Vinegar Joe trails in early returns
Six years after Democrats backed him for vice president, Lieberman was trailing with 43 percent, or 7,199 votes, to political novice Ned Lamont's 57 percent, or 9,399 votes, with just 6 percent of precincts reporting.
No matter how it turns out, it's all been worth it just for the way Joe Lieberman has been made to suffer.
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Hopefully this will encourage others to vote against incumbents in the primary, all too rare now.
Over the past week, Lieberman has tried to save his seat by stressing that he supports the Democrat agenda down the line, which means big government. His conservative supporters don’t seem to understand that part.
Another choice for Connecticut Senator is John Mertons, running on the Independent Party ticket. Mertons describes himself as fiscally conservative, socially liberal. He opposes the Iraq War, and he also opposes Operation Columbia. He supports a balanced budget and Gay marriage. More info @ http://www.mertens2006.com/jm2006/
I still can’t believe “Vinegar Joe” never caught on … it wasn’t for lack of effort.
So if Lieberman looses and then runs as an independant does that not garantee a republican winner.
Joshua – No. Back when it looked like they needed a sacrificial lamb against Lieberman, the Republicans nominated a troubled man named Alan Schlesinger. In polls, Schlesinger polls in single digits or low double digits against Lieberman and Lamont. They’ve made noise about kicking Schlesigner off the ballot, but the Republicans haven’t found a way in Connecticut law to do so, and Schlesinger doesn’t want to quit.
David Wiegel,
I’m not sure, but I think, down here in Ohio, we have “veys” of making a Schlesinger pull out, by cracky.
Of the two towns where I covered the polls tonight, Lieberman won in one and lost in the other. But Lamont got more combined votes from the two towns; if they were the only two in the state Lamont would be the winner.
89% in, Lamont up 52-48. Seeing as how Lieberman would need roughly 2/3 of the remaining votes to win, it’s probably over.
It’s good to see the big spending, liberal, interventionist war hawk lose. Lieberman is arguably the senate?s most un-libertarian member.
Jennifer,
Are you with the Lamont campaign, a poll worker, or in media?
Jennifer,
If you’re with the Lieberman campaign, don’t answer cuz I don’t wanna know.
Of course, outside of foreign policy, Lamont seems every bit as obnoxious as big spender Joe.
Great title for a post-mortem (with apologies to
Barbara Tuchman):
Lieberman and the American Experience in Iraq
I’m a reporter, Rick. And one of the most annoying aspects of my job is going to polls when votes are taking place and asking questions that are none of my damned business, like how people voted.
I’m a reporter, Rick.
What paper, Jennifer?
Not the Waterbury paper, David–the other one. You’ll see a really bad picture of me at the top of the page where my stories are printed, along with my email and phone number in case you’ve got anything newsworthy to tell.
Please tell me you do. I’ve been scrounging for stories since the summer began.
Jennifer,
Cool. Of course. I didn’t really think that you were with the Lamont campaign-unless it was just to get rid of Lieberman.
Leave it to a libertarian reporter to respect folk’s privacy. 😉
Are you in print media, web, or broadcast media? If I may ask.
Lieberman is arguably the senate’s most un-libertarian member.
Hey!
Print.
Oops, I just saw the last post.
Oops, I just saw Jennifer’s last post.
Ahhh! I didn’t mean last post, I meant next to last.
Not the Waterbury paper, David–the other one.
That’s too bad, they could use a libertarian on staff to balance some of their Michael Savage-ish tendencies. Still, the letters to the editor are fun reads, until one remembers that the writers might be neighbors.
Let me put it to you this way, David: there is a certain local politician who truly hates my guts, and actually told me I should try to be more like my counterpart at the Waterbury paper.
You mean a PR lackey for town hall?
That’s what the media is supposed to be, David, according to said politician. The reason the politician started hating me was because I had to cover a budget referendum, and of course I asked various people how they voted, and used quotes from people who voted both for and against the budget. Turns out almost everybody who voted against it did so because of complaints involving said politician, but according to the politician it was unfair of me to use those quotes because the people I quoted “have a vendetta” and belong to a different political party than said politico. I said there was no way in hell I was going to ask people their political party affiliations before interviewing them for the paper.
The politician threatened to call my editor and have him “talk to me.” This was the talk:
“Watch out, Jennifer. That town’s a political snake pit. But if a politician hates you you must be doing something right.”
I (heart) my editor.
All these towns are political snake pits full of “important” people who “shouldn’t be crossed”. I wonder how city official got so much authority in the first place? It’d would be pretty cool to chart the changes in city statues that had the end result of giving some self important jackass the means to make life miserable for his neighbors. You know, what caused the demand for a change, and the unintended consequences of the change. That could be an interesting series of (almost covertly libertarian) articles.
I’m getting very, very good at just that sort of thing, David.