Jane! Christy! Fitz?

Fitz!

Fitz shmitz!

Why is everyone still invoking Fitz?

Didn’t he break–okay, wound–our hearts with Rove? Do you all know something I don’t? (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

Seriously. Whence all the Fitzing?

Seriously. Whence all the Fitzing?

When in Rome, I guess. Wasn’t sure if the firepups were ready for “I pinch”…

I”ve been racking my brains recently trying to figure out who Lieberman reminds me of. Then it hit me just now: Joe Lieberman looks like Palpatine in the STAR WARS trilogy recently completed. Makes sense since since Joe-mama has definitely gone over to the dark side…. ;-)

On Fitz, did anyone see the Pres-conference in Chicago, where the Preznit was asked whether he planned to reappoint Fitz, and he said, “I don’t know”?

I’’ve been racking my brains recently trying to figure out who Lieberman reminds me of. Then it hit me just now: Joe Lieberman looks like Palpatine in the STAR WARS trilogy recently completed. Makes sense since since Joe-mama has definitely gone over to the dark side…. ;-)

You’re not the first…

I’m amazed how much he sounds like the dad from ALF.

I never knew Hadassah was a pharmaceuticals lobbyist–thanks for sharing that. Don’t know why Lieberman is so worried or upset about losing. He could become a lobbyist like so many other obnoxious ex- senators (Packwood, Ashcroft). He’s got ins already with AIPAC and now the pharmaceutical companies.

Karl may have done some skullduggery to avoid his day in court, but the silence from the Fitz camp speaks volumes. This is far from over… And as far as Lieberman goes, all of his “support” is only showing the CT voters more reasons not to vote for him. Kudos to Jane and the ninja poodles, evil may run but it cannot hide!

re: fitz
a) tradition, and
b) an evolution of fitzing from the cheer for the single and specific person to a more generalized call for justice, taking on the evils of this administration, holding law-breakers and constitution-trashers accountable imo (or quite possibly just in my own head).

“how many of your kids are serving in Iraq, Mrs. Lieberman?”

That question, and variations of it, are what I’d give ten years off my life to see the major media ask current officeholders.

How many of your kids’s jobs have been outsourced?

How many of your kids don’t have health care?

How many of your kids’ pensions went up in smoke?

You get my drift.

Mr. Wonderful, read the FDL posts about the Scooter Irving filings. Fitz isn’t going to leak. Rove is going to testify against Scooter or get indicted, or both. DeadEye appears to be the destination.
Fitz is absolutely horrible at self-promotion, which is why he is such a kick-ass prosecutor and effing great patriot.
This is great stuff Jane. All the press reports I have read have been very positive about the debate. I guess Biden missed the nuclear pact Bush signed with India.

Fitz is absolutely horrible at self-promotion, which is why he is such a kick-ass prosecutor and effing great patriot.

Not horrible, just completely uninterested, if not outright anti.

Jane, if you’re in or around New Haven, you might enjoy dropping in on the Women’s Campaign School at Yale Univ.

It’s a non-partisan training program for women running for office:

http://www.wcsyale.org/default.aspx

They teach women who are political novices about fundraising, polling, staffing, media, etc.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Lieberman, your Republican colleague from Connecticut in the House, Christopher Shays, had this to say. “This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy. … There are going to be repercussions from this vote [on Schiavo’s constitutional rights]. There are a number of people who feel that the government is getting involved in their personal lives in a way that scares them.”

You agree with that?

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN, (D-CT): I don’t. But that’s a very credible and respectable opinion for Chris to take. See, I think–and Chris was there on the floor of the House, so maybe he heard in the debate some things that I didn’t hear following it from a distance. The fact is that, though I know a lot of people’s attitude toward the Schiavo case and other matters is affected by their faith and their sense of what religion tells them about morality, ultimately as members of Congress, as judges, as members of the Florida state Legislature, this is a matter of law. And the law exists to express our values.

I have been saying this in speeches to students about why getting involved in government is so important, I always say the law is where we define the beginning of life and the end of life, and that’s exactly what was going on here. And I think as a matter of law, if you go–particularly to the 14th Amendment, can’t be denied due process, have your life or liberty taken without due process of law, that though the Congress’ involvement here was awkward, unconventional, it was justified to give this woman, more than her parents or husband, the opportunity for one more chance before her life was terminated by an act which was sanctioned by a court, by the state.

These are very difficult decisions, but–of course, if you ask me what I would do if I was the Florida Legislature or any state legislature, I’d say that if somebody doesn’t have a living will and the next of kin disagree on whether the person should be kept alive or that is whether food and water should be taken away and her life ended that really the benefit of the doubt ought to be given to life. And the family member who wants to sustain her life ought to have that right because the judge really doesn’t know, though he heard the facts, one judge, what Terri Schiavo wanted. He made a best guess based on the evidence before him. That’s not enough when you’re talking about aggressively removing food and water to end someone’s life.

MR. RUSSERT: You would have kept the tube in?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I would have kept the tube in.

according to Cut’n Run Joe’s Senate website, he and lobbyist Hadassah have 4 children — Matthew, Rebecca, Ethan and Hana. Enlistment age is now raised to 42yo — http://goarmy.com for the LieberKids! No mention however of his first wife…

Off topic? Topic/schmopic, who needs a topic? I found this link, and pass it on to you. Vote Early, Vote Often.
Here’s Lieberman: http://amiannoying.com/(piftsr45nz0ehd45yylhodbe)/view.aspx?ID=210

Here’s Georg B*sh
http://amiannoying.com/(piftsr45nz0ehd45yylhodbe)/view.aspx?ID=66

Guess which is most annoying?

GREAT CATCH Dover!

The links may neeed to be cut and pasted. I don’t think they work as the sit.

Not only was Bush non-committal about keeping Fitz on as Special Prosecutor or US Attorney, but suddenly this new friendship has sprung up between Bush and Mayor Daley. Fitz must be getting under the skin of a lot of Chicago and Illinois politicians.

It’s also conveniently remote from New Haven to allow for the shipment of stunt volunteers

Jane, you don’t live in CT, you aren’t going to have to live with the bad blood created by this kind of rhetoric, CT Democrats do. Try to think how that sounds to those now supporting Lieberman.

Lamont supporters have to lay the ground work now for the general election. That means not indulging in any sort of rhetoric that would prohibit any future coalition. After the primary there will have to be a healing of the wonds, especially if Lieberman runs as an independent. So by all means, attack Lieberman early and often, but respect his supporters. A primary is not a general election and you can’t wage one as if it were.

The sustainability of FDL’s surging popularity is a tremendous victory for Jane, Christy, and all the other posters. FDL was built on Plamegate, but it’s showing a resonance/brand/trust with readers that will outlast it.

I still say “Fitz” but now without as much gusto; as you can tell, now it’s far more tentative. The reason being, I finally reached the conclusion with the revelation that Bush told Cheney to “Get all the information out” and the word was passed down the line to the underlings, what Fitz was really looking at was far from a slam dunk case. Except for Libby’s obvious and egregious lies, Fitz is looking at high crimes and misdemeaners, things like abuse of power and not following the laws by the president himself. This is not his purview, but belongs to Congress for final disposition. I’m just glad Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski were more aggressive in their approach to similar problems with the Chief Executive.

Regarding Ned, I thought he looked very good during the debate, and Lieberman looked like he thought he should be entitled to keep his position regardless of anything. Since the job is an entitlement to him, you could say that Biden is just a caseworker offering some Senate Welfare to the downtrodden Joe. What I can’t figure out is why nobody is bringing up all the support he’s been getting from Rush, Ann Coulter, et al. That can’t be good for his image as a devout Democrat!

