Joemenum!?!?

It is interesting how history seems to repeat itself.  Eighteen years ago Old Joe was beating the same drum that Ned Lamont is now beating (the Connecticut Senator seat).

...the guy Lieberman beat in 1988 in his first U.S. Senate victory was also a longtime incumbent whose political career was tied to his popularity with independents.

That fellow was Lowell P. Weicker Jr., and one of the interesting aspects of this year's race is comparing Lieberman now to Weicker back then.

Weicker was then a Republican seeking a fourth term in the U.S. Senate -- just as Lieberman is seeking a fourth term.

He seems to cry foul now that Lamont is playing the same game he played in 1988.

"Ned Lamont is running one of the most negative campaigns that I can remember," Lieberman said in a telephone conference call with reporters Tuesday. "He constantly criticizes, criticizes, criticizes. And he blames me for just about everything, maybe except the weather."

Lieberman, who is running as an independent after losing last month's Democratic primary to Lamont, was responding to his foe's complaint that he has missed 16 votes on Iraq since 2003.

"Senator Lieberman, how can you hold the president accountable for his foreign policy when you're not there for the votes that count?" Lamont asked at a Connecticut event.

After the primary Lieberman came out blasting his BS

"I'm worried that too many people, both in politics and out, don't appreciate the seriousness of the threat to American security and the evil of the enemy that faces us -- more evil or as evil as Nazism and probably more dangerous than the Soviet communists we fought during the long Cold War," Lieberman said.

"If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again."

But... now he defends the Democrats:

Sen. Joe Lieberman on Friday criticized Republicans who accuse Democratic critics of the Iraq war of encouraging terrorists, arguing such talk "demeans the freedom we are all fighting for."

WTF JOE!

•  I will...

  take a little love.

  by txlosthorn on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 03:16:20 AM PDT

•  He already has

  the Republican vote.  He's trolling for independents now.  Having a forked tongue means he can talk out of both sides of his mouth.

  by Grannus on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 03:45:22 AM PDT

  •  I fear this is just the beginning

    of what will see in the ramp up to November.  Several stories have come out about incumbents changing their approach.  Polls are very valuable for that.  Can you remember them bashing Clinton for doing that very thing?  Creeps...

    by DFJtoo on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 04:20:02 AM PDT

•  Over at mydd...

  polling showing lieberman and lamont just about even....

  by dkmich on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 04:35:45 AM PDT

•  Lieberman is Lamont's

  best advertisement...if the people will listen. CT is a quirky state, they seem to like effete pompous lackeys...don't know -- maybe Ned's too genuine...we'll see.

  by PBJ Diddy on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 04:42:50 AM PDT

  •  Hey...

    as an 'effete pompous lackey', I resemble that remark.

    by ek hornbeck on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 06:42:43 AM PDT

  •  Really. Dodd? Weicker?

    Just curious. Whom exactly do you mean?

    by annalivia on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 07:35:15 AM PDT

    •  I was thinkin' Rowland and Lieb.

      But more just that whole New England pseudo-patrician thing, Prescott Bush etc. Dodd, BTW comes from a political lineage as old as the hills -- in fact, his father was the independent spoiler in 1970 who drew votes from the democrat, thus throwing the election to republican Weicker in the first place!

      by PBJ Diddy on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 09:09:28 AM PDT

•  I could discuss this very logically,

  and note that Leiberman's strategy is perfect for the race that's he's in, or the dynamic of independent candidates tending to form in very liberal or very conservative states as a natural result of the primary process...

  But I'll just say: FUCK Joe Lieberman!!!  I hate that two faced neocon turd and I'd rather see 52 republican seats in the senate without Joe Lieberman than 49 with him.  The Terri Schiavo vote was the absolute last straw for me.  I wish that pompus, greedy, self serving religious freak would just quit and join the repubs right now.

  OK, now I feel better.  I'm off to pass out Ted Ankrum for Texas yard signs for the rest of the day.

  by Ken in Tex on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 07:17:28 AM PDT