Andy Thibault

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Cool Justice
Ned Prods Joe To Stand Up
By ANDY THIBAULT, Columnist
Law Tribune Newspapers
March 27, 2006

'Why not be men and deal with the issues Lamont is raising?'

All that sucking up to Republicans and President Bush didn't get our junior U.S. Senator, Joe Lieberman, anything when his subpoena request for Hurricane Katrina documents went lame.

Stay away from documents that might be protected by executive privilege, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Susan Collins, another Republican, chided Lieberman. So much for leadership or the appearance thereof.

Is Chicken Joe trying to stand up because of pressure from insurgent Democratic challenger Ned Lamont? You bet he is. He has to try to look like a Democrat or someone serving his constituents - at least until the August primary and November election.

Why the moniker Chicken Joe? Here's why: When Lamont announced his candidacy with a stump speech focusing on health care, education, public transit, veterans benefits, women's right to choose, illegal wiretapping, fiscal malfeasance, the phony war against terror in Iraq and environmental wreckage, Lieberman and his stooge spokesman accused Lamont of "angry name calling" and a one-issue campaign.

No insult meant to the fabulous Three Stooges in that characterization. Rather, Lieberman spokesman Sean Smith must have his head examined, after calling Lamont's remarks "negative, angry and mean-spirited … There was a viciousness to the language."
This is the kind of tripe that emanates from Karl Rove &Co. It is cowardly and stupid. Why not be men and deal with the issues Lamont is raising?

Maybe it's because Lieberman's support is a mile wide and an inch deep. He plays the game well. He's against violence in video games, but he hasn't done much about the mass killing of civilians from the bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan, the blank check for torture on the ground, the illegal wiretapping at home and the pissing away of our grandchildren's future by the fiscal practices of the Bush Administration.

"I doubt anyone will call me George Bush's favorite Democrat," Lamont said in his campaign announcement. "Senator [Lieberman], stop by Bridgeport on your way back from Iraq and listen to your constituents …The $250 million a day we are spending in Iraq is better spent on pre-school and health care, public transit and veterans benefits."

Chicken Joe and Stooge Sean can't take this minor tongue lashing without resorting to deceit. This says plenty about their characters and the way they do business.

Will Mr. Smith, aka Ned Lamont, get to Washington? He has a better chance than many people give him. He's making the rounds throughout the boondocks of Connecticut, six or seven nights a week, with paranoid Lieberman operatives tailing him. How Nixonian this all seems.

Lamont might have to spend more of his own money than intended, get many more volunteers and raise lots of cash. To get 15,000 or so legitimate signatures for a primary, he might have to get as many as 25,000. Be assured Lieberman lawyers will go over every name.

Every once in a while a citizen pops up who challenges business as usual. The party leadership goes nuts. They survive by sitting around for years and watching their behinds grow. Inertia carries them to secure positions. The government class serves itself first and us maybe…

Ned Lamont's candidacy is the best thing to happen in Connecticut in many years.

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