I saw Biden on CNN last night, and I don’t know if it was the lighting, or what, but his teeth were so white, they reminded me of that “Friends” episode where Ross bleaches his teeth and they glow in the dark…

Bidens’ visit sounds a bit token, more like skulking into town and hoping he can get out fast, than the big whoop-te-doo complete with brass band that Lieberbaby would probably prefer. ‘Course Lieberbaby will probably give it the brass-band spin, anyway.

OT – For those of you who were on last night when I vented about my trip to see my aunt today, let me just tell you it was quite a day. We were fortunate to have quite a decently long visit with my aunt – without her asshole husband – but he eventually showed up and that’s when things got kind of awful. He was going on and on about her fall and the trauma and how pleased he was about her progress, and then said, “until *you people* called the other day, and upset her, and she’s been upset ever since, and didn’t want you to come” and meanwhile, my aunt is sitting right there – he talked about her like she wasn’t even in the room. He’s so hard of hearing it was excruciating trying to explain to him that she is family and he needed to let us know about this event. He kept giving us this song-and-dance about the whole thing, blaming us for her lack of progress, and I kept trying to tell him that even if she didn’t want us to visit, there was no reason not to at least inform us. I was so upset I had to walk out before I let him have it, but my sister-in-law just point-blank asked my aunt if she was upset by our being there. She said, “No,” and then my SIL asked if she wanted us to leave and she again said, “No.” SOB husband started in again, and my SIL just put up her hand and said, “Enough – she says she wants us to stay and she’s happy we’re here, so just shut it.” He finally left, and said he would be back later. I told my aunt how sorry I was – that I didn’t want to uset her, and she assured me that I shouldn’t pay attention to SOB. I’m thinking she may have been upset after we called because she realized he HADN’T let us know. I ended up going out to the nurse’s station and asking them to put my and my brother’s contact info in her chart, so that we could be called in the event of a change. What a creep. I guess I should have known years ago, when he didn’t come to my father’s funeral. Why? Because he had some “lucrative” part-time job driving a limo, and didn’t want to turn down THE MONEY. I wanted to tell him today that I hope he’s sitting on a big pile of money because he’s going to need it when he can’t take care of himself and there’s no one who gives a hot damn whether he lives or dies. Am not optimistic about my aunt’s physical or mental health, and that was the hardest thing to see.

“I voted for the bankruptcy bill before I voted against it”

(edited)

On the only vote that opponents of the bill had a chance of winning – a motion to cut off further discussion – he sided with the credit card companies.

his vote against the bill was an empty gesture.”

(edited)

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/….._endo.html

Can you say ALITO?

Chris Bowers at MyDD has a great commentary on the media’s obsession with Lieberman (how dare they challenge an incumbent) and silence as to the more conservative challengers of Chaffee and Akaka.

I’ve wondered about the point Alice [21] makes. What if Ned wins [we hope] in the primary? How, then, does he try to keep Democrats as Democrats and win some moderate Republicans over. There’s a big Conservative contingency that might well determine the outcome by Liebermanizing. I’m sure that the “win this battle, lose the war” problem is being considered, but it’s a thorny issue…

Chris Bowers at MyDD has a great commentary on the media’s obsession with Lieberman (how dare they challenge an incumbent) and silence as to the more conservative challengers of Chaffee and Akaka.

Neither of whom intends to ignore the primary outcome, correct?

So Joe Biden is expected to show up at a particular place at a particular time on Monday to support his pal from the Incumbency Party, No Mojo Lieberman. What is the latest word on the status of Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid with regard to their Lieberman problem? Are they supporting him, or struggling to find a graceful way to backtrack?

That photo raises a wardrobe issue, one that came to mind during the debate: IMHO Ned should stop wearing that shade of blue. It washes him out completely. I am sure this sounds entirely ridiculous but such is the image game of politics in the televisual era.

OK while we have Joe “B-side” coming to Stamford,maybe we can still dissuade Barbara Boxer from coming. Already she is getting enough calls and emails (including from CT NOW) that she may have second thoughts on coming. The more she gets the better. By the way, love your site and thanks for supporting Ned. I’m a volunteer at the Willimantic campaign office. Yes, I was in the parade!
Peace Out! Doug Yeager*
*The flames are stunning, the camera’s rolling,so take warning!” Bad Religion fan too

Jane, your endurance continues to amaze me, in light of recent tragic events. May you go from strength to strength.

From NY Observer: Schumer on Bloggers and Ned Lamont
As DSCC chair, Chuck Schumer finds himself in an interesting situation now that Hillary Clinton has gone on the record saying that she will support whoever wins the Democratic primary in the race between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont in Connecticut.
Clinton has managed to display loyalty to the party with her talk of “honoring” the decisions of primary voters, while no doubt winning some points with the anti-war liberals (and bloggers) who are opposing Lieberman.
Schumer, on the other hand, finds himself in a tighter spot due to his institutional stake in the matter. (He told Meet the Press, somewhat awkwardly, that he was “not going to speculate on what happens after the primary, because we believe Joe Lieberman is going to win.”)
Here’s what he told us last week about the bloggers and liberal activists drumming up money and support for Lamont.
“It’s money that could go to a better place. Because even if you are vehemently opposed to the war, my argument would be that taking back the senate is the best thing we can do. We have more effect changing the course that way.”
We’re still waiting for the folks at the DSCC to get back to us with more insight into Chuck’s uncomfortable position.”

Those of us who are desperately hoping that Ned Lamont will win the primary need to stay clear of any kind of ad hominum attacks on Senator Leiberman. In my view, Leiberman’s advocacy of the Iraq War is sufficient reason for the voters of Connecticut to give him a pink slip. Too many innocent people have died because of this stupid war.

remind me again – who was it who was “highly agitated and angry”?

Thanks Doug at 6:47.

“A primary is not a general election and you can’t wage one as if it were.”
I agree with you Alice, but HoJo wrecked the Primary with his “Plan B.” HoJo only has to beat Ned once. Ned has to beat HoJo twice.

Nora @ 30–

Right on, sister. Plus, tell Ned to nix those wide-collar shirts. They make him look like a dork. In my humble IMHO, of course.

Mickey @ 27 – The action on the ground is what is important. That is going to be difficult after that shocking incident of that driver running into Lamont supporters. I have never heard of anything like that, not even in a general election. That will make it all the more difficult for Lamont supporters to maintain some sort of personal firendship with Lieberman supporters during the primary. It can be done, I was a Miller supporter in the recent Virginia primary and several Webb supporters made it a point to reach out to me and were nice to me during the primary. I am a yellow dog Democrat and would always support a primary winner, but their acts of personal friendship made it much easier to do so.

The Greenwich Time had a roundup of the “conventional wisdom” from papers around the state. Pretty much a mixed bag.

http://www.greenwichtime.com/s…..-headlines

As much as I hope Ned can pull it out, not sure he will be able to do it. Incumbency and status quo have some pretty strong inertia.

This week, Lieberman did more to wreck his chances and help Ned Lamont than anyone could have imagined.

Liberman’s petulant, entitled betrayal of the Democratic Party reveals him for what he is — a petty, self important little man, who’s time on the public stage is drawing to a close.

Give it up, Joe — when Ned Lamont humiliates you in the August primary, salvage your dignity by endorsing Ned Lamont as the next Senator from Connecticut.

It will happen, one way or the other — the only question is, how much damage will Joe Lieberman do along the way?

Alice Marshall — he pays people to “act” as volunteers. What would you have me call them?

Alice Marshall — he pays people to “act” as volunteers. What would you have me call them?

Paid volunteers! No, wait…

Employees? Staffers? Operatives?

Ned has to beat HoJo twice.

And it will be much easier to do so if Ned can hold the Democratic establishment with him on the grounds that he won the nomination. Small acts of personal kindess towards Lieberman supporters now will pay off bigtime in terms of support in the general.

Leiberman will find it is difficult to run for statewide office if you have to build your organization from scratch.

