Lieberman's Campaign Site Hacked

By whom? Who knows? But the fact that their email system is tied to the server (and emails are a big part of the GOTV process) makes it a bigger deal than you'd think.

Lamont supporters, of course, are screaming that it's a Rovian-esque deception on Lieberman's part. But, honestly, is there anyone who can deny that the Nedheads aren't capable of this themselves?

Whatever. Just another goofy part of this whole election.

Popcorn, please.

Posted by: Gary at 03:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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All Eyes On Connecticut

Well and Georgia, too. But McKinney's going down, so now big surprises in store.

All look to the CT Democrat Primary race. Lieberman remains defiant:

Screw you, moonbats! Democrat or Independent, I'm holding this seat!

Graphic shamelessly filched from Wuzzadem!

Posted by: Gary at 01:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Liberal McCarthyism - Feel The Hate

You don't have to do an extensive Google search to find Conservative bloggers writing about the outrageous Left-wing hate and bile that has poisoned the current political climate. But it's refreshing when it's acknowledged and even criticized by an unapologetic Liberal. Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton, weighes in with his dismay over the state of the Lefty blogosphere and its detrimental effect on the Democrat party.

One Sunday morning on C-Span I debated Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel on the Lieberman versus Lamont race. Afterwards I received a series of emails--many of them in ALL CAPS (which often suggests the hyper-frenetic state of these extremist haters)--that were of the same stripe as the blog posts, and filled with the same level of personal hate.

But the issue is not just emotional outbursts by these usually anonymous bloggers. A friend of mine just returned from Connecticut, where he had spoken on several occasions on behalf of Joe Lieberman. He happens to be a liberal antiwar Democrat, just as I am. He is also a lawyer. He told me that within a day of a Lamont event--where he asked the candidate some critical questions--some of his clients were blitzed with emails attacking him and threatening boycotts of their products if they did not drop him as their attorney. He has actually decided not to return to Connecticut for the primary today; he is fearful for his physical safety.

I do not blame Joe Lieberman's political difficulties on the liberal blogosphere. Most Connecticut Democrats voting for Mr. Lamont are genuinely outraged at President Bush for his Iraq War policies. They are entitled to express that outrage by voting for him and against Sen. Lieberman on that basis alone, although Sen. Lieberman's record as a progressive Democrat and his opposition to President Bush not only on most domestic issues but also on the conduct of the war cannot be disputed--despite egregiously distortive ads paid for by Mr. Lamont with $4 million of his own money.

Moreover, the support he gets from these haters should not be attributed to Mr. Lamont--nor should he be blamed for their extremism, bigotry and intolerance. But he ought to denounce them. He hasn't as yet.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many of these people aren't able to understand how insane they sound to the rest of the country. Their "passion" has become a mania - one that desperately cries out for some psychological consultation.

Lamont has been silent about his blogosphere buddies leading up to primary day. And he will probably not be hurt today in the vote count because of it. But when we head into the general election, with Lieberman as an independent, he's going to have to answer for their conduct. He can't dodge it for three solid months. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

UPDATE:
I wanted to mention that I'm offended by Davis' puerile use of a tired, old - and unfounded - stereotype of Conservatives as intolerant and hateful to make his point. Each side has it's embarrassing wingnuts, but intolerance has become fashionably mainstream for Liberals these days.

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If Lamont Wins, Expect More Than Lieberman To Go "Independent"

This time tomorrow, Democrats will be casting their votes in the CT primary to choose which candidates will have a (D) after their names on the November ballot.

As of now, it's not looking good for CT's junior Senator to stay a Democrat. Recent polls show anywhere from a 10-point lead to a 6-point lead, with Lieberman starting to narrow the gap.

The problem with primary polls is that it's so difficult to pin down likely voters or predict turnout. How many people in CT even know tomorrow is a primary day? Hard to guess.

But considering the trend, my guess is that a little more than half of the registered Democrats in CT who turn out will be pulling the lever for Lamont. So where does this leave the other (slightly less than half) who still support Joe Lieberman?

Very likely, they will still have a chance to vote for him in November because - barring some unforeseen circumstances - it's looking like Lieberman will appear on the ballot under the party "Connecticut For Lieberman". Joe will go independent. Some Democrats complain that if he can't run as a Democrat that he shouldn't run. Well, others would argue that if they don't live in CT, many of Lamont's supporters around the country shouldn't be spending so much time and money on a race that doesn't directly affect their representation.

