David Sirota nails tonight's political tsunami

[stevedeshazer]

http://davidsirota.com/index.php/2006/08/08/lamonts-victory-liebermans-insult-to-democracy-the-democratic-party/

<snip>

Lamont’s Victory & Lieberman’s Insult to Democracy & the Democratic Party

At the end of every gut-wrenching horror movie, when the hero seems finally to have vanquished the enemy, there is always that last moment where the enemy, lying lifeless on the floor, finds a last gasp to fire off one final round, usually dealing a fatal blow to one of the good guys. In the incredible story that concluded tonight in Connecticut, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Ned Lamont was the successful hero, representing the hopes and dreams or ordinary citizens by mounting a truly grassroots campaign against Joe Lieberman’s massive warchest of corporate cash and universal support from Washington, D.C.’s cabal of lobbyists, pundits and insiders. Yet, in his last coughing gasps, Lieberman is now saying he will, in fact, fire off that last spiteful round - right into the gut of the Democratic Party.

That’s right - Lieberman is announcing he will move forward with plans to abuse loopholes in Connecticut’s election laws, ignore Democratic Party voters who voted in our democratic process for change, and mount a Lieberman for Lieberman Independent bid. Yes, you read that right - the Senator who has in the final days of Democratic primary campaigning been running around claiming that he gets the message and realizes he no longer should enable George W. Bush’s right-wing agenda now is acknowledging that he will try to rely on hard-core Republican voters and moneymen in a general election contest in a desperate attempt to hold onto power.

Understand how insulting this is - Connecticut taxpayers just spent a large sum of money to hold a democratic primary election in a country founded on small-d democratic principles. An 18-year incumbent who had 100 percent name ID and a $12 million warchest (thanks to, among others, Joe’s good friends in the pharmaceutical and financial services industry) was unable to win that election. Now, instead of respecting small-d democracy or the party he has spent the last week pledging his devotion to, he’s behaving like a Third World autocrat that ignores democracy, and running to hard-core GOP voters and fundraisers in Connecticut and begging them to help him hold onto his job in the Senate club. This undemocratic chicanery from a man who has long justified his support for the Iraq War by saying he has a supposedly heartfelt devotion to spreading democracy.

Make no mistake about it - be prepared for Lieberman, the Enron lobbyists, corporate lawyers, Establishment pundits and other assorted characters in the Washington brothel to run out immediately and trumpet how incredible it was that Lieberman got so close. What they want to do is pretend that Lieberman hasn’t spent 18 years in the Senate, wasn’t have every single advantage, didn’t outspend his opponent with a massive corporate-funded warchest, and was, instead, the courageous underdog who supposedly did not arrogantly ignore mainstream public opinion with his stands pushing the Iraq War, Social Security privatization and corporate-written trade deals that sold out American jobs. That storyline provides a convenient excuse to justify Lieberman ignoring Connecticut voters, Connecticut taxpayers who funded the election, and all the democratic principles this country is supposed to be based on. It provides a consultant-packaged excuse for Lieberman to ignore voters and insult the Democratic Party by running as a party of one, and potentially throwing the general election to the Republican Party.

much more at link

[Redstone]

1. And we'll kick his ass again. We will.

Redstone

[glitch]

16. The voting machines may come to his aid in the general... just saying.

The ass-kicking will have to be very thorough.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. Sirota is a genius. And brave.

[speedoo]

3. I like his conclusion:

"Ned Lamont is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Connecticut. Every single Democratic officeholder in this country (that means YOU Kerry, Feingold, Clinton, Edwards, Warner, et al.) has an obligation to respect the Democratic Party primary election that took place tonight, lest they too go on record as saying Democratic Party voters and America’s democratic process as an afterthought in comparison to their own personal political ambitions. Likewise, Democratic leaders in Congress now have an obligation to remove Lieberman from his committee assignments, and cut off Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee resources, now that he has officially left the Democratic Party.

