The wild race for U.S. Senate approached its close with a return to its roots: a focus on Iraq and the Bush White House. Vice-President Dick Cheney said on national TV once again that Connecticut voters will help terrorists if they elect Democrat Ned Lamont over incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman. As his campaign bus turned down Orange Street for a raucous nighttime rally, Lamont had a response for Cheney. Click on the play arrow above to watch it; read on for more on the race.
The Cheney flap, which started Friday and continued Sunday, reflected the new last-minute course the Senate campaign has taken.
When Lamont surprised the nation by defeating three-term incumbent Lieberman in the Aug. 8 primary, he had two main advantages: a popular rallying cry (to end the Iraq War, which he linked to Lieberman and President Bush); and an energetic, grassroots campaign with an outsider, politics-as-unusual feel.
All that suddenly changed the moment Lieberman launched an independent “Connecticut for Lieberman Party” campaign to try to hold onto his seat in the general election. Lieberman became the outsider fighting politics-as-usual Democrats. He did that partly by largely ditching attack ads. He portrayed himself as an independent-minded lawmaker above the partisan nastisness of the two major parties. Unlike in the primary, he seemed at ease, believable, in delivering the message. And Lamont helped Lieberman shift the focus somewhat from Iraq. Lamont understandably, but unsuccessfully, tried to focus voters’ attention on issues other than the war. He also unleashed relentless attack ads on Lieberman. His campaign appearances lost some of their energy; he came across as scripted in debates.
Lieberman cruised to an altitude of between 10 and 17 points ahead in polls, and stayed there. New York billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg lent Lieberman his state-of-the-art voter i.d. operation.
Yet this weekend, Lieberman returned to mailing out nasty, low attack flyers to voters about Lamont, including sniping at Lamont for being rich and reviving the false claim that Lamont paid himself “half a million dollars” while laying off lots of workers at his closed-circuit cable company. The flyer echoed Lee Atwater/Karl Rove-like mailings that bombed in the primary.
And the news in Iraq kept getting worse this past week. Even Republican candidates are distancing themselves from it. The state, like the rest of the country, appeared as opposed to the war as ever. The Lamont camp decided to put the war front and central once again.
Meanwhile, Lamont’s grassroots supporters revived the energetic, crusade-like feel of campaign events, which the staff was staging with increased professionalism, during a high-spirited statewide bus tour. The tour’s cresendo came Saturday night as Lamont’s “Stand Up For Change” bus pulled into New Haven for a rally on New Haven’s Federal Plaza, a stone courtyard behind City Hall.
The plaza was mobbed. Sign-waving crowds rocked to a spirited warm up band, then gave a hero’s welcome under rock-concert-like night lights to both Lamont and gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano. It felt like Times Square on New Year’s Eve; click on the play arrow for a taste.
“We’re going to fight to bring the troops home!” Lamont called, to roars of approval and amid a shower of confetti.
In brief remarks, Lamont made sure to refer to the latest salvo against him by the Bush White House.
“Why is Dick Cheney going all over the country campaigning for Joe Lieberman?” Lamont asked. “What does he know about Joe Lieberman that we don’t know?”
The Cheney Affair
Another question might be: What does Dick Cheney know about Connecticut voters that would lead him to make such a comment days before Tuesday’s election? The Lamont camp, at least, seemed to view it as a gift. Unlike when the vice-president made a similar remark right after the Aug. 8 primary, the Lieberman camp distanced itself from the vice-president’s remarks.
As described in this Reuters account, Cheney said on national TV, “[T]he example of antiwar Democratic Senate candidate Ned Lamont’s primary win against Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman to suggest al Qaeda militants would draw messages from the vote… ‘I think when they (militant groups) see something happen such as happened in Connecticut this year with the Democratic Party in effect (having) purged Joe Lieberman, primarily over his support for the president and the war, that says to them that their strategy is working,’ Cheney said on ABC’s ‘This Week.’” Cheney’s remarks were taped and made public Friday night; they were scheduled to be aired Sunday.
Lamont’s campaign instantly pounced on them as an attack on the patriotism of Connecticut voters who dare to question government policy. (Click the play arrow at the top of this article to hear Lamont’s full response).
Lamont’s campaign Saturday called on Lieberman to state whether or not it agrees with Cheney. The Lieberman camp declared that Lieberman disagrees with Cheney’s comment. On its blog, it said, “We believe Dick Cheney’s comments were wrong. Just as we believe it is wrong for war supporters to question the patriotism of their critics —” or for those critics to accuse their opponents of wanting more war.” Click here to read the full blog posting.
The Lamont campaign responded Sunday by calling the Lieberman response too little — and contradictory to Lieberman’s past statements. It called on Lieberman to repudiate remarks he himself made along the same lines as Cheney’s.
“In a buried blog post, and with uncharacteristic alacrity, the Lieberman campaign did kinda sorta repudiate Dick Cheney’s comments,” read a posting on the official Lamont “Cup of Joe” blog. “When will Joe repudiate — Joe?” Click here to read the full posting, with examples that the blog says bolster its point.
To which Lieberman spokesman Scott Overland responded: Asking for a second denunciation is “another sign of their desperation, as we already said that we thought Cheney’s comments were wrong.”
Indeed, Lamont’s momentum hardly means he has necesasrily turned the corner. Monday’s Quinnipiac Poll showed Lieberman’s lead still at 12 percentage points. To many observers, the gap will probably be smaller, but Lieberman continued to hold the edge.
(Bonus track: Click on the play arrow to watch a national Democratic Senate campaign staffer give last-minute instructions to Lamont and DeStefano as the campaign bus pulled up to the rally site Saturday night.)