All's fair in love and politics.

At this point, I will only make one prediction. If Lamont prevails, it could well be the catalyst for a significant number of registered Democrats to finally decide that they've had enough.

Accoring to CNN's exit polling, in 2004 the party affiliation in CT was:
Democrat (37%)
Republican (31%)
Independent (32%)

Two years from now, expect that number for "Independent" to be higher, chiefly at the expense of the "Democrat" number. CT is a pretty "Blue" State and a vast majority would probably poll as being "against" our presence in Iraq. But only a portion of those voters feel so strongly on that issue - and are so consumed with Bush-hatred - that they would turn out an otherwise Liberal-voting incumbent Senator who has demonstrated the level of integrity that Joe Lieberman has over the last 18 years.

If after tomorrow, Senator Lieberman is kicked out of his party than I expect there will be a number of party members who will join the ranks of the ex-donkeys.

Don't be surprised to be reading new blogs a year or two from now identifying this primary election as their "moment of clarity" when they decided that they no longer felt comfortable belonging to a party that says "agree with us or get out".

UPDATE:
AJ Strata weighes in:

The Democrats, it seems, are preparing to go down into the history books as the party that could not cope with changing times. It will end through a series of angry outbursts and dreams of impeaching President Bush as the answer to all of the worldÂ’s problems - including Islamo Fascism. The far leftÂ’s tunnel vision has warped their sense of reality to the point that even listening in on the plans of those who want to kill as many Americans in order to stop their efforts as possible is considered illegal. When you are that far gone all you do is build walls between yourself and reality.

UPDATE DEUX:
Jed Babbin at The American Spectator:

The effect of a Lieberman purge should reverberate throughout America. A political party that cannot tolerate dissent, that cannot accept as legitimate any position that doesn't hew to the leftmost fringe, cannot last unless its opponents fail to take advantage of its fundamental weakness. If the kiss on the cheek Lieberman got from the president proves to be the coup fatal, it could be one that produces a veto-proof Republican Senate.

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"Friends At FireDogLake"

Hey, Ned. I thought you didn't know anything about those blogs?

Head on over to RightThoughts and see the video of Mr. Lamont chatting it up with Jane "Rape Gurny Joe" Hamsher.

Is it me or could Greg Kinnear play Lamont in the movie?

BTW, the wife and I signed Joe Lieberman's petition this weekend. I asked the volunteer how it was going with the signatures. He said they were right on schedule. They even expected to finish up a day early.

Should be an interesting couple of days.

Posted by: Gary at 11:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Blogs? What Blogs?

CT Senate Candidate Ned Lamont says "I don't know anything about the blogs". Well, then apparently he doesn't know much else like...

- The name of the Jon Cryer-looking dude sitting next to him on his couch in his first internet ad. That was Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, Ned. You know, King of the Nutroots?

- His campaign has it's own blog: Ned Lamont Official Campaign Blog

- firedoglake (Jane Hamsher's site) is listed in the blogroll of said campaign blog

Michelle Malkin has all the details.

I gotta go make myself some popcorn. This is just too good.

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Lamont Campaign Tries To Dodge Fallout From Racist Post

Regarding the disgraceful graphic posted by nutroots blogger (and Hollywood producer) Jane Hamsher on the Huff Post yesterday, the campaign manager of Ned Lamont has pulled a Jackie Gleason-esque "humana-humana-humana" with a stern "request" that Hamsher pull the photo, which she did.

Lamont's campaign manager Tom Swan condemned this, calling it very offensive and said he requested that it be removed. He also said that while blogger Jane Hamsher is a supporter, she is not on the campaign pay-roll.

Oh, and I suppose that Ned Lamont hasn't even heard of Hamsher, right? Bullshit. According to this Hartford Courant piece, Lamont and Hamsher have been pretty chummy lately. The producer of such cinematic "gems" as "Natural Born Killers" even went to far as to help Lamont on one of his latest campaign commericals. No, both Lamont and his staff are quite familiar with Hamsher and have been only too happy to accept her cyber-support.

