Joe Lieberman

It's been a fascinating weekend. On Saturday news broke out that The Boston Globe endorses Barack Obama and John McCain while the Des Moines Register endorses Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

During that same time, Newsweek published "The Sleeper" (on the cover, that is, because inside the atory is called, "The Road Warrior"), an eye-popping quasi-endorsement of the "I'm not dead yet" campaign-machine called John Edwards.

To one-up everybody in sight Joe "I am the heir of Zell Miller" Lieberman exclamates his passion for John McCain.

All this is happening during a weekend littered by the exchange of blogospheric emails and posts on the subject of Chris Dodd's coming filibuster of Harry Reid's FISA. The alleged leader of the Senate Majority announced last Friday he was going to introduce the Judiciary Committee's version of the "Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act" which would grant, among many other wrongs, immunity to the telecoms for aiding and abetting George Bush and Alberto Gonzales in their illegal spying schemes.

The (presumably small) Republican Jewish Coalition is apparantly suggesting that Jews, particularly Orthodox Jews, join the Repub party in protest of Lieberman's defeat.

The National Jewish Democratic Council has this to say regarding orthodox Jews defecting to the Republican Party because of Lieberman's defeat:

"I'm absolutely astonished by the RJC ad campaign. American Jews need to know that the Republican Jewish Coalition is no friend of Joe Lieberman, and it certainly isn't an advocate for the issues of importance to the mainstream of the Jewish community.

"For years, the RJC has criticized Joe Lieberman. Now they want to use his good name for their own political purposes. These guys have no shame.

"The Connecticut Senate primary was not about Israel or the Jewish community. Joe Lieberman's record on Israel is impeccable. Ned Lamont's pro-Israel position is commendable. Connecticut will have a pro-Israel senator if either Democrat is elected. Any suggestion otherwise is a distortion of the truth."

First off, a hearty congratulations to Ned Lamont. I didn't think he would pull it off. But he did. Congratulations as well to the many people on and off line who made Lamont's win possible.

But I honestly think many people have been unfair to Joe Lieberman. He is not and never has been like Zell Miller. Zell Miller's entire voting record was right in line with the most rabidly right wing Republican. He was in every way a nut case.

Lieberman's political career may now be dead. Perhaps even more so if he runs as an Ind and the Democratic Party does the right thing and turns its back on him. Maybe his career will survive, but I don't think so. But I think we should be fair to Lieberman.

Lieberman, more than many Democrats, was a man of conviction and strong beliefs. This affected how he viewed politics. He viewed politics as a conservative, religious man, yet managed to maintain (in sharp contrast to Zell) a reasonable voting record on choice, the environment and labor, at least according to LCV, NARAL and AFL-CIO. He was on our side in many fights throughout his career. And when he wasn't on our side it wasn't because he was triangulating. It was because he believed that what he was doing was the correct thing to do. I admit that I admire that about Lieberman. He did what he thought was right.

More than 71% of the precints are in and Lamont is squeaking a win by less than 4% --not good to be within the margin of error.

[via courant.com | Lamont Leads Senate Race In Early Returns]:

Ten minutes before the polls closed Tuesday, primary Lamont's supporters were predicting a "landslide" victory.

"You know how you feel something in your gut?" said Laura Gallo, the former deputy mayor of Meriden as she wrapped up phone calls at Lamont headquarters Tuesday night. "We're going to win."

Others, like former state Democratic party chairman George Jepsen, were relying on something slightly more reliable than gut instinct - he had word from people in the field that returns were coming in overwhelmingly for Lamont.

As the party began at the Sheraton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson made his rounds in the press room talking up Lamont's commitment to urban schools, universal health care and other progressive issues.

"I hope he can win. The nation needs a new direction, new priorities and the values that Lamont represents," Jackson said. "He's taking on a bigger Goliath than just Lieberman."

Methinks a blowout is on the way; follow The Daily Gotham for more intense coverage.

Slate.com's John Dickerson reports that the woman who founded FireDogLake and who has become the annointed 'woman of the liberal blogosphere', published just the other day the following piece of pro-Ned Lamont crap :

[via The blogger who isn't helping Ned Lamont. By John Dickerson]:

Ned Lamont wants to be a senator from Connecticut and that means reacting quickly to issues that get overblown by bloggers and the media. He got his first test Wednesday. Right as Lamont was busy campaigning with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, one of his most strident supporters in the blogosphere posted a picture of Lamont's opponent, Joe Lieberman, in blackface. Go!

It pains me to no end that this appeared on none other than The Huffington Post, because I honestly can't believe Arianna Huffington would be a willing party to such racist trash. This may not make me any friends at the HuffPo but, seriously, someone at HuffPo needs to come out and address Hamsher's actions immediately.

I searched high and low in the blog and could not find anything from Arianna or an editor apologizing for allowing such an image to be posted on their blog. They need to do it and fast because, unfortunately, The Huffington Post (like most mainstream media; and believe me, they are) is not a bastion of diversity. The longer they try to brush this aside, the deeper it will hurt the reputation of the blog among the "other" side of the blogosphere.

Arianna, the ball is on your court.

It also pains me I read about this at Slate as I was ready to post a couple of things about Mel Gibson's "I hate Jews" drunken rage. Why because I was thinking about the timing on running a poll asking people if they think Ned Lamont is going to win (which I hope he does). There is something freaky about how my free associations always end up having a deeper meaning.

Let's go back to Hamsher.

I came in just as the speaker read Lincoln Chafee's "Aye" vote for cloture.

Ben Nelson, Ken Salazar, Max Baukus and Joe Liberman have all voted for cloture. I am happy to say my senators, Clinton and Schumer voted "No".

Snowe, Hutchinson and Lincoln, all women, voted "Aye". All Republicans. Obviously none pro-choice.

In case you were wondering, I want to target the turncoat Democrats and target them hard. We need to get rid of these suckers.

Which Reid of Nevada voted "Aye" and which one voted "No"?

I wish I'd memorized all the senators names and affiliations.

BTW, my kids are watching now, trying to decide whether the milling about and calling out votes makes for good drama or not.

Senator Akaka ... from Hawaii? Just voted "Aye"

GOOD GRIEF! THIS IS LIKE WATCHING PAINT BOIL AND WATER DRY .... AAAAAAUUUGH!

The cloture has passed 72 to 25.

Jim DeMint has been given the role of soundbiter for the Republicans and they've come out swinging :

"DEMOCRATS SAY ANYTHING BUT DO NOTHING ...

THEY CANNOT ARTICULATE A CLEAR PLAN ON THEIR OWN ...

Kim Hynes reports from Connecticut with My Left Nutmeg :: All Charm, No Compromise

Senator Lieberman was gracious and welcoming, and went on for a few minutes about how he thought that debate on the war was vital to the cause (yadda yadda yadda). John Hartwell and I put forth our arguments that the war was at the point of being damaging to the US, Iraq, and the Middle East, and urged him to support a plan for withdrawal/redeployment of the troops. I brought up the fact that it would be very nice if the Senator could take the lead in acknowledging that "staying the course" and "cutting and running" were not actually the only options here. Again, gracious response, that indicated while, he was happy to sit and drink coffee while we talked, he was not changing his stance, and the president was doing just fine with the war, thanks.

Vicki Usher and Carol (from Marilyn Mackay's group - sorry I don't remember your last name, Carol!) brought up the Alito nomination, and we all were pleasantly surprised with Senator Lieberman said that a filibuster was on the table for him - hopefully he'll stick to his guns!