(Update:  Maura has a blog post about this up at MLN:  "Apparently, some Lieberman staffers told reporters who were talking to me that I was a Lamont campaign plant, which is completely untrue."  Lying wankers.  Joe owes Maura an apology.)

So far the local Connecticut press has been quite insightful about their coverage of the Lamont/Lieberman race.  But today, News Channel 8 did a piece that both managed to suggest that people asking Joe polite but uncomfortable questions at the Stamford event were working for Ned Lamont (and characterizing this as "harassment"), and completely failed to mention that the event was scheduled around Joe Biden, who never showed.  (Video courtesy the reliably amazing Spazeboy.)

I know the two people they interviewed — Maura and Edward — and neither work for the Lamont campaign.  They’re both local people who care passionately about the outcome of this race and it was completely churlish of Lieberman to suggest that they worked for Ned.  But that is the feces-flinging style Lieberman has adopted for this campaign.  It’s who he is.

I was on Colin McEnroe’s show today and I thought he had a very good insight.  He agreed that Ned would not be doing nearly so well if the Lieberman campaign were not making egregious mistakes at every turn.  I asked why he thought this was happening, because clearly Joe is not stupid and did not get this far by hiring stupid people.  He said no, Joe’s campaign people were very smart, but that they were collectively reducing each others’ IQs because they were thinking with their emotions and not their heads. 

They are all evidently of the opinion that a terrible thing is being done to a great man, much like Holy Joe himself.  Which is really pretty remarkable when you think about it — this "terrible thing" called a primary challenge actually happens all the time, and Tom Swam is hardly Lee Atwater.  But they have convinced themselves that it is so (pick up Bobo Brooks’ righteous indignation and you’ll get the general idea) and everything else proceeds from this delusion.

Political fiascos ensue.  Praise the Lord. 

Meanwhile, on the non-mistake side of the equation, there is more Hillsman "fuck it, let’s go for it" commercial inspiration here.   It is really hard not to like Ned in spite of his karaoke stylings, and it’s nice of cranky, angry Lieberman to give him the opportunity to take advantage of that.

Related posts:

  1. “He’s With Us On Everything But The War”
  2. Your Daily WaPo Torture Apology Debunking
  3. Lieberman’s Filibuster Threats Run Counter to 2006 Campaign Rhetoric
  4. Klein on How Lieberman Went Bad: It’s All Jane’s Fault
  5. Thanking Green Mountain Daily for Covering Peter Welch and Supplemental