Just EPU’d (or nearly):

Jane, any late word on the injuries to Ned’s staffers today at Sailfest?

Hold onto your hat for this OT from NYT:

July 9, 2006

Ally Told Bush Project Secrecy Might Be Illegal
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON, July 8 — In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.

The letter from Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.

But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department’s tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.

. . .

Emphases mine. In full here, with link to pdf of the letter.

Something has now got Hoekstra and Heather Wilson appalled enough to go to NYT with it. We shudder to think . . .

#44, Ms. Alice Marshall: who are you? Are you a member of the Lamont campaign? I’m just trying to figure out how you fit in the picture.

Ghostman

Great Post by Steve Gilliard — excerpt below

http://stevegilliard.blogspot……g-joe.html

The Beltway crowd is shocked that real people might want to get rid of one of their favorite housepets, therefore they have to be fringe leftists demanding a loyalty test. Instead of disgusted at the way he only attacks fellow Democrats and makes nice with Republicans who’s values he supposedly doesn’t share. People outside Washington aren’t stupid they know when they’re being sold out. Lieberman does things to get the support of the Beltway in crowd, who are slaves to power. And then he comes home and he’s got problems.

One thing, I think if he runs independent, he’s gonna lose. In fact, he’s gonna be pressed to drop out of the race. I don’t think the local papers are going to take kindly to electoral second chances. Now that he’s vunerable and running scared, they are gonna jump all over him.

Among the things that people haven’t reported outside of Connecticut, is that he couldn’t even hold the regulars in the convention. Which is a big sign of trouble. And is not war related. But remember, the loyal Democratic voters are now fringe voters looking to have a vote on the war and led by outsiders.

The same people who sent Lieberman back to Congress three times are now crazed and need to be saved from themselves by him and two chances to vote for him. Because they’re too stupid to vote for him in a primary, after sending him to the Senate three times.

I’ve never seen a more frightened successful experienced politician not facing indictment in my life. He’s totally lost his nerve. He’s insulting the voters who sent him to Washington.

Alice Marshall — he pays people to “act” as volunteers. What would you have me call them?

You know this for a fact? Is it in his FEC filings? I ask because it was routinely asserted that Harris Miller had no volunteers and that I was a paid shill. In fact like all other candidates Harris Miller had plenty of volunteers and I was one of them. All these false allegations had a very bad effect and the resulting ill will continues to linger. We will come about well enough, but it is best to avoid that sort of tension.

So, if they are paid you call them campaign staff, but be certain you are correct, look at the FEC filing, don’t go on popular report or rumor. Volunteers do not like to have their efforts disrespected.

Ghostman: Alice has been with us constructively since at least Oct. 19 of last year …

Eli @ 7
I’m amazed how much he sounds like the dad from ALF.

Perhaps he sound more like ALF?
ALF = Arrogant Little F**k*r

: “Accident at Sailfest in New London, 27 injured”

Ghostman – I am an active Virginia Democrat, I have a special interest in this race because I would love to see Leiberman go down and becuase Maura is a personal friend of mine.

stagehands,

please close link at 40. Safari is crippled.

Thanx

Headline at rawstory:

NYT Brooks: Many dems fear, despise netroots

“Two Sundays after taking on the founder of Daily Kos, David Brooks, a conservative columnist for The New York Times, lashes out at the netroots and many on the left for participating in a “liberal inquisition” of Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, RAW STORY has found.

Brooks’ latest column set for Sunday’s Times also suggests that many Democrats silenty fear and “despise” the netroots movement.”

(It’s all Markos’ fault! These people are hilarious! Wingnut operatives supposedly having the inside track on democrats – that’s sooooo believble! And David Brooks is sooo credible! No agenda there, right, Dave? LOL!)

Anne, thanks so much for that update on your visit today — I’ve been wondering how it was going. Two other similar situations are affecting friends of mine here, and it just makes the misery so much worse. I’m very sorry. Truly incredible how selfish some old buzzards can be. Maybe his nasty heart will pull a Ken Lay on him.

Alice Marsall 48 — I’m so sorry I won’t be able to establish it to your satisfaction with FEC filings. I took them at their word when they told me so.

Any other questions?

Hope that helps close the link.

“how many of your kids are serving in Iraq, Mrs. Lieberman?”

We could take back our nation with nothing but this mantra, in the faces of these war pimps 24/7.

I thought I heard on AA earlier today that Boxer was in CT today, and that details were posted at DU. I’ve looked, but I can never find what I’m after over there.

At the risk of being cut in bits and pieces, I’ve given some thought to Boxer going to CN and I’m not going to put her down for being loyal to a friend. She has worked with him for over 10 years. We really have no idea what their personal relationship is, and if they are friend then I have to admire her for standing by him, in what must be a very disheartening place.

OK, I’m ducking…

Ghostman

Click on Alice Marshall’s name on one of your posts.

JC 57,

still open. Fortunately Firefox still works.

I mean on one of her posts.

Well, Ms. marshall: your plan of attack, which essentially is to retreat, is NO plan of attack. It is the path of the coward.

I’ll withhold further strong comment based on the information relayed by wilson. Wilson and I are “kinda different” (chuckle)…but he’s pretty doggone smart.

Ghostman

I mean on one of her posts.

Do not attempt to click on Alice herself.

Don’t click here. Did that help?

Um, Ghostman, I think Alice’s “plan of attack” is to remember that even Lieberman Democrats A) Are ultimately on the same side (I have a *very* hard time remembering or even believing this…), and B) Will be needed in November.

I can’t get Safari to open — what comment # is the open tag in?

[ Stagehand: it’s fixed ! ]

kewalo 60, i love you but hurl rotten vegetables at you as requested.

Jane, Twisted Martini at 7:11 (#40)

David Brooks is a pathetic tool. Steve Gilliard said it best-”never take advice from your opponents.” Or in this case, enemies. The Times would have to pay me to read his shitty column.

Jane, been to Rein’s deli in Vernon yet? Get yer deli on…mmmm, pastrami!

I took them at their word when they told me so.

My mistake, I stand corrected. I had naively assumed that you were going on popular report, which can be mistaken. But if that is how they characterized themselves, well, they must be satisfied with it.

Really and truly, an 18 year veteran should be able to recruit actual volunteers. That is just sad. And makes me think he can’t possibly run as an independent.

To sum up or riff on a little more succinctly: Polarization and hostility is to be expected in Rep-Dem general elections, because both sides are pretty much mortal enemies at this point, at least at the grassroots level.

In primary elections, the sides should be considered friends and allies with a difference of opinion, but with similar ultimate goals.

Ahh,

mucho better, link closed.

On topic,

HoJo is making his own decisions on how to play this hand. For whatever reasons, they are turning out to be bad decisions for him. It’s not that we came out of the woodwork in the past couple of weeks, Ned has been popular in the blog world for quite a while. In the past several years, HoJo has done one thing after another to piss off the base. He is not used to reaping what he sows. Hence, WATB performance.

So sad.

I think I posted this EPU’d but for single-women GOTV, I think a Howard Dean-style handwritten letter campaign may be very effective, especially from in-state women. I’m out-of-state and male but would be willing to give some organizational help to such an effort. I wrote several such letters for Dean and it felt very satisfying, and the letters (collectively–dunno about my individual ones) definitely had an impact.

This is a sad time for friends of Joe Lieberman — but politics ain’t bean bag, and sometimes your friends get tossed to the wolves; sometimes your friends get old and slow and out of touch, and are culled from the herd.

Here is a clue for the friends of Joe Lieberman — get used to it. This is they way the world works, and Joe is out of touch and out of time.

The nimble among you should read the handwriting on the wall; the less nimble, look to your taxpayer guaranteed pensions.

