you who support loser Lierman who is a Republican and who will have Republican support if he stays in this till November are also a disgrace to the Democratic Party and I will say this why don't you all join the Republican Party who support Lier you will be at home with your Conservative Right Wing garbage.
The purity of the Democratic Party to finally allow the people to have a voice which they did August 8th by choosing Ned over Lier says something.
We want a true Progressive in Washington that will do what Lier did not.Not a yes Bush Robot.
I think dissent within the Democratic Party is good to have Amann is not a dissenter but a trader and he to should join the Republican Party they will love him as much as Lier.
You Conservatives got the dissent wrong Amann ,Lier and the like only care about themselves and not the people that put them into power.
The real dissent which Lier did not expect was went the real people the registered voters Democrats took him out by over 10,000 votes.
He lost and now the RNC will come to his rescue.
True Democrats will vote for change .Bush Republicans who are registered Democrats should join the Republican Party once and for all.We don't need you.
I expect Lier to become Republican somethime in 2007.
We all know that Jesse and Al both came to Connecticut only after Joe launched a smear campaign in CT's cities in which paid hacks tried to portray Lamont as a racist.
That you all want to make hay about the civil rights' leaders appearances says a lot about CT's Joe-loving Republicans.
Sharptin and Jackson might be problemmatic, but together they represent many people that would otherwise be left out of the political equation.
But why be magnanimous when instead you can be small?
This endorsement does nothing to help Amann politically, but rather buys him a world of trouble. While I'm not happy about, I do believe it was motivated by his sense of loyalty to Lieberman and nothing else.
Maybe because Weicker isn't a Republican?
Is this really too complex for the conservatives to understand?
Jim Amann is the Speaker of the House of the Democratic primary. As such, he has a major role in the state Democratic party, and he is supposed to be a leader. He is supposed to speak for his party.
It'd be one thing if he was just doing this out of conviction. But:
A. He is doing it against the vote of the state Democrats.
Don't give me the BS about low voter turnout. If it was only 8%, that makes Joe look WORSE because he couldn't win an election with "just" 8%. I'd much rather have the 52% of that Lamont got than the 48% "look how much we gained!" Lieberman side.
B. He only seems to be supporting Joe because Joe has supported his political life.
Not because of his beliefs. Not enough to actually work for his campaign. But because he called him 3 times, and hey, he helped me out, I'll help him out.
So, again, how is Jim Amann using the courage of his convictions when he IGNORES the vote of his own party to repay a guy who helped get him elected?
I spoke to a number of Democratic State Reps and although they said the support Lamont they also said they support Amann's right to support his friend Joe.
If Democratic State Reps don't have a problem with Amann why should the liberals who like to rant and rave on this board?
Becaus we elected these people to represent us thats why.
Jim Amann is the Speaker of the House of the Democratic primary.
Whoops, make that party, not primary.
BRubenstein said...
i am a leftist..not a Stalinist...
Hmmm, how e. e. cummings of you.
Seriously though Bruce, (bruce?) where exactly is the line between Stalinist & Leftist?
It must be around here someplace but it's such a fine line I can't seem to locate it.
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