This is an incredible victory tonight. Ordinary people showed that no politician - even a snake like Lieberman with every single advantage - is above American democracy. Though Lieberman and the lobbyists who are backing him would like everyone to forget about democracy, Ned Lamont tonight showed that ordinary people in this country still have power and that no Senate seat is the exclusive property of any one individual."

Well, said, Mr. Sirota.

[stevedeshazer]

4. Thanks for adding that extra verbiage, very important.

Ordinary people made this happen. That's the real message here.

[Tin Man]

6. Yep, spot-on.

Go to hell, Lieberman, you traitor.

[Guaranteed]

17. This is making me tear up. nt

[BelgianMadCow]

22. Frog in my throat

as the saying goes in dutch. There IS hope.

[gully]

32. Note how "Clinton, Kerry and others" HAVE come out to support Lamont.

It was never a question that they would. We didn't need a lecture from Sirota or anyone else.

WE realize that the Democratic Party is the best party to effect change and we have to fight from WITHIN.

[jonnyblitz]

33. "even a snake like Lieberman". damn.

don't hold back, Mr. Sirota! :thumbsup:

[femrap]

5. Maybe 'the kiss' symbolized the selling of

Lieberman's soul to the Pukes...? Has Lieberman been on the Puke payroll all this time? Wouldn't surprise me one iota.

[angus]

7. Email Harry Reid and other Senate leaders

We must send a barrage of emails to Harry Reid and other members of the Democratic leadership to pressure him to strip Joe of all his committees immediately. He betrayed the party tonight. No one man is bigger than the team.

[aquart]

8. "ordinary people in this country still have power "

Well,...ordinary millionaires, anyway.

But, yeah, it is a victory and Lieberman and his cronies don't like it a bit.

(And right now I have such respect for CT Dems, you could not believe.)

[stevedeshazer]

10. It says a lot that we must rely on ordinary millionaires.

There aren't many of those.

But tonight, I'm happy for this one.

[krkaufman]

14. Let's take this victory as a first step towards ...

... of, by and for.

Baby steps.

[RobertSeattle]

9. I'm waiting for the "Republicans for SoreLoserman" signs

:evilgrin:

[stevedeshazer]

11. Man, that one has taken on new meaning, hasn't it?

:crazy:

[RobertSeattle]

13. And on a similar note

Ya never here Republicans talking about "Term Limits" now that they are in control. Talk is cheap.

[Canuckistanian]

18. You can still buy the Tshirts..

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/politicalgifts_1908_8221129

[ihelpu2see]

12. Go to the link, its a great read, Kicked!! eom

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. great article - recommended

[unkachuck]

19. excellent....n/t

[Guaranteed]

20. Damn. Just keep this kicked. nt

[robinlynne]

21. Agreed, minus one thing. Conencticut will not go to the republican.

If that were a possibility, it would be very dangerous, but the republican has less than 15% of the voter's support.

[depakid]

23. Let the battle begin

The irony is- LIEberman's last gasp is just what the DINO's dreaded- and what the real Democratic party needed. It'll nationalize the election- It'll spotlight the differences between the far right (and the DINO's who enable them) and the honest and true Democrats- those with integrity who've had to go underground all these years.

Say goodbye- Clinton and all the rest of you sell out fuckers. You're neither wanted nor needed outside of the beltway.

[GeorgeGist]

24. Elected or not...

if Leiberman now runs as an independent, is there any truer proof of who Joe represents?

Hint: It is not CT Democrats.

[Felinity]

25. Just like Bush

Bush has held himself above the law his whole life, and incessantly during his presidency. He has aggregated and wielded power for the benefit of his own personal ego.

Now Lieberman holds himself above the whole democratic system, refusing to bow to the will of the people who gave him a very cushy job for 18 years--access to big money, political power, and the opportunity to do some good in the world (not that that seemed to matter much to him of late). And now, when he's told he is no longer wanted, instead of walking away gracefully for 18 years in the limelight; he, like a child losing a board game, chooses to kick the pieces into a ditch rather that let anyone else have a win.