Alice, I’m not from CT, but I think HoJo does very serious damage in much the same way Schumer does, from a relatively very blue state base. When HoJo caves on contraception for rape victims and his Alito vote which was so completely gratuitous, it becomes fair to ask in what sense he is a Dem. I think the perception is that he’s trading on his legacy panache, and Bush sponsored photo-ops to lull CT Democrats into missing these really important facts. IMO, HoJo actually does more damage than an openly conservative Republican.

Sorry if I broke the comments. I’ll stare at naked pictures of Ann Coulter as my punishment.

IT BURNS!

Ghostman, I really wish you wouldn’t feel so free to hurl the word “coward” around at people like Alice, who simply have different tactical ideas than yours. ‘Tain’t good, m’man.

Well, Ms. marshall: your plan of attack, which essentially is to retreat, is NO plan of attack. It is the path of the coward.

I’ll withhold further strong comment based on the information relayed by wilson. Wilson and I are “kinda different” (chuckle)…but he’s pretty doggone smart.

Huh? I don’t get any of this. I am just making comments on a blog. I am trying to give CT Democrats the benefit of my experience in the recent VA primary. All I want is for Democrats to win, CT, VA, everywhere. That is all. I really don’t have any other motive. If you look at my blog you will see that local politics is my passion.

RevDeb @ 7:32 pm (#74) – I hate to try to psych out people, but I really think Lieberman is disconnected from what his constituents are going through. I think you have to be seriously divorced from reality not to question the idea of staying in Iraq, and that thing that prompted the “Rape Gurney Joe” nickname just strikes me as extremely unsympathetic.

Ghostman, I really wish you wouldn’t feel so free to hurl the word “coward” around at people like Alice, who simply have different tactical ideas than yours. ‘Tain’t good, m’man.

Or say that Boxer is helping Joe out because they’re both Jews…

if Lieberman’s friends are true, sincere friends, they’ll stick with him even after he loses the Election. Otherwise they are leeches who are just using an incumbent Senator …

Doug Yeager – Hooray for You and glad you dropped in on FDL. Rest assured we Californians are emailing, faxing and phoning Senator Boxer to stay out of the way of the good people of Connecticut. Not sure yet if she even has a clue how appalled so many of us are at her “pledge” to come there and support loathsome Joe Lieberman.

She ought to stay in State and bitch-slap our State Democratic leadership for their cozy relationship with AT&T and Pebble Beach Company and the tens of thousands of dollars they take back to Sacramento every Spring from inside the gates of the golf kingdom within the endangered Del Monte Forest.

Or at the very least use her Senatorial leadership skills and influence to reverse the desecration visted the other night by the Monterey City Council approving a 14 million dollar office building (35,000 square foot) on a National Historic site (inside Old Monterey National Historic Landmark District) to house 63 city employees.

A citizen (referendum) signature drive is underway but time is short for stunned voters of Monterey to meet an August deadline.

Kewalo at 7:26 p.m.

“I’ve given some thought to Boxer going to CN and I’m not going to put her down for being loyal to a friend.”

What kind of friend would put Barbara (or any of her Democratic Senate collegues)in the kind of bind that Leaverman appears to have put her in? Prior to announcing his planned post-primary I’ll Do It My Way bailout from the Democratic Party, No Mojo Joe should have contacted prominent people who had pledged to support him and released them from their commitments. That would have been the decent thing to do. As it is, I think they would be entitled to say, Hold on, you’ve changed the rules, all bets are off.

Alice been around a long time doing good shit

lotus @ 7:36 pm (#79) Agreed. Alice Marshall’s just asking questions and trying to help.

Alice been around a long time doing good shit

And Ghostman’s been around a short time stirring up shit…

Time Out Folks — no one is a troll, but there is a wee bit of testiness in the thread. Best to let it go, and focus on the topic at hand — how can we help Ned Lamont clean out the Lieberman Stables?

Alice Marshall 72 — I believe Lieberman actually has volunteers, I’m not saying they all are paid. But I understand that it’s common on political campaigns to hire people of color to “fill out the crowd,” and when I asked around at the press conference, that was confirmed. So yes, your point is well taken and I don’t mean to dismiss his genuine supporters, I know he has them. But the crew of young kids who are always there holding signs whenever there are going to be cameras appears at the very least to have paid people amongst them.

well, now we know that Joe’s Catholic buddy is whining about polls showing the majority of Connecticut’s Jews aren’t ’sticking together’ with their famously-coreligionist, Holy Joe… Babs has never worn her Torah on her sleeve either …

“I’ve been racking my brains recently trying to figure out who Lieberman reminds me of.”

I’ve been wondering that too. I have a vague recollection of a cartoon character that I watched as a kid — long ago and far away. I just can’t put a finger on it. It was somebody with a whiney, sniveling, cowardly yet pompous delivery from high in the throat.

Kewalo 7:26 pm – As a constituent and supporter of Boxer, my problem is not so much that she’s campaigning for him before the primary, but that she won’t rule out supporting him even if Lamont wins.

I’ve been wondering that too. I have a vague recollection of a cartoon character that I watched as a kid — long ago and far away. I just can’t put a finger on it. It was somebody with a whiney, sniveling, cowardly yet pompous delivery from high in the throat.

Droopy Dog?

Eli –

let. it. go. . . .

Cujo, 81
agree, cosmic disconnect on his part. Perhaps running 2nd on the ticket in 2000 went to his head and gave him a sense of a larger importance than he really deserves. I don’t know.

The reality is that he has cavalierly taken positions that have cost people their lives. He has been more concerned with his precious notion of bipartisanship in a world where there is only the bully and the bullied. He is totally out of touch with reality.

Who did Joe Lieberman remind me of after watching last Thursday’s debate?

Crocker Jarmon (after Keith Olberman jogged my memory).

Remember that GREAT movie The Candidate? Robert Redford was the inexperienced upstart Bill McKay who takes on the entrenched out-of-touch incumbent Crocker Jarmon (played to perfection by Don Porter).

The undergod McKay pulls the upset and upon being given the news that he won he responds with that great last line: What do we do now? (haha)

Norm

It’s OK Sharkbabe, I’m used to being on the end of brickbats. LOL

I just know I have been loyal to old friends just because we had history. Obviously by now she knows that what she is doing is unpopular, so as much as we would like all the critters to do what we think is right. She’s doing what she thinks is right.

Can’t Boxer maintain a friendship with Joe and still honorably back-off from actively campaigning for him now that he’s laid his cards on the table (Plan B).

He’s put her in a terribly awkward position, not honoring the party, essentially.

No one is asking her to campaign against him, although that would be good too.

Can’t Boxer maintain a friendship with Joe and still honorably back-off from actively campaigning for him now that he’s laid his cards on the table (Plan B).

He’s put her in a terribly awkward position, not honoring the party, essentially.

No one is asking her to campaign against him, although that would be good too.

At the very least, she could tell Joe that she’ll support him in the primary, but *not* after. Or better yet, that she would only support him in the primary if he pledged to abide by it, but clearly that didn’t happen.

Eli #43: the word you’re looking for is “Actors.”

Alice #44: The HoJo campaign is paying (mostly young) people to show up at events and act like they’re enthusiastic volunteers. It’s dishonest for Joe and his campaign to pretend that those people are ACTUALLY volunteers, in the “unpaid-volunteer” sense of the word, and that’s what Jane wants to point out.

In contrast, the Lamont campaign has a large number of people who are willing to donate their own time and effort to do anything they can to help Ned win office. They don’t have to hire people to show up, because people show up out of genuine unsolicited enthusiasm.

If Joe is using DSCC campaign money to pay people (actors, if you like) to pretend they’re enthusiastic about another six years of Mess’o’potamia, those actors will pretend to like Ned just as much after Lamont wins the primary if Ned pays them to do it. But he won’t have to, because Ned actually HAS people who are genuinely enthusiastic about him and his ideas, so he doesn’t need to pay people to get the same turnout.

