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The "word of mouth" and the
contest of lawn signs speak victory for Ned Lamont over Senator
Joseph Lieberman in the most closely watched Democratic Party
primary in the country. The latest Quinnipiac poll has Lamont
ahead by 54-41.
Journeying around this state
of poor cities and prosperous towns, I found that the unyielding
support of Bush's disastrous Iraq War by Mr. Lieberman is indeed
the most compelling negative against this 18 year incumbent.
Unyielding support for Bush and the war is the albatross around
Mr. Lieberman's neck. Buttons depicting what appeared to be a
Bush kiss and political embrace of Lieberman adds visual ridicule
to the hot brew swirling around the once shoo-in Senator.
But there is more that has
come together to weigh down the Senator. A number of chickens
have come home to roost which add up to his low likeability rating
and an image of selfishness.
Still on the people's mind
in the "nutmeg state" was Lieberman's refusal to resign
his Senate seat when he was nominated to be Gore's vice-president
and allow a Connecticut Senate election which Democrat Attorney
General Michael Blumenthal would have easily won. Instead, had
Gore and he won (which I believe they did), the subsequent empty
Senate seat would have been filled by a Republican nominated
by Republican Governor John Rowland. People here do not forget
that ego-trip.
Moreover, again and again Lieberman
has done little more than lift a finger for other Democrats challenging
Republican incumbents. He did very little to help Bill Curry's
brainy run against Governor Rowland in 2002 either by way of
raising real money or campaigning vigorously. Rowland was a friend
of Lieberman and the Senator did not want to hear Curry's charges
of corruption against the Governor. These charges were borne
out after the election with Rowland's imprisonment.
When Charlotte Koskoff was
getting very close to upsetting long-time incumbent Republican
Congresswoman, Nancy Johnson, in 1996, Lieberman could have raised
her funds for needed television messages. He did not choose to
do so. Ms. Koskoff lost in a squeaker.
That it is all about Joe and
not the other Democrats and their Party caught the attention
of the journalistic humorists at the annual 2001 Gridiron Club
Dinner in Washington. The white-tie dinner brings together the
political, business, military and media brass for an evening
of steak and satire. The skit on Joe Lieberman was set to the
tune of the famous Sixties song "Mrs. Robinson." The
refrain was "Joe Lieberman, me, me, me me, me, me."
So when the two "all about
me" politicians Clinton and Lieberman got together
in Waterbury the other day for a Clintonesque affirmation, it
became an expedient embrace between a past serial adulterer and
a past critical moralizer. Politics sure makes for some strange
bedfellows.
Some political observers thought
Clinton, who won elections while viewing losses in droves by
other Democrats in Congress and in many states, would give Lieberman
a critical lift. To the contrary, Lamont's lead widened considerably.
More and more Democratic voters
began to sense that Lieberman was taking them for granted, if
not for a ride. He became Washington-bound and did not spend
as much time back home as he did traveling abroad. More importantly,
he became a favorite of the big business lobbies that swarm daily
over the nations' capital and Capitol Hill.
There is no better evidence
of Lieberman's wanting to have it both ways-incessantly saying
how pro-labor, pro-consumer and pro-environment he has been-than
his receiving the enthusiastic endorsement by the most powerful,
most cruel and greedy corporate lobby of them all the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce. With their front groups, the Chamber writes
about its involvement in hundreds of state and federal campaigns.
This lobby recently bragged about defeating, in 2004, Senator
Lieberman's leader in the Senate, Senator Tom Daschle.
What does the Chamber stand
for? For starters, it demands that federal taxpayers subsidize
corporations (corporate welfare), that the federal cop be taken
off the corporate crime, fraud and abuse beat (de-regulation
and weak law enforcement), that laws be weakened which protect
the environment, workers, consumers and small taxpayers, and
that the bloated, wasteful military contracting budget continue
to grow.
We have contested the Chamber's
crude demands to weaken OSHA (the job safety agency), NHTSA (auto
and truck safety), FDA (food and drug safety) and just about
any federal activity that stands up for people over corporations
where the two conflict.
So the Chamber supports only
two Democratic Senators for re-election. They are Senator Ben
Nelson (NE) and Senator Joe Lieberman (CT). Its political arm
described Mr. Lieberman as having the highest "cumulative
voting score" of any "Democratic Senator in the Northeast."
Big Businesses' favorite Democratic Senator!
The Chamber was delighted with
Lieberman's votes for NAFTA, WTO and CAFTA and for weakening
class action litigation rights for defrauded investors, injured
consumers and workers. They were delirious with Senator Lieberman's
vote for the Cheney/Exxon energy bill that did nothing to advance
more fuel efficient cars or address global warming, as it poured
more taxpayer subsidies into super-profiteering Big Oil and Big
Natural Gas.
That's Joe Lieberman's record,
in contrast to his rhetoric back on the stump these days in Connecticut.
All out for more giant unneeded weapon systems, never in eighteen
years advancing universal health insurance and always doubting
the historic civil justice system's need to evolve stronger at
the state level, not be weakened in Washington, D.C.
The Chamber's endorsement stimulates
more corporate interest dollars into Senator Lieberman's ample
campaign coffers. But strangely, he does not list the Chamber's
support on his website's list of endorsements.
I asked Senator Lieberman whether
he was going to publicly repudiate the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's
endorsement. After all, the Chamber is working overtime to undermine
his Democratic Party and its more progressive candidates.
Calls by voters to four of
Lieberman's offices did not produce any answer from the Senator.
On August 8^th , the Senator
will receive the primary voters' answers
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