benedict-lieberman.jpg

The Lamont campaign has released a new campaign ad, and it is incredibly well done -- the filming, the editing, effects...everything.  And it makes me laugh, in that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach but you have to laugh or you'll just throw something at the teevee because it's so true sort of way.  If you haven't seen it yet, go and watch it now.  In the ad, President Bush's image is speaking, but the words coming out of his mouth are pure Joe Lieberman.  And I mean that.

This ad is incredibly effective, which is probably why the Lieberman camp has gone bonzer yo-yo about it.  My favorite take on the reaction came from Colin McEnroe of the To Wit blog on Hartford Courant online:

Yesterday, they were especially fun. First, they made the ordinarily level-headed Paul Bass very mad when they issued an altogether ooky anti-Lamont flyer which contained a falsehood which they falsely attributed to Bass. Isn’t it fun to watch Paul get so mad?

Then, they responded to a Lamont commercial which attempted to deceive the voters into believing that Lieberman's voice sometimes comes out of President Bush’s mouth, much in the vein of the now scientifically discredited documentary “Look Who’s Talking.”

In response, the Lieberman press secretary issued list of “facts,” a political term meaning “things which, if they were true, would make our jobs a lot easier.”   

   Here are my two favorite facts:

  1. Joe Lieberman has been a scathing critic of the Bush Administration. This would be “scathing” in its mostly idiomatic and colloquial usage as a substitute for “fawning.”
  2. Joe Lieberman is the only person in the United States of America who ran against George W. Bush twice, and beat him once. This is an apparent reference to 2000, when Lieberman ran against Bush the way Dan Quayle ran against Mike Dukakis in 1988 and the way Ed McMahon was the long-running and widely respected host of the “Tonight” show. This is also an apparent reference to 2004, when Lieberman wanted to run very badly, and I guess you could say  he did..  Actually, he didn’t get to run against Bush at all that year. He ran against people named Dean and Kerry. After he finished unambiguously fifth in the New Hampshire primary, he subsequently announced he had tied for third.

Now THAT is laugh out loud funny, right there.  Read the whole column and tell me you aren't laughing out loud at the Lieberman people.  (This is wicked snark, and it makes me happy just to read it.  I bet the Lieberman campaign manager is less happy, though...that would be "less happy" in its idiomatic and colloquial usage as a substitution for "completely freaking pissed and increasingly panicky.")

Oh, and the Paul Bass article that McEnroe references?  Scathing.

...Of course, this flyer does not appear on Lieberman's campaign web site. In his personal appearances and interviews, Lieberman continues to claim he supports "bipartisan" politics that rises above nasty, personal attack ads.

"Here's a man who is a sitting U.S. senator, who has been a candidate for vice-president. He ran for president. And he's behaving like some lowlife," Tom D'Amore remarked Monday morning in the wake of the new flyer. "It's just amazing. This is, pardon the pun, really Bush-league policy.

"That's a pretty good pun, actually."

"It shows the senator is desperate," Tom Swan said. It shouldn't be surprising that George Bush's favorite Democrat would resort to Karl Rove tactics."

Ouch.

You know what else is laugh out loud funny, though?  The fact that The Hotline has now picked up on Curious Jim's "Joe-Nertia" phrasing -- in fact, it's the title of their Lieberman/Lamont campaign update segment.  Mwahahahaha.

Oh yeah, feel the Joe-nertia.  I'm feeling sluggish just thinking about it...

(Graphics love to the ever fabulous Dubya's World.)