(snark on…)Hmmm, maybe Joe really IS creating jobs in CT…

when I asked around at the press conference, that was confirmed.

Yes, your early comment clarified this for me. In viginia the “photo op Wall paper” as it is known, is amatuer. The candidate just calls his manager, who calls around among volunteers, and a nice assortment of citizens show up for press events. It seems in CT there is a little money that goes with these events. Not the custom down here. Paid work is reserved for the more sloggy work, such as translations and voter registration and so forth. Smiling for the camera is stricly volunteer.

Curious Jim 92

Eddie Haskell?

Fignaz @ 7: I’m not normally such a dork, but I figured someone had to do it…

Joe has put Babs in a difficult spot and both of them know it. I’m sure the campaign visit was organized weeks ago — now Holy Joe does his Cut’n Run act on the Democratic Party.

Fine way to treat a lady !

neurophius at 85 laid out my thoughts already. I’m too slow. :)

The HoJo campaign is paying (mostly young) people to show up at events and act like they’re enthusiastic volunteers. It’s dishonest for Joe and his campaign to pretend that those people are ACTUALLY volunteers, in the “unpaid-volunteer” sense of the word, and that’s what Jane wants to point out.

One side effect of this is that it casts doubt on the sincerity of Joe’s *real* volunteers, and increases the bad blood that Alice is worried about. I suspect this is not accidental.

Curious Jim at 7:42

Your struggles to figure out who Joe reminds you of just made something pop into my head that I had noticed during the 2000 race but had long forgotten. You heard it here first:

Joe Lieberman had a career in television playing “My Favorite Martian.” He was a lot cooler then than he is now.

Poor Bobo Brooks, he sold his integrity for an early place in the cocktail weenie line, and now that the medium is changing, doesn’t have much left to show for it. I’ll give you clue David, and this one is gratis….attacking the powerbrokers of the future is a dumb way to run your career.

Now here Bobo, have a banana.

*bows to Alice*

and of course, you already know all this. Wow, everyone is kicking each other in the shins to see who can be first to jump to Jane’s defense- we should all know better. Why would the mother of all rabid lambs need us to defend her?

707* Kurt!

* LOL upside down cuz I fell outta my chair laffin’

Eli (94) has nailed it! Droopy Dog! Can we henceforth call him Droopy Dog Joe?

Eli is not the first to have made this observation, though his memory power is obviously prodigious. Greg Cosby made the Droopy connection after the Joe – Dick debate in 2000: http://www.jewishworldreview.c…..101300.asp

Or better yet, that she would only support him in the primary if he pledged to abide by it, but clearly that didn’t happen.

Eli, yes, it seems Boxer has several honorable options, now that Joe has essentially changed the terms. Honestly this is all very curious!

Bruce/Crablaw 32 — thank you very much.

Kewalo 60 — No need to duck, but I do disagree with you. Barbara Boxer has high pro-choice street cred, and she’s coming to Connecticut to convince people here that Joe has great pro-choice credentials too. That’s disingenuous. He doesn’t. Planned Parenthood did the same thing. What they’re telling other Democrats is that it’s okay to suck up to the religious right, sell out rape victims and put Alito on the bench and still get the pro-choice seal of approval. For those of us who look at what’s happening in South Dakota and other places, this is simply unacceptable and has much larger implications than Joe and Barbara’s friendship, which I really don’t care about. There is major pushback brewing here in Connecticut and people are not sitting back quietly while this happens. I think Boxer and others may be quite surprised in the coming days.

Curious Jim @112: I’ve seen the Lieberman-as-Droopy thing around for a while, I didn’t come up with it.

RevDeb 96 – thank you, perfectly put and let’s all stick together on this crucial matter of bringing down this bush/war lover/enabler and sending a big fat message to the political class…

jwr 7:43 I can see how a constituent might be upset that Boxer doesn’t some out like Hillary and say she will support whoever wins the primary. I know I would be upset too. Why isn’t waiting until after the primary good enough?

I guess this resonates with me a bit because I just went through a situation where I supported a friend and ended up in a bunch of shit. But I know I’d do it again. He’s my friend and I had his back. What can I say, I value loyalty.

If Babs, whom I admire for the most part, wants to be buds with Joe, that’s fine with me. They can be BFF all day long. But when Babs tries to paint Joe with the great job well done boffo woffo, I’m not going to see it her way. I’m going to actively disagree because it’s people like Joe who say and do things that in the aggregate, imperil the lives of Americans. So I don’t give a shit about their friendship. Again, here’s the rub: Babs is supporting Joe to the guy RE-ELECTED.

Kewalo @ 60:

When I heard the news about Boxer going out to stump for Lieberman, first I felt sickened, then I got angry and then I ended up feeling hopeless and numb.

I’ve already got Feinstein to elicit those reactions in me. I expect so much more from Senator Boxer.

If I could remember the exact cliche about the need to be careful whom you choose for your friends, I would apply it here.

Eli 107: I suspect this is not accidental.

elaborate please? Joe is trying to undermine his own volunteer operation? *pop* as smiley’s head asplode…

Alice Marshall — My guess is that it is an effort to put a fresh (read: young) face on a campaign that doesn’t naturally have one. I’ve met quite a few Lieberman supporters since I’ve been here, perfectly nice but all over the age of 80. It’s just anecdotal but people seem to feel that Joe does really well amongst old people but not so well amongst younger ones. If you look at the “wallpaper” as you say, they’re all quite young, hence the nickname the “LieberYouth.” And they’re always there with their t-shirts and their signs.

I think Ray Walston (RIP) would be mortified, neuro, but yer right . . .

Boxer is in a tough spot — a long time friend in the Senate has asked her for help, and it’s tough to say no.

That said, Senator Boxer does not appreciate what she has stepped into. Sailor Joe’s boat has been stranded in a weird low tide — caused by a tsunami of anger that will wash away all that stand against it.

Take heed, Senator Boxer — don’t get caught in a bad spot. We need you more than Joe Lieberman needs you.

elaborate please? Joe is trying to undermine his own volunteer operation? *pop* as smiley’s head asplode…

I’m saying that it’s in his interest for Lamont supporters to assume his volunteers are shills, making them more hostile and nasty, and making it much less likely that they will throw their support to Lamont if he wins the primary.

I really don’t think Joe gives shit one about harmony within the CT Democratic party.

veruca 119:

With friends like that who needs Republicans?

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?

You are known by the company you keep (so don’t hang out with Joe Lieberman?)

neurophius at 85

After further consideration, in all fairness I must acknowledge that Joe may in fact have released Barbara from all commitments and she may have decided to stick with him anyway. We will most likely never know. Somehow it just doesn’t seem in character for Joe, however, judging for example from the character he exhibited in his debate with Ned, in his public backstabbing of Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, and indeed in his decision to go independent and have his cake and eat it too.

“Can’t Boxer maintain a friendship with Joe and still honorably back-off from actively campaigning for him now that he’s laid his cards on the table (Plan B).
He’s put her in a terribly awkward position, not honoring the party, essentially.”
Yes. HoJo put the !@#$%^& Grand Canyon between himself and the rest of the Democratic Party with “Plan B.” Joe doesn’t want any connection to the will of registered Democrats. IMO the fact that so many Dem Senators haven’t taken Hillary’s position is tantamount to party suicide. If HoJo can do it, so can all the incumbents. It simply cuts the party off from its constituents. CT Dems are paying for a primary that HoJo says doesn’t count. He’ll go through the motions, let them pay for all of it, but he’s running for November.
HoJo’s “Plan B” also seriously injures all the other Dems in CT who have to run in the primary. Why should any of them accept the decision of the primary if HoJo won’t?

OT: on CSpan2 — it’s showing a booksigning in DC of President Al Gore’s book — Ralph Nader was in the line and told Gore his book was economically priced !

