Fact-esque

It's Time for Elected Leaders to Stop Playing Political Games

So Joe will run on the Lieberman for Lieberman ticket.  If the D.C. establishment lines up behind that run by refusing to fall in behind Lamont with everything they've got, then it's clear that the Dem leadership would rather give up a seat in the Senate to the GOP than see it won by an outsider.   And we will at last be able to harbor no illusions about the state of the Democratic party. 

And if that happens, I don't want anyone in the party to give any PA Dem voter who votes for Rick Santorum instead of Casey an ounce of grief. 

I Can Report a CT Precinct!

Because my mom was the Lamont poll watcher there.  Tracey School in Norwalk, precinct number unknown, went for Lamont by 4 votes.  189 - 185.   

Lordy, lordy.

UPDATE:  Here's a conversation I just had with my mom as we waited for the returns to come in:

Mom:  You know who came into the Lamont office?

Me.  Oh, who?

Mom:  That guy. Buzz.  Buzz, Buzz, Buzz ...  Buzz Somebody.  You know him.  He's a blogger.

Me:  Buzz?  Buzz Flash?  I have no idea.  Are you sure it's Buzz?

Mom:  Yes.  He was telling somebody he had a blog.  It was called Buzzsomething but he couldn't get it to come up on the computer.  Buzz ...  He was from out of town.   There were about twelve people from out of town.  They came from New York to make calls.  I thought that was nice of them, don't you?

Me:  Absolutely.  So what was this guy's name? 

Mom:  Buzz.  I think you met him when you went to that blogger thing in New York ...

Me:  Elayne?  Scott?  Lawyers, Guns and Money?  Talking Dog.   I can only think of Buzzflash, but I never met anyone associated with that blog.

Mom:  Buzzflash!  Is that one?  That's the one.  Don't you know him?

Stories

I'm seeing a trend among the most recent Lamont blogging.   Armando has highly recommended diary at dKos today all about how bloggers did nothing for Lamont and how it was all about people like ctkeith who worked hard and long for Lamont on the ground.  Atrios has chimed in along the same lines.  T-Rex has the best (and funniest) Who, Us? post because he hits on the reason why the establishment Dems will want to elevate the bloggers' role in any Lieberman loss:

It isn’t really true, of course.  If Ned is victorious, it will be because the people of Connecticut, the regular non-blogging voting people, were dissatisfied, and when offered an alternative, they took it.    But, of course, the tone-deaf Washington elite will be quick to assume that bloggers were the magical X-factor who made the race possible.  Why?  Because that’s a hell of a lot easier than accepting that everything they know about doing business and shaping policy is wrong.

He's right, after sending in every gun they could find from the big ones of Bill Clinton to the small ones of Lanny Davis, who is recognizable only because "Clinton" is in his resume,  the ruling class Dems will be looking for a villain if their guy loses and they'll settle on the bloggers who supported Lamont early and often.  We're an easy target.  The public has no idea what blogging is except on the fringes.   Bloggers can be characterized as a kind of lefty talk radio, which, thanks to the RWMN's destruction of that particular medium, serves as shorthand for angry, unhinged and inaccurate.   We're easily marginalized.  So I get what the establishment Dems are doing.   I don't get why the bloggers who threw so much energy into giving Lamont's campaign the oxygen it needed to break the politcal surface want to distance themselves from the effort now.

Atrios suggests that reporters interested in the whys behind Lamont's success so far should look at the people on the ground.  Now, I'm all about the ground game.  Nobody appreciates the importance of precinct organizing and hitting the streets more than I do.  Ask any candidate I've managed to buttonhole for ten mintues.  But is that really the story here?    I'm not saying the story is the one that the establishment Dems want to tell about the mean cabal of bloggers who distorted poor Joe's record.  And it's not the one the RWNM wants to pimp about god knows what their nasty collective mind can conjure.  But surely the role of the blogs in the Lamont campaign, beginning with the hiring of the visionary Tim Tagaris, warrants some attention here. 

I'd like to know what exactly inspired the Lamont zeitgeist that swept through blogtopia (hail skippy)  I'd like to know why, for instance, the Dem Sen primary in PA was ignored.  That was a primary that showcased perfectly the struggle for the soul of party, pitting, as it did, an anti-choice, anti-stem cell, corporatist, establishment Dem and an anti-choice, anti-stem cell, corporatist establishment Republican against two progressive alternatives, neither of whom could have won but whose ideas were left struggling for air - air that could have been provided with some attention from blotopia's royalty.   Despite the protestations, there is a good story about the role of blogs in all of this. 

Related: Chris is right.  It's everyone in the D.C. establishment against Lamont.  That's been clear for a while now.  That's why when he writes this, I get nervous:

In the end, that seems to me to be the biggest signal that can be sent in this race. The ultimate reason, bar none, that the progressive movement has formed and that the activist base has grown angry with Democrats in DC is that Democrats keep losing. This goes beyond partisanship, beyond ideology, beyond anything. If Democrats were winning, netroots anger at the establishment would significantly dissipate. Almost every major increase in the progressive movement came in response to further setbacks by Democrats against the conservative movement. What we really want, above all else, is to stop losing ...

Of course we want to stop losing.  A person with a serious stab wound really wants, above all else, to stop bleeding.  But as surgeons say, all bleeding stops eventually.  If we have to stop losing by electing Democrats like Bill Clinton, I'm not sure what we gain.   That said, now that we're in this truly incredible morass, thanks in large part to the Lieberman-loving DLC who paved the way with their infuriating politics of capitulation and corporatization, we are in a position where even another DLC corporatist, third-way shill would be marginally better than another Republican.  But if we're going to talk about what we can learn from this race in CT, I hope we learn who our friends really are.   So far the list is Maxine Waters.

