Last night the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee voted overwhelmingly to
"publicly censure and repudiate the words and actions of Joe Lieberman and to ask that he resign from the Democratic Party of the state of Connecticut."
The resolution instructs our representatives to the state central committee to vote for the same resolution when it comes up for a vote at the next meeting. The Greenwich DTC also overwhelmingly adopted a resolution criticizing Senate Democrats for not stripping Lieberman of his committee chairmanship. The votes were all the more significant since they were taken in full view of speaker of the Connecticut state house of representatives Jim Amman, who was sitting in the front row.
This writer, who is also a member of the DTC, urged members to remember that it is sometimes up to the grass roots to guide our leaders, rather than the other way around, and this is one of those moments. I urged the members to remember that it was Greenwich's own Ned Lamont who sparked the Democratic Party's revival in 2006 that culminated in Barack Obama's victory and the booting out of Fairfield County's faux-moderate Republican Chris Shays. And I reminded members that Lieberman not only refused to endorse Greenwich's U.S. congressman-elect Jim Himes (CT-04), but actually praised Shays. Debunking Lieberman's own spin that he was guilty only of making some statements "in the heat of the campaign" that he regretted, some recalled that Lieberman ran for both vice-president and senate in 2000, which, winning the former, would have resulted in the Republican governor's naming a Republican to his seat.
We recalled how Ned Lamont had worked loyally and tirelessly for Democrats since 2006, first campaigning for fellow Nutmegger Chris Dodd in New Hampshire and Iowa, then signing on as Barack Obama's Connecticut campaign chairman. On Super Tuesday Ned Lamont delivered Connecticut for Obama, the only New England state to go for Obama. Lieberman, on the other had, gave Democrats the back of his hand by chairing McCain/Palin's Connecticut campaign. Lamont is the man who deserves to represent the Constitution State in the U.S. Senate, whether in 2010 should Dodd retire, or in 2012 when Lieberman is sent packing.
Speaker Jim Amman, who supported Lieberman even during the general election, sat quietly in the front row as we raked Lieberman over the coals.
Frankly, President-elect Obama is making a mistake in extending an olive branch to Lieberman. Someone like Lieberman will never do the right thing, he can never be trusted, and restoring him to a leadership position is just asking for trouble.
I hope every other Connecticut DTC stands up against Lieberman, and passes the petition to censure Lieberman and condemn him, and demand that he resign from the party. Harry Reid and his fellow Senate Democrats were just plain wrong to pander once again to Lieberman. We Nutmeggers do not have to knuckle under, and we don't appreciate at all being thrown under the bus by Reid. We know Lieberman only too well, and we know that it is time to call him the disgrace that he is, not to reward him for his dishonesty and disloyalty.