Andy Thibault

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Cool Justice
Time For Phony Joe To Go
By ANDY THIBAULT, Columnist
Law Tribune Newspapers
January 30, 2006

`Lamont could follow the models of New Jersey's Jon Corzine and our own Billy Curry'

Brother, can you spare $10 million?

Ned Lamont probably can, and that's what it could take win a primary against Sen. Joe Lieberman, who calls himself a Democrat but it is more popular among Republicans.

Lamont is a former Greenwich selectman. When I met him in the late 1980's, I had no clue he came from big money. He didn't act like it. He was a nice guy who happened to do some public service, almost like Jodi Rell is a nice person who happens to be governor. He's a businessman who had a head start, but didn't squander that advantage while breaking new ground on his own in the tough telecommunications racket.

Lamont could follow the models of New Jersey's Jon Corzine and our own Billy Curry: Hire the children of key Democrats for good-paying campaign jobs; get the unions working in the trenches. Corzine knocked off former Gov. Jim Florio in a Senate primary by spending his money wisely; Curry's field work and union support beat John Larson in the 1994 primary for governor.

Republicans had a shot at Lieberman in 1994, but they blew it - perhaps intentionally after helping him beat Lowell Weicker in 1998. The GOP ran former state Sen. Jerry Labriola as a sacrificial lamb. Labriola edged eye surgeon and novelist Joe Bentivegna in a GOP primary with all the party leaders working to crush the talented challenger. Bentivegna would have crucified Lieberman in debate. Lieberman, as Al Gore's running mate, showed his great debating skills in 2000 by making Dick Cheney look good.

The progressive Democrats against the war and Big Brother intrusive government need to actually vote in the potential primary, which would be scheduled Aug. 8. Independent progressives need to register as Democrats.

The president that Lieberman kisses -Bush II - is more dangerous than the last president who made a career spying on Americans, Richard Nixon. Our current president has given a blank check for torture by any private on the ground in Iraq, as has been recounted by former Army interrogators. The FBI is being used - as it has been throughout history - as a tool to spy and intimidate those who oppose the administration.

I recall the late, great Boston Globe columnist George Frazier, who also offered regular commentaries on a Boston TV station. As Nixon's illegal acts became more apparent, Frazier would address the president with a special salute and salutation, calling him, "The Fuhrer." George Frazier, we really need you today.

Lieberman struck me as a phony in 1988 - running simultaneously to the right and left of Weicker on military and fiscal issues - and he's even a bigger phony now.

Why has he failed to stand up against the illegal spying and the phony war on terror? We might as well have a war against orange crayons. If it was Al- Queda that attacked the World Trade Center, then why do we have a diversion to Iraq based on lies? Lieberman has offered no satisfactory explanation for any of this.

What the country needs is an honest discussion about what we supposedly stand for. We need to say no to torture, no to phony wars and no to phony politicians.

That can only happen in Connecticut with a Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat that is up for grabs this year. Go, Ned. And remember the words of entertainer and writer Kinky Friedman, who is running a serious campaign for governor of Texas: "Politics is the only job where the longer you last, the worse you get."

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