Sorry, I meant, “making it less likely that his own volunteers will jump ship”.

Eli 124 — I really don’t think Joe gives shit one about harmony within the CT Democratic party.

You can say that again. It’s downright nasty here.

In the 2004 campaign, the North Denver Democratic satellite office hired GOTV workers for $8 an hour. Lots of volunteers came in too, but paid kids were a big part of the operation.

It was the best the local Dems had ever done, but still only rated a “C” — which goes to show how lame they’ve been in the past. MoveOn had a better GOTV in my neighborhood, but it was all way too lame.

Boxer must think she has Zeus’ bottomless pot of political capital if she’s wasting so much of it on a doofus like Lieberman.

Boxer must think she has Zeus’ bottomless pot of political capital if she’s wasting so much of it on a doofus like Lieberman.

Well, she *is* (or was) a liberal Dem in a very blue state. Who’s gonna run against her?

Jane7:52 I think this might be a good learning experience for Boxer. I understand all the reasons she shouldn’t do it, I’m not sure she does. It isn’t all bad for a critter to learn a new lesson now and then.

Please understand I know very well why she shouldn’t do it. But rather then just conclude that is strictly politics I am just saying it might be friendship and loyalty and I would understand that.

My Favorite Martian

http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/970…..vorite.jpg

smiley @ 125:

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?

Oooh, so it’s all a cunning plan on Boxer’s part! Thanks, I feel much better now!

Kewalo -

It’s really sweet that Boxer has friends, but she is a public servant and she has to put that before other things, if indeed this is about friendship anyway.

None of us really has any idea. It’s kinda nuts when you think about it – she’s really surprising me.

My Favorite Martian

I thought Marsachusetts was next door.

fignaz says 6:10 pm
I’’ve been racking my brains recently trying to figure out who Lieberman reminds me of

OMG It just hit me… He reminds me of that blonde doctor from Planet of the Apes voice and all!

[I don’t think Joe gives a shit about] the CT Democratic party.

We’ve moved way beyond Harmony — His Imperial Majesty, Holy Joe Lieberman, only gives a shit about one thing — himself.

And that is why his campaign is imploding; he has the money, but he is completely out of touch with the voters of Connecticut.

Don’t you *like* surprises, Jenny?

And that is why his campaign is imploding; he has the money, but he is completely out of touch with the voters of Connecticut.

The Democratic ones, anyway. But they’re not the ones I’m most worried about.

Maybe I shock too easily, but it does appall me how muddled most DC Dems are by ANY sudden development anymore. What JoHo did last Monday should have put them on instant battle-stations in defense of the party and the primary system.

Seems they’re just too sclerotic from all the cocktail weenies to remember the ABCs of their trade. Worthless.

No. 11

At one time representatives only received a stipend because their work was considered part time away from whatever it was that they did for a living. The phrase “public service” presumably meant something then.

Later it was argued that the only way we could have representatives equal in talent to administrators in the private sector was to compete with similar compensation. Therefore, “public service” was lost to the debate over acquiring talented professionals. I personally do not see that this has happened, considering that we still have representatives who are closet bigots and superstitious zealots.

The anti-federalists argued that what we are witnessing would be the consequence of the federalists’ conclusions.

Dover, I think Boxer is doing what DiFi, Schumur and HoJo have forced her into. She, Kerry, and Feingold are seen as the “extreme left.” That “extreme left” attracts a lot of national neocon money laundered into wingnut 501(c)3’s that will hammer her and try to turn the traditional media against her. It may also finance a “moderate Dem” to challenger he in a primary. The bottom line is, Boxer doesn’t see any advantage to her to going further to the left. The other Vichy Dems have alreadly left her plenty exposed, they all remember Daschle losing. My guess is Boxer’s trying to inoculate herself against that in the safest way she can, support HoJo. JMO.

Don’t you *like* surprises, Jenny?

LOL. Sure, I’ll take a dozen roses with an anonymous card anytime. :)

Isn’t that true of all incumbents though? I mean not giving a shit about anything other than numero uno. Talk about a sense of entitlement!

LOL. Sure, I’ll take a dozen roses with an anonymous card anytime. :)

It wouldn’t be anonymous. I’d want full credit.

Jane 121 – that is a portriat of an imploding campaign, and not one that could launch a credible independent effort. And you are doing tremendous work, leaving aside your terrible grief. I was in a complete fog when I lost my mother.

John Casper 127- totally off topic here (forgive me everyone else) but re: your post this AM on the Coulter plagarism vs. copyright violation question. The Rude Pundit (oh my virgin eyes, beware the dirty words!) has several R- and even X-rated posts about this here… and the matches are word-for-word, exact. See this post for just one example::

Here’s Coulter from Chapter 1 of Godless: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River in Maine, was halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant previously believed to be extinct.

Here’s the Portland Press Herald, from the year 2000, in its list of the “Maine Stories of the Century”: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River, is halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant believed to be extinct.

Strangely similar, no? By the way, that’s a story from 1976. Coulter doesn’t tell you that little tidbit, making you think it happened last week. […]

there are others- seems like a pretty clear-cut case to me. I’m just wondering if the Portland Press-Herald might be interested in collecting any royalties from all the money Ann is making by passing their work off as her own.

The music industry defines the threshold for violating copyright as lifting four bars of someone else’s melody. I don’t know about you, but to me this seems like a helluva lot more than four bars.

Lieberman is thrashing about like a blinded one eyed monster. He didn’t see this coming, had no organization or plan to respond, took his incumbency for granted, and now is his own worst enemy.

heh . . .

Jane, I have an idea. Why don’t we invite Sen. Boxer to come on FDL and explain to us why she is supporting someone who is a Bush enabler, who is heartless toward women who are victims of rape, who helped put a theofascist on the Supreme Court and who is tearing apart the Connecticut Democratic Party? I, for one, would like to hear what she has to say, and to have a chance, as a progressive Democrat, to give her a little feedback.

Kewalo at 7:54 pm – Good question. I look at this as part of the bigger picture, which means taking the Senate. And I don’t trust an independent Lieberman to caucus with the Dems, especially when it matters most. I don’t think Boxer should either, but that’s her decision to make.

I hear what you’re saying wrt the friendship angle. I myself have nearly gone broke to help friends in need. But this seat doesn’t belong to Joe. He’s not going to wind up a pauper or in jail should he lose it, and I suppose I’d just like her to acknowledge that fact, if only for the good of the party.

Eli,

I don’t like surprises like this

Jenny 8:07 While it is true that she is a public servant and owes a certain amount to her constituents she didn’t sell her soul when she ran and I certainly have never seen her take the position that she had to do everything that they wanted, even if they all agreed.

The fact is we have no idea why she is going to CN. None. If she learns a hard lesson, well, that’s the way it goes.

BTW I had no idea that she was Jewish. For some reason I’m surprised.

Lotus 143 !

Yes, that’s it. (I feel like Olympia Dukakis getting the answer to “Why do men cheat?” in Moonstruck).

It’s just a slow-moving, mostly plodding mindset. Politicians don’t shift decades-old habits on a dime. I really think it’s as simple as that.

I agree -ck-.
MSNBC never would have carried the debate had it not been for HoJo’s “Plan B.”

I agree with Alice. “This is a portrait of an imploding campaign.”

Will it implode fast enough for Ned to win in August and November?
As long as HoJo keeps pissing off the reporters as he did Thursday after the debate, Ned’s got a chance.

