As I'm sure you all know, Ned Lamont plans to challenge Joe Lieberman’s seat in the upcoming election. And he was at Oakland’s Uptown Bar last night to raise money and reach out to people at the grassroots level.I asked him what would be the first thing he’d do once he’s elected, and he told me that he’d advocate strongly to get our troops out of Iraq right away. Left-wing bloggers have long excoriated Lieberman for his increasingly right-leaning positions, particularly on the war in Iraq, and it’s Lamont's hopes that, by reaching out to folks outside of Connecticut, he can help change the discourse away from “Joe sucks” to “Hey, check out Ned Lamont, he looks like he can do a better job.” He also said that he would actively challenge the Bush Administration, aligning himself with Harry Reid. Good job, you're telling me everything I want to hear, I thought to myself.
So who is Ned Lamont? According to this Feb. 19 article in the New York Times, Ned Lamont is:
A mince-no-words, unreconstructed left-of-center liberal who said he strongly believed that Senator Lieberman had drifted far to the right and had become too cozy with the White House, and that when it comes to the people who put the senator in office, fallen way out of touch.I got a fairly good impression of Lamont after meeting him, and was impressed by the fact that he’s not a politician – he’s a businessman who happened to get just pissed off enough after reading Lieberman’s November WSJ op-ed in which Lieberman supported Bush’s “stay the course” strategy that he decided to enter the Senate race.
That’s not to say that Lamont has an easy road ahead – he’s facing a three-time incumbent and still needs to make it past the primary in August. And I don’t really know how the people of Connecticut think, but I’m hoping that this war, our bumbling president, and his crew of hacks are enough reason to get people to really examine the candidates and where they stand. Because that’s going to be the key to getting this country back on track again.
So here I am, trying to do my part to help spread the word.
(Photo credit: www.nedlamont.com.)
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1 comment:
Interesting. As a Connecticut ex-pat, I'd say ... he'd probably do a lot better by campaigning in Connecticut, and not California. Connecticutians - being a practical lot (Yankee inguinity and all that) are probably wondering why he's spending time building grass roots in California, of all places.
"Uncle Joe" has several things going against him - one of them is not a lack of support from his hometown state.
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