Also related:  To the people in Connecticut working on the ground, one of whom is my mom in Norwalk:  rock on. 

 

UPDATE:  Kos weighs in with his tribute to the heroes.

Phonebank for Lamont with Move On's Help

I've spent about an hour this morning phone banking for Lamont via the magic of Move On. Join the party!

So far my responses are running Ned by about a third. One woman I called knew nothing about "the other guy" and will vote for Lieberman because he has a nice smile, kind eyes and a pleasant voice. She also thought that he was honest. That probably explains why everyone who stumps for Lieberman never fails to mention what a good/nice man he is. It's a better tactic than mentioning his voting record - unless you're talking to Republicans.

I'm also getting some "mind your own business" calls. They're the worst.

Back to the phones!

UPDATE: I just talked to a woman who said "I can't understand why people won't forgive Joe and move on. People forgave Kerry. People forgave, what's her name? Hillary." It's not my job to persuade and I wouldn't think of disagreeing with people I cold call anyway, so I just made sympathetic sounds and agreed that it's important to vote. She's 89 and never misses a vote. Good for her.

UPDATE: Okay, so that was about 90 minutes of calling. I attempted to reach 108 Dem voters and got through to 25. Most people weren't home. Lamont got the most yes votes, but I didn't keep track of the numbers. Dems voting for the Republican in the Congressional race (Simmons - R/Courtney - D) all picked Lieberman in the primary. Undecideds in the Congressional race split.

I'll call more people later.

An Example of Why the Establishment Fears and Loathes the Internets and Will not Stop until they are as Controlled as the Corporate Media.

A MyDD diarist is connecting dots in Connecticut:

Aldon read this story and found out that one of Lieberman's key heckler's (sic) was a DC lobbyist and prominent Democratic advisor, which adds a new and important wrinkle to the story.  Lieberman is calling in his base, but his base is in DC on K-Street, not Connecticut.    That's a critical part of the Lieberman-Lamont narrative, and Jennifer Manes was there to witness it.  Kudos.

In the news report, the lobbyist says that he is showing up to scream at Ned Lamont in small restaurants because of his deep affection for Joe Lieberman.  Man, that kind of affection don't come cheap.  I wonder if he lets him kiss him on the mouth. 

Wow. Lieberman is Desperate.

I post very sparingly about the Lamont race in CT, but I think the fact that Lieberman is apparently sending thugs into the field to carry his message and then blaming the violence on bloggers, is important enough to warrant repetition.  Matt Stoller reports:

There were only four booths and six stools in the whole place, and they were basically all occupied.  When Ned went in, all of the supporters ripped off their 'civilian clothes' and revealed their Lieberman T-Shirts. 

A large man, around 50 years old or so, then started screaming at Ned, "Are you an Al Sharpton Democrat, or a Bill Clinton Democrat?" Ned was trying to answer, and the gentleman kept yelling.  The Lamont press secretary tried to intervene, and meanwhile, the people behind the counter who owned the restaurant were horrified and embarrassed. Then Ned Lamont went up to the few people in regular clothes and introduced himself, even as the Lieberman supporters kept screaming. He also tried to introduce himself to the Lieberman staffers, but to no avail.  The screaming continued, and it was so abrasive that he left, and the whole crowd followed him outside.

These kids poured out, and a half a dozen reporters were mostly outside.  The large man kept yelling, and was joined by one particularly obnoxious Lieberman supporter who started yelling about national security and how Lamont would endanger the country.  The messaging seemed rehearsed.  The Lieberman supporters started getting aggressive, pushing some of the Lamont staffers.  When confronted, the Lieberman staffers said that they are just doing what the bloggers did.

In the whole affair, one photographer caught an elbow and got a bloody nose.  It seems that the Lieberman campaign is explicitly setting up their supporters at Lamont events in tense and aggressive situations, all in the presence of reporters.  When asked, the Lieberman campaign is expressing outrage at the unsavory and unruly behavior of the Lamont supporters. 

What a colossal embarassment Lieberman has become.  I thought his rush to capitulate after 2000 was going to be his lowest point, but he's worked very hard in the succeeding six years to prove me wrong again and again.

"And I'm an Asshole From the Lieberman Campaign"

I don't write a lot about the Lamont race because so many other people have it covered but this is a big deal.  Joe Lieberman apparently is now instructing hired goons to rip tickets from legitimate ticket holders to his illegitimate campaign events. 

The police were even involved.  My, oh my.  This is a new low for Lieberman, who was already scraping the bottom of the barrel.  On the bright side, he's an obviously desperate man.   I didn't think anyone could look more desperate than Barbara Boxer looked during her dishonest and dithering appearance for Lieberman this week.  I was wrong.  This takes the cake.   I guess the only thing left for Joe is to start figuring out ways to actually arrest people who oppose him. 

Share the You Tube video of Spazeboy and Jane Hamsher, the victims of the theft and denial of entry, telling their story. 

And think about this from Spazeboy's written account of the event:

I really wished I had a ticket, but I wasn’t willing to give all of my personal info to a Lieberman staffer. The Secret Service was welcome to it (and I’ve yet to verify whether a social security number is required–though the SSA sheds some light), but I’d prefer to cut out the vengeful middlemen thank-you-very-much.

A young American is reluctant to give his personal information to a candidate - a sitting Senator for the love of Pete - because he's afraid of where that information will end up and what the government will do with it.  God bless America.