I heard about that, Lizzy. Although the version I heard made me think it was a Lieberman supporter driving…

re. Boxer et al supporting Holy Joe…

I think a big part of this is that there are a number of Dems (and Repubs for that matter) in the Senate who are increasingly aware of the blogosphere, and they have identified us as hostile forces. And they are right, to them we ARE hostile forces. We all have a variety of political opinions on different subjects, which makes us hard to market to…hence them boiling us down to being “anti-war”. But more importantly, we are hostile to corporatism. And look at someone like Boxer in particular; she is one of the “good guys” on most issues, but she is completely beholden to her corporate donors. And she’s in a state where the only serious competition she is going to have is from fellow Democrats…and you can imagine how it must make her feel to see the blogosphere going all “rabid lamb” on Joe. This is definitely something that could happen to her in 2010.

I’m just speculating here, as she never responds to any of my emails when I disagree with her, and I have no idea why she is supporting him.

neurophius at 8:14 p.m.

…especially since she does not respond to e-mail from non-California residents.

Gotta run for reals. Eli, thanks for the flowers!

As long as HoJo keeps pissing off the reporters as he did Thursday after the debate, Ned’s got a chance.

It’s very, very hard to win against a hostile media. Let’s hope Joe is stuck with one for the next four months.

Thanks for the link lizzy:
“….BUT EVERYONE WITH THE CAMPAIGN IS OK. I am not sure about everyone else injured, but they are all in our thoughts and prayers.”

BTW, has BoBo Brooks ever read a blog? He sounds like he thinks he knows who we all are. And he’s decided we’re a monolithic horde of troublemakers. So BoBo thinks he can marginalize us inside of a mindless paragraph because he and his buddy Bush are the patriots. These people are so stuck in their left/middle/right metaphors, it’s nearly criminal. What is the freakin’ point of calling Joe a Liberal?

JWR8:15 Thanks for seeing what I was trying to say and, I guess, not doing a very good job of it.

What is the freakin’ point of calling Joe a Liberal?

That’s a very good question. I thought liberals were Scary and Bad, not like Serious Principled Moderate Joe.

Meta8:21

I read a stunning post today where Bobo just gets skewered. It was great!

http://driftglass.blogspot.com…..ynand.html

John Casper –

I feel like Ned Lamont could win by 2 to 1 in August — Lieberman has screwed up that badly this week.

If Holy Joe had played the humble public servant, who’d gotten a little out of touch doing all that hard work down in Washington, he would have been the odds on favorite. If he’d taken that approach, and still pulled the petitions in the last few days before the primary, he might have won.

Now, he has turned the CT Democratic Party against him, and the CT Independents who can’t stand Bush are not going to cut him any slack.

Holy Joe commited political hara-kiri this week — we are reading his entrails.

Ooo, in case anyone missed Lizzy’s link:

Don’t Panic

A few bumps and bruises, a broken leg, fractured nose, and some pretty shaken-up staffers and volunteers…BUT EVERYONE WITH THE CAMPAIGN IS OK. I am not sure about everyone else injured, but they are all in our thoughts and prayers.

For everyone wondering what I am talking about (I wanted to get the don’t panic part in first for those that did), a car plowed into a group of 27 people at a New London event today. Quite a few campaign staffers were in the path. Ned is not among those injured. The article suggests (although I don’t want to read too much into it) that everyone will be alright.

…

I wasn’t sure how to present this information, and I held it for a few hours until I was either: a) able to get more information or b.) there was a news story about it. B came first. I’ll keep folks updated, but please keep everyone injured, campaign staff or not, in your prayers this evening. Scary stuff.

Update: Can you be more proud of a campaign staffer? One of our Congressional District Coordinators and ex-service member, Rafe (2nd CD), actually pushed someone out of the way of the oncoming car and took the punishment himself. He is laid up in the hospital this evening with what appear to be two broken legs. He’ll be alright though, and if I know anything about him (which I do), he’ll be crutching along ID’ing voters and door-knocking in no time.

Comments:
Please give my best to Rafe and tell him if he needs someone to drive him around, I am offering.

Did you break your nose?

- Lizzy Jul 8, 10:04 PM #
No… I wasn’t there.

Tim

- Tim Jul 8, 10:08 PM #

John Casper- I have an answer re: the coulter plagarism vs. copyright lawsuit question. I tried to cite the rude pundit but my post vanished… perhaps becuase I accidentally made it look like comment spam :-/ hard not to do when describing The Rude One.

Anyhow, click here for an all-in-one post, but be careful if you have a delicate constitution becuase he uses dirty words.

The example I wanted to show you is this one: word for word match. I wonder if the Portland Press-Herald might want to collect some royalties for the money Ann is making by passing their work off as her own?

from The Rude Pundit:

Here’s Coulter from Chapter 1 of Godless: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River in Maine, was halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant previously believed to be extinct.

Here’s the Portland Press Herald, from the year 2000, in its list of the “Maine Stories of the Century”: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River, is halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant believed to be extinct.

Strangely similar, no? By the way, that’s a story from 1976. Coulter doesn’t tell you that little tidbit, making you think it happened last week.

There is actually a lot more, and enough of it is word-for-word that I think it establishes willful negligence on the part of the publisher, which should be good for treble damages….

Kewalo, thanks very much for the link. Love Driftglass.

neurophius @ 8:19:

…especially since she does not respond to e-mail from non-California residents.

Don’t feel bad. As it turns out, she can’t be bothered to answer emails from California residents either.

Way, way OT – Lotus, you sure can cook.

Late-Nite’s up.

Mercy — thanks, meta! (What took your fancy?)

To Eli at 28:

Excellent point.

Meta 8:31 YVW. I guess everyone’s heard of Driftglass but me, I just stumbled over it today and honestly, I was just stunned at that post.

If you don’t like Bobo, you are really going to enjoy that post LOL.

smiley –

Thanks for Rude Pundit plagarism citation from the Spawn of Satan; a one word difference. Was instead of Is — that paragraph alone is enough to tie the anchor chain around it’s neck, and send her down to Davey Jones Locker.

i’m sure someone’s already pointed this out, but i’ll just add my voice to the chorus:
this post is mistitled. it should be saturday JULY 8, not june 8.

get it right. making sure the record is maintained correctly is an important element these days in the age of rampant bushite revisionism.

[ Moderator: Thank you … the correction has been promptly made … once again, thank you! ]

Kewalo, lotsa folks haven’t found driftglass yet — but you see what happens when they do!

The guy’s a force of nature.

“Now, he has turned the CT Democratic Party against him, and the CT Independents who can’t stand Bush are not going to cut him any slack.”
I agree. I keep hoping to find some Republicans who still believe in honest government. It’s not like the average Gooper gets any benefit from the K Street fleecing of the taxpayer.
I thought it was very important when HoJo towards the end of the debate did the wink, wink, nudge, nudge, “as a third term Senator, I can bring more pork/earmarks home than Ned.”
That’s anathema to “small government,” Reagan Republicans. They expect honest government, like we all do, or at least they claim to believe what Reagan taught them about Democrats as “tax and spend liberals.” Ned took the high road in the debate at that point, which took some serious guts and made an idealistic statement about honest government for everyone.
I hope you are right and Ned’s “I’ve met a payroll,” is normally music to the ears of conservatives. If Ned wins in August, however, I think it will be by a hair. He started with zero name recognition.

veruca at 8:28 pm – Hey, wait a minute, I get responses to all of my e-mails to Boxer. (not personalized, of course), and usually a month before I get a response from DiFi, though my messages to each were sent on the same day. Credit where due. ;-)

Nice catch dmg. I missed that and AFAIK, you were the first to catch it.

Re: Joe’s look-alike

My Favorite Joe

JWR @ 8:39PM

Show off! Teacher’s Pet! 8-p

(One time though, I think I got a personal email from Pelosi)

Lotus, I’ve very sadly had to miss all the pulling up of chairs on Saturday mornings because I work on weekends. But when I get home I am really happy to sit down and relax with that thread. Each week you put forward some of the most interesting stuff. Your love of cuisine is obvious, and since I work in the culinary biz, I feel that coming from all of you right through the tubes, as it were, and it makes me happy. I can’t wait to try all of it. Fruit is one of my favorite tools, so I’ll have to contribute something sometime in the next few days.

