Republicans call on voters to unseat "full-fledged liberal" Lieberman

[wyldwolf]

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall catch hell from both sides." - Sign on the wall of Justice Department attorney Burke Marshall, 1964

Accepting his party's nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Woodbridge Republican Alan Schlesinger told delegates he has successfully unseated three Democratic incumbents during his political career.

"What do you say we make it an even four?" the former state representative and Derby mayor said.

"Thank you, Democrats, for splitting right down the middle," Schlesinger said, adding that Lieberman also cannot decide on his own political future. Citing the Democrat's failed candidacy for vice president in 2000 and Lieberman's effort in 2004 to run for president."It seems Joe wants to move on," Schlesinger said. "I say this November let's give him a hand."

Schlesinger blamed Lieberman for "frittering away hard-earned taxpayer dollars into programs of social experiment." Schlesinger pledged to address the national debt, Social Security, and to "be there for those without a voice . . . the military and working men and women."

...

"The myth (is) Senator Joe is really a fiscal conservative (and) the next best thing to a Republican," DeLuca said. "He is a full-fledged liberal more in line with Ted Kennedy, John Kerry or Hillary Clinton."

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-senate2bmay21,0,6038642.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines

While Democrats now head for an August primary for the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate nominations, the Republican theme Saturday was unity. That message was underscored when Paul Streitz of Darien dropped out of the U.S. Senate race - handing the nomination by acclamation to former state legislator and Derby Mayor Alan Schlesinger.

Before the nomination, Schlesinger acknowledged that his best hope is for Democratic challenger Ned Lamont to beat incumbent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in the August primary, and for Lieberman to run as an independent. In his acceptance speech, he targeted Lieberman, who won the party endorsement Friday night.

Schlesinger said Lieberman has been widely mischaracterized as a conservative Democrat.

"For 18 years, our Democrat senator has talked right and voted left - appearing to be all things to all people," Schlesinger declared. "We have to let our Republican brethren know that for 18 years our Democrat senator has received the lowest ratings from tax watchdog agencies and the highest grades from liberal Democrats."

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-gop0521.artmay21,0,5907532.story?coll=hc-headlines-politics-state

[MissWaverly]

1. Hey, Joe, gotta go, thanks for sucking up to us

We always support our friends, sincerely, GOP

[primative1]

2. Not from Ct but curious ...

I know that Ct tends to be a competitive state. Are the repubs running a strong candidate this time around?

[demswin06]

13. the answer to that is...

NO. Granted I may have moved back here to CT after ten years in NH,but I lived in CT for most of my life and the GOP wingnuts,outside of Felon John Rowland have virtually no strength here. The only way the GOP can get elected here is to go moderate. The only pockets of real GOP wingnutery are offered by a local talk show host,Brad Davis and the Courant's editorial pages.Yes,the governor is a Republican. Rell is a moderate GOPer and has an ethics problem of her own as her chief of staff was fined and suspended for forcing Rell's cabinet members to shill for a Rell fundraiser last year. Also,the former Supreme Court Chief Justice was upbraided,and now under investigation when it came out that he withheld a SC decision to aid and abet his successor,the guy the Governor named. Rell may not have the ethical taint that Rowland had,but she's learning. Schlesinger's a nobody who is just trying to wedge himself between Joe and Ned.

[justgamma]

3. This is a great line to use

when describing Iraq. "frittering away hard-earned taxpayer dollars into programs of social experiment.

I just hope that Joe steps down gracefully and doesn't try to hurt the party.

[welshTerrier2]

4. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall catch hell from both sides."

Lieberman may be catching hell from both sides but it is surely NOT because he is a peacemaker ...

[The Magistrate]

5. That Depends On The Definition Employed, Sir

Sen. Lieberman has certainly endeavored throughout his career to find common ground between the two political parties in the United States. Whether one agrees with such a course or not, and to my mind it is a very foolish course in present circumstances, it can be refered to as an attempt at making peace. It certainly seems to spring from genuine conviction on his part that it is the right thing to do, and in this inclination he seems to be butressed by a wide feeling among the voters of his state it is the right thing to do. New England remains an ancestral home of Republicanism, and its current tendency to vote Democratic owes more to a disagreement with the religious and rural conservative extremists now dominating that Party than to a long and deep identification with Democrats such as is found in, say, the neighborhoods of Chicago or New York. A great many of the persons in New England voting now for Demcorats routinely can remember when they voted Republican, or were raised by Republican parents who would never have dreamed of casting a ballot for a Democrat. They will be attracted to a figure who seeks to split the differences on many issues.

The lines this Republican challenger is promoting present some interesting features. It is instructive to have it demonstrated that, from a hard-core Republican view, Sen. Lieberman indeed counts as a left Liberal, in light of the great degree of criticism he draws from the further left among us as a conservative and rightist. It is laughable for a Republican candidate today to speak of fiscal responsibility, since that Party is demonsrated by its record, not just currently but dating back to Reagan hismelf, as the Partry of deficeits and debt and the greatest degree of fiscal irresponsibility known in modern government in developed nations throughout the world.

[NJ_Lib]

6. Joe, remember when Mom taught you that playing...

... both sides is really playing against the middle, and that eventually you will be hurt? Shoulda' listened to Mom...

[CTLawGuy]

7. everyone's a liberal

to the Repugs during campaign season.

Schlesinger is not a credible candidate. No candidate who openly supports Bush is.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Kissing a frog doesn't always produce a prince. Sometimes, just warts. n/t

[brentspeak]

9. This is proof that the Repubs are behind some of the "get rid of the DLC!"

propaganda.

And I'm not some "tout-the-DLC-line" type of Democrat; not by any means. But I'm smart enough to tell when both fools and Republican operatives manage to work together toward a common cause (unwittingly, for the former; wittingly, the latter).

[MH1]

14. Good points. nt

[IndianaGreen]

10. Ahhh, but Lieberman is not a "peacemaker" but a warmonger

and Lieberman must be defeated so that he doesn't get a committee chairmanship in a Democratic-controlled Senate. Lieberman would use such an oversight position to protect Bush's criminal activities, and to push for his own neocon international policies.

[bemildred]

11. So everybody thinks Joe is a phoney.

Brilliant political maneuvering there.

[The Magistrate]

12. It May Well Be, Sir

Is there not an old saw about being called ugly by a frog? Being called phony by a politician has for many a similar quality....

[JerseygirlCT]

15. He knows he hasn't got a chance

Should Lieberman win the primary, the Dems will vote for him, even if they have to hold their noses while doing so. They most certainly won't vote for a Republican.

And with anyone who isn't very politically involved, this guy's name-recognition problem is going to be so huge he won't attract a following from independents.