Dear Joe,

It's over. You had a good run. You have the best retirement deal on record at 100% of your former salary. There's a pharmaceutical, financial, or arms manufacturing company out there that will pay you big bucks to help them continue the rape of the American Treasury by corporate interests. What fun! And now you can take all your Republican cronies on golf outings on someone else's dime.

It's a brand new day. Go fish. To paraphrase your kissing buddy's mom, "We're done with you."

[Vinca]

26. When Lieberman fails twice he will not go down in the history books

as a good man who did some good things for the people, he'll be recorded, for all time, as a selfish twit who threw a temper tantrum and made a fool of himself.

[Quequeg]

27. I watched a FrontLine episode about Enron and Lieberman,

which explained that the former 1990s SEC chairmen (Arthur Levitt) tried to push for new regulations that would separate the accounting and the auditing functions for companies like Arthur Andersen.

In the FrontLine episode, they mentioned that Lieberman blocked Levitt from doing this... No doubt, because of campaign contributions from the financial services companies.

Also, Lieberman has been a big supporter of the H-1B visa and "free trade" agreements.

[Nothing Without Hope]

30. Very important to show the American public that this is NOT "just" about

the war. That's the way it's being presented already in the corporate press, and Lieberman's siding with Bush and the fat cats on all these other issues is being portrayed as bravely crossing the aisle to be nonpartisan on matters of principle. They will also carry on about how "left-wing extremist liberals" like Lamont want to undermine National Security because of their lack of support for Bush's war.

I already saw these elements of this Bush/Rove spin-spin-spinning in the Wash Post's announcement of Lamont's victory last night:
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W7RH0384DD1DCC8DA227033DE2BBB0

We can expect much more, in stronger terms.

[tbyg52]

36. Yup.

Every sound bite I've seen has been "war, war, war." That's *not* all it is. To put it in a nutshell, Lieberman's a jerk. Oh, and practically a Republican--that 10% his voted against the Dems on was the *important* 10%. I'm in *Texas*, for God's sake, and I could see that.

[Nothing Without Hope]

40. In fact, the "only 10% voting against the Dems" is a LIE- see this thread:

The number of times Lieberman voted against important Dem positions and for corrupt GOP positions is far higher than 10%, which is apparently a number picked at random and driven by the media echo chamber. It's actually closer to 50%. See the link in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2768834
thread title (8-9-06): Judas Joe is a full on liar and I have the proof right here!:

[WA98296]

28. Excellent article. Thanks!

[chill_wind]

29. Sirota. We need a hundred more of him. K&R. nt

[Totally Committed]

31. Sirota hits another one out of the park!

Excellent article.



TC

[ourbluenation]

34. so here's the thing... I'm kicking and rec'ing this one.

:toast:

[liberalla]

35. Excellent!

thanks for posting - recommended.

[Cha]

37. Yeah, baby!

"But as Ezra Klein astutely notes, "If this gets spun in the next few days as a microscopic margin so infinitesimal as to be mere statistical error, try and keep in mind the towering mandate the media agreed Bush had after his three — not four — percent win over Kerry." I’ll put it in exact language that Lieberman himself can understand: It’s time for Joe Lieberman and his friends in the Washington Establishment who distrust Ned Lamont and ordinary voters to acknowledge that Ned is now the Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. Senate, and that we as Democrats undermine our nominee’s credibility at our party and our democracy’s peril."

[Raster]

38. K& R!

:kick:49

[Jade Fox]

39. I dunno...I think Lieberman is gonna look kind of pathetic now....

and have the stench of a loser. Getting re-elected should have been a walk in the park for him. His big-money supporters will show their usual heart and ditch him if it looks like he can't win.

Wishful thinking, maybe. But a few months ago I remember another DUer telling me Lamont didn't have a chance.