Jane — thanks for linking to the transcript of the debate. Remember the $800 million claim? Well, it’s false. This is what Lieberman said:

But I’ll tell you why I voted for the bill. There were other parts of it, including one that I worked very hard on and lead the way, that resulted in a change in something called Lycap (ph) that the Consumer Council of Connecticut, Mary Healey says, was historic and will save Connecticut electricity customers $800 million. Would you have voted against that?

LICAP stands for Locational installed capacity, but is shorthand for a method to pay electric power plant investors payments in addition to the money they receive from selling electricity in New England. The extra payments are needed because energy prices are artificially capped below the levels that would sustain investments in new plants and investments to keep existing plants operational. Without investments, new plants don’t get built, and older plants break down and must be retired. That creates shortages and possible blackouts, if not corrected. This was particularly a problem in SW Connecticut, where there hadn’t been enough investment in either new plants or transmission lines that could bring power from surplus areas, like Maine.

Connecticut is part of the New England electricity market. An original LICAP proposal from the regional grid operator (ISO-NE) was controversion and had to be approved by federal regulators (FERC). Almost all of New England’s officials opposed the original proposal because it could have raised rates to pay for the new investment. They wrote letters to FERC, and the New England Congressional delegation inserted language in the Energy Bill asking FERC to “carefully consider” the concerns of New England officials wrt to the LICAP payments proposal. As part of its normal procedures, FERC called for negotiations to reach a settlement. The energy bill had almost no effect because it’s language was advisory and only asked FERC to do what it is required to do anyway.

The Settlement, reached a few months ago and now approved by FERC claims that it is less expensive (hence, the claim that it saved $800 million) than the original propoal, but noone honestly believes that is true, when all the costs are taken into account. The costs are simply reallocated to other parts and consumers will still pay. It was a face-saving compromise. Consumers will still pay in the end, and the total cost they will have to pay over time is probably not different from what they would have had to pay over time under the original proposal.

But Lieberman implies that the LICAP settlement/compromise that supposedly saved the illusory $800 million was in the energy bill, or caused by the energy bill that he voted for. It wasn’t. The settlement was worked out between the parties in negotiations under a FERC administrative judge. The Settlement would have occurred under FERC procedures with or without the energy bill. It was reached during the winter of 2005-06. The energy bill was passed well before that.

One more thing: Some Connecticut officials simply wanted to use the energy bill to kill LICAP altogether, not substitute a presumably lower cost alternative. Early energy bill language would have directed FERC to vote againt LICAP, period. If they had gotten their way, there might have been no solution to the investment problem and New England, and Connecticut in particular would have been well on their way to serious shortages — just like California in 2000-01.

So if I knew nothing else about Lieberman, I would vote against him for being irresponsible in handling electricity policy, never mind his bragging about a vote that did little or nothing except fool Connecticut consumers.

John Casper –

I’m putting on my game face, gettin’ into a writing rhythm — no more nebbishy worrying for me, we are going to win.

john casper, #183:
aw shucks, mister, tweren’t nuthin’.

i’m just over here blushing and looking for a can to kick. now you all carry on, yer making exceedingly good points.

veruca – :p Actually, I think she just knows how very concerned I am for her future in politics after this boneheaded move supporting Joe, and appreciates my advice.

I now declare this Land of EPU.

We can’t wait for your pastry tips, too, meta! I’m really honored by your compliment, but the whole truth is, all I’m really good at is recipe-trying and -passing along.

If something ever deprived me of my eating apparatus, I’d be to bury.

Thanks again — you made my day.

Lotus 8:36 So Driftglass is a man, I couldn’t tell and don’t care really. That post today really got me, I’ve shared the link several times already. If he’s that dynamic all the time he’ll turn my into a regular.

How in the world do you folks that work keep up? I’m retired and still can’t seem to get everything read. Kudos to you.

Yep, Kewalo, that’s just garden-variety driftglass. He always knocks me outta my chair. Can’t remember where I first heard of him, but I bet it was here.

They ALWAYS say “It was taken out of context.” I even blogged about how reporters always seem to fail to ask the obvious follow-up: “Well, Senator, what does that statement mean in its context.”

And similarly, when the claim is made that a report or a methodology is “flawed,” reporters never seem to ask for a list of the flaws.

Regarding “Fitz”

In state courts and gang prosecutions, once one member of the gang tells someone to “take care” of someone not connected with the gang and the third party dies the person who said to “take care” of the third party is generally criminally liable for the “natural and probable consequeses” of the other gang member’s actions. Following that logic, both Bush and Cheney are guilty of outing an undercover CIA agent. If either was black or Hispanic, a member of the Crips, Bloods, or 13th Street, they would be convicted in two seconds by any jury in America.

Lieberman Needs Mathematics 101

To the Editor:

Sen. Joe Lieberman’s recent ad attacking challenger Ned Lamont provides just one more reason why Lieberman should retire: He needs more time to brush up on his math. According to Lieberman, you would think that Lamont’s votes as a Greenwich Selectman involved cutting health care and education budgets, and slashing funds designed to eliminate asbestos in the high school. This could not be further from the truth. Lieberman is guilty of playing the “fuzzy math” game deliberately attacking one of Ned Lamont’s greatest strengths.

As a successful businessman, Ned understands the importance (which Lieberman and his friends in the administration do not) of prudent resource allocation. In the cases Lieberman cites, Ned actually voted to increase budget allocations over the prior years. The “cuts” that Lieberman alleges Ned endorsed actually reflect consensus arrived at through a careful review process in which sensible reductions were made to proposed increases.

Any experienced professional whether businessman or politician understands that early proposals often are inflated to ensure that such reviews produce appropriate results; more to the point, increases over a prior year cannot reasonably be described as “cuts.” A few examples of decisions Ned Lamont supported: The Health Department requested a budget increase of nearly 12 percent over its 1989-90 budget of $2.8M. The Board of Estimate & Taxation approved a budget increase of more than 6 percent. Lieberman charged that Lamont voted in 1993 to cut the town’s education budget by $150K. In fact, Lamont supported increased school spending by 4.2 percent adding 17 teaching positions and maintaining the town’s top ranking in the state for per-pupil spending.

Lieberman claims that Lamont voted against cleaning up asbestos at Greenwich High School. Actually, Lamont wanted a second opinion, as he believed the proposed costs were too high. While competitive bidding seems to have become passé in this Bush-Cheney era of no-bid contracts, it nevertheless remains the fiscally responsible approach. In Bush’s world of record deficits, the country could use a Connecticut senator who knows how to add, subtract and manage fiscally responsible budgets. Ned Lamont is that man.

Ann Galloway

Stamford
http://64.233.161.104/search?q…..k&cd=1

This letter is no longer available at the website.

This page, http://home.comcast.net/~ctblogger/Tally.htm , leads to a page from the Connecticutt Blog, with a run down of answers to this question posed to elected officials: “Will you support the Democratic nominee for Senate?
http://home.comcast.net/~ctblogger/Tally.htm

And this guy, http://zengerite.blogspot.com/ , sure has a blog ax to grind regarding Lamont.

Lieberman reminds me of the white father of two black kids in the old sitcom. Gary Coleman? Whachu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?

Seems like that guy looked down his nose at whomever he was talking to like HoJo does.

Conrad Somebody?

Jane Hamsher is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life !

well, maybe Christy is as well …

I hate to be all grammar police, but “diffuse” is refers to light or color, as in “the sunset created a sea of diffuse reds & oranges. You mean defuse, as in to remove the fuse from a bomb.

I know I know, but hey: language matters too.

love & kisses,

Nick in Florida

Go Ned!

[ Moderator: correction just made … thank you ! ]