But, hey, she's "not on the campaign pay-roll", right? She's just a hired thug who doesn't get paid but has a huge stake in the candidate's success. Where is Ned Lamont? No statement? No public condemnation, repudiation or even a lousy "I don't approve of that sort of thing"? He's most likely hunkered down with his strategy people trying to figure out how to distance himself from Hamsher while at the same time deriving the benefit of her frothing-at-the-mouth support.

Hamsher offered a sorta-kinda apology that sounds more like an anti-Lieberman rant - trying to direct blame over to those mean old "rightwing Republicans". Yeah, it's their fault.

When you play with fire, Ned, you're going to get burned. Right now, the multi-zillionaire businessman-turned candidate is finding out the hard way who is using whom. Captain Ed echoes what I've been thinking during this whole "get Lieberman" campaign:

It really is difficult to understand what a mainstream Democratic politician has done to inspire such hatred and vitriol. In fact, it's becoming more and more obvious that Lieberman hasn't done anything to inspire it, but just that the haters on the Left have set their sights on Lieberman this cycle. They will do and say anything to destroy him, and this is about as low as it could get. Lieberman doesn't deserve this kind of treatment after his years of honorable public service. He's not my favorite by any means, but that doesn't mean he should have to suffer this kind of despicable treatment at the hands of his own party.

And The Moose says that since Lamont is a creation of the nutroots, it is by his association with them that he should be judged.

This incident should be instructive to the national Democratic Party. Enough of the pandering and the capitulating to the nutroots. The embrace of the left blogosphere will come back to haunt the party.

Count on it.

Am I "piling on"? You bet your ass I am. If something this disgusting had been posted by a high-profile blogging supporter of a Republican candidate, then this would be THE number one story for the next month. So as a proud card-carrying member of the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" it's my duty to go after 'em with both barrels!

UPDATE:
Eric Lindholm calls this another "Wellstone Moment". That is, "when the Left casts off all sense of propriety and decorum to revel in their own self-regard".

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Christmas Comes Early This Year

Rep. John "Cut and Run" Murtha will be out stumping for 41 Congressional Democrats this fall!

Unfortunately, he's probably going to focus on districts where he'll be preaching to the choir. But if there are any swing districts on the list this is awesome news.

But some Democrats, particularly centrist lawmakers who support [Democratic Minority Whip Steny] Hoyer, question whether Murtha can be helpful in many races that their party needs to win if they are to capture control of the House.

“I’m sure Mr. Murtha is going to be traveling extensively, but I bet you he won’t be going to Blue Dog districts,” one lawmaker said, referring to members of the caucus of centrist Democrats from the South. “I can’t imagine that he will be very welcome in many Blue Dog districts.”

The lawmaker said that while Murtha has a centrist record on many issues, voters would be most aware of his strong position against the war, which could alienate swing voters in states Bush won. The lawmaker noted that Democrats need to capture districts in those so-called red states.

A centrist Democratic candidate who requested anonymity to protect his relationships with Murtha allies said he turned down an offer for Murtha to come to his district.

One of the States he's mentioned is Connecticut! Oh boy, I hope and pray that he comes to the 2nd, 4th and 5th districts. Oh please, Oh please, Oh please!!!

Many CT Democrats (the foaming-at-the-mouth, Bush-hating variety) will be thrilled, no doubt. But the rest of us (especially Independents) will say "Hey, isn't that the goofball who proposed a full troop withdrawal and then voted against his own proposal?"

The article in The Hill also speculates that he has another reason for being so high-profile:

Murtha may be calculating that he needs to do more to help candidates if he is to counter HoyerÂ’s prolific fundraising for Democrats over years. Hoyer has given $770,000 to Democratic candidates this election cycle, more than any other lawmaker, his aides say. He has also raised $2 million for candidates this cycle, they add.

If Democrats win the House in November, freshmen could determine who becomes majority leader. One Democratic candidate who said Murtha offered to come into his district said the senior Pennsylvanian is doing “spadework for his run to majority leader.”

“Why else would he be wanting to come into districts like mine?” the candidate said, noting that President Bush carried it by more than 10 points in 2000 and 2004.

I'd love it if whatever candidate he's stumping for introduces him as "the next Majority Leader of the House". They can play that on the news over and over and over and it would suit me just fine.

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