Not only does the GOP love Lieberman, Fox News believes his primary defeat is tantamount to treason.
An Evening with Joe Lieberman and Fox News
All day last Tuesday I looked forward to watching election returns from
Connecticut to witness the downfall of the democratic party's most despicable
inmate, Senator Joseph Lieberman. For years, Lieberman has done his utmost
to show that with democrats like him, who needs republicans? The senator to
this day stands as one of the biggest supporters of the Iraq war, uttering on
many occasions that 'things are getting better.' If Lieberman hadn't done
enough to alienate progressives, being kissed on the cheek by George W. Bush
at the State of the Union address sealed the deal.
Connecticut voters looked to a white knight in Ned Lamont, a millionaire
businessman opposed to the war with the bankroll to slay the evil Lieberman.
While pundits gave him no chance, Lamont seized on disaffection with
Lieberman and quickly turned the election into a horserace. Nearing election
day, Lamont opened a double-digit lead in the polls against the 2000
Vice-Presidential nominee. It promised to be an exciting election night.
After the poll closed in Connecticut, I turned on CNN which was giving
full coverage of the Middle-East crisis. While Israel and Lebanon are clearly of
interest, the most important election of the season deserved at least an asterisk.
Journalists from around the world converged on the nutmeg state for this
election which has aroused global interest.
In disgust, I turned to the only news channel that was prominently covering
election returns, Fox News.
I have always referred to Fox as 'Sieg Heil on your cable dial.' This night
did not disappoint. Fox was in full throws of election night coverage, but the
insane din from Hannity and Colmes was as soothing as castor oil and did
nothing to diminish Fox's well deserved moniker. With early returns coming
in, Lamont opened a commanding lead, and Fox commentator's all but accused
Connecticut voters of outright treason. Mary Matalin expressed her love for
Joe Lieberman, and argued with Alan Colmes who could not be heard over the
raucous celebrating at Lamont's headquarters. "It doesn't matter if you can't
hear me," Matalin chastised Colmes, "because you're not persuadable."
Next up on Fox's 'fair and balanced' news coverage was former leftist turned
bigot David Horowitz, peddling his book whose thesis suggests that democrats
are more dangerous than terrorists.
At 6:30 pacific time, the polls had been closed for 90 minutes and Fox
showed Lamont leading Lieberman 53 percent to 47 percent with 40% of the
precincts reporting. The state of Connecticut website I was monitoring showed
similar results with 44% of the votes counted. Lamont's lead was shrinking,
but still solid. With significant returns coming in, I decided to come up for air
and switched back to CNN.
Larry King beamed from my set, looking freshly minted from the
mortician. King mumbled there were no election returns yet from Connecticut.
When CNN finally began reporting results based on returns from the
Associated Press, they displayed vote totals with 20% of precincts reporting,
less than half of what all other media outlets were showing.
'Does anyone at CNN have web access', I wondered. Back to Fox.
As the night progressed, it became apparent that Ned Lamont would eek
out a narrow victory over Joe Lieberman, and the crew at Fox hadn't seemed so
dejected since Rush Limbaugh was caught with someone else's viagra. Sean
Hannity launched into a diatribe against moveon.org and the Lamont campaign,
finally screeching, "does the country realize how extremist this party has
become?" Strangely enough, Fox made no mention of the noted republican
contest of the evening in Michigan. Freshman Congressman Joe Schwartz, a
moderate pro-choice republican, was ousted by Tim Walberg. The
ultra-conservative Fund for Growth, whose stated mission is to excommunicate
moderate republicans from elected office, provided 80% of the campaign
financing for Walberg. I suppose Sean Hannity would argue a distinction since
extremism in the GOP is mainstream.
Mercifully, C-SPAN picked up a live feed from WFSB in Hartford at
7:00 PM. First came Lieberman's pseudo-concession speech. Lieberman had
already announced he would not leave quietly and would run in November as
an independent when it became clear the voters of Connecticut would toss him
in the primary, and his only hope of holding onto power was by enticing
republicans with the same scare tactics Fox had been using. Watching Senator
Lieberman react to his ouster reminded me of Hunter S. Thompson describing
Ed Muskie giving speeches in the 1972 presidential election. "He talked like a
farmer with terminal cancer trying to borrow money on next years crop." On
this night, Joe Lieberman would have done Muskie proud.
Lieberman droned on about fighting for 'Team Connecticut.' Then came
the oft-used sports analogies. In Lieberman's playbook, it was halftime and
they were down, but would win the game in November. "Will you join me!"
Lieberman exclaimed as the Rolling Stones 'Start Me Up' blasted the crowd.
C-SPAN's last shot was a Lieberman supporter holding his sign high in the air
and upside-down.
While Lieberman malaised about being down at halftime, Lamont's
headquarters looked like the winning locker room on Super Bowl Sunday.
Flanked by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Lamont jokingly apologized for the
delay caused by the closer than expected vote count. "Drinks on me!" he
exclaimed.
Ned Lamont launched into the issue that brought him to national
prominence. "Stay the course is not a winning strategy in Iraq, and not a
winning strategy in America." Lamont announced it's time to 'bring our
soldiers home to the hero's welcome they deserve' as the crowd chanted "Bring
Them Home!" He ticked off the high points of his agenda, mentioning there are
63 lobbyists for every congressman in Washington, and promising to fight for
affordable health care for all Americans, an issue that gave Lamont added
traction against Lieberman.
The day after Lieberman's loss, democrats are falling all over each other
trying to put this Dodo bird out to pasture. I had hoped to see Lieberman
annilated on election day to destroy the specter of a third-party bid. I also must
express frustration that the only way to beat Lieberman was for a
multi-millionaire like Ned Lamont to drop $4 million of his own money into a
campaign to have a credible shot at Lieberman, but I'll take it.
In closing, a heartfelt plea to Ted Turner: "Ted, fix your damn network!
I've heard some people watch Fox News for the entertainment cachet. I see
nothing amusing about seeing millions of people being brainwashed with
screaming lies. If you ever force me the indignity of watching Fox for breaking
news, I'll haunt you to the end! If I ever desire to hear dimented and twisted
coverage of current events, I'll turn on Art Bell."