5f989adf-80ee-4259-aa57-0776cdb81d18.jpg

(You can watch the Lamont/Lieberman debate on CSPAN and on MSNBC.  They'll also be having updates on the Ned Lamont blog.)

6:54:  Picked up Matt Stoller at the train station, we're in the war room.  Passed the TV station with LieberYouth waving their signs and looking on the whole a bit Moonie.  DeanFan84 and other CT bloggers were also camped outside hoping to catch Joe on the way in. The energy is quite charged.... 

7:05:  Joe wants to make it all about the war and says Ned is running against George Bush.  He keeps saying "I'm not George Bush."  Does he really want to keep invoking visions of Dan Quayle? 

7:06:  Ned is coming across geniune and passionate.  "Senator Lieberman, if you won't challenge George Bush and his failed agenda, I will."  Booyah!!! 

7:07:  Hey Joe, how can you ask Democrats to get over the war?  Joe quickly finds another quesiton to answer.  Joe keeps trying to peddle himself as the man who makes a principled stand, and not one willing to say anything to get himself on Meet the Press.  He sounds patronizing and churlish. 

7:09:  Joe wants Ned to clean up the mess he's made in Iraq.

7:12:  Lieberman:  "Ned's got me confused again."  It doesn't take much.  Lieberman says things are "a lot better different" in Iraq.  Michael Ware's words still ring true:

I and some other journalists had lunch with Senator Joe Lieberman the other day and we listened to him talking about Iraq. Either Senator Lieberman is so divorced from reality that he's completely lost the plot or he knows he's spinning a line. Because one of my colleagues turned to me in the middle of this lunch and said he's not talking about any country I've ever been to and yet he was talking about Iraq, the very country where we were sitting.

7:17:  Ned:  George Bush has been bad for the country and bad for the State of Connecticut.  "Senator Lieberman is finding too much common ground with the President."

7:18:  Joe keeps saying "There you go again."  All his tactics are straight out of the GOP playbook.  Karl, are you behind the curtain? 

7:20:  Joe says he's helped the country achieve energy independence.  Is he huffing DeLay's left over bugspray?

7:22:  Nice that Lieberman is being so churlish and antagonistic against Ned.  Would've been nice if he'd been that tough on Cheney.  But Joe is only nasty to other Democrats, I guess.

Joe's whole game plan is personal attacks on Ned -- it's worked well for the GOP, and it's your only option if you can't defend your own record without lying.  Joe opposed the privatization of Social Security?  Hah.

7:25:  Lieberman wouldn't answer Ned on the "short ride" for rape victims.  He said he was endorsed by Planned Parenthood. 

Thanks, Planned Parenthood.

7:40:  Ned hammered Joe over his support for the energy bill.  Joe tries to interrupt him.  "This isn't Fox News, Sir," says Ned.  Good on ya, Ned.

7:46:  Lieberman keeps talking about how rich Ned is.  Ned agreed to a spending cap for this campaign, Holy Joe wouldn't.  He's raised millions.  Who's the one who wants to burn piles of cash? 

7:50:  Joe brags about how many earmarks he's supported.  Ned hits him hard by saying if they're legitimate, they should go through the legislative process.  Hey Porkbusters....

7:55:  "I want you to vote for your dreams, I want you to vote with your heart."  Ned was inspirational.  Joe sounded like an entitled, cranky finger-waving scold, the spawn of Karl Rove angry at being subjected to the Democratic process.  I know I'm not impartial, but watching it I would've walked away thinking Joe was a jerk and that Ned was a good guy worth listening to.