"I've voted with my party 90% of the time, and Ned Lamont is bankrolled by terrorist-enabling blogofascists."
It's as if Holy Joe is setting out to prove that his middle initial "I" stands for "Cock-knocker":
Lieberman holds a 53 percent to 41 percent lead over Lamont among those most likely to vote in November, while Alan Schlesinger, the Republican candidate, gets just 4 percent. The survey was conducted by Quinnipiac University.
Lieberman's continued viability as a candidate was underscored Friday with his announcement that he had brought on two new campaign hands. One of the most sought-after Republican pollsters -- Public Opinion Strategies' Neil Newhouse -- has agreed to handle the survey research for Lieberman's general election campaign. Newhouse also polls for Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) and Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.) but has never worked for a Democratic candidate. Lieberman's media campaign will be overseen by Josh Isay, who advised New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) in 2005. Isay's move isn't likely to sit well with Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) -- chairman of Senate Democrats' campaign arm -- for whom Isay worked in 1998.
The Quinnipiac poll also showed that Lieberman has become the de facto Republican nominee. Seventy-five percent of Republicans backed the incumbent, compared with 13 percent for Lamont and 10 percent for Schlesinger. Asked whether Lieberman deserves reelection, 80 percent of Republicans said yes, compared with 57 percent of independents and 32 percent of Democrats.
The real test is no longer for Lieberman -- he's taken it, failed miserably, and doesn't even care. If he wants to believe that a rag-tag cadre of blogofundamentalist nutroots infiltrated Connecticut and bamboozled a preponderance of Democratic voters to accidentally vote for Ned Lamont, good luck with that. At least we all know where he really stands on the crazy-ass notion of democracy, whether in Hartford or Baghdad.
No, it is now up to Howard Dean and Chuck Schumer to step up, and now, and demonstrate to their base just what it is they stand for -- representing the will of registered Democratic voters, or catering to Holy Joe's ignorant ego and sense of entitlement. Either he's a member of the Democratic Party, or he isn't. If he is, he needs to be pressured to acknowledge defeat and step the fuck off, and do his part to help ensure that precious resources -- which could be better channeled toward sending George Lincoln Rockwell Felix Allen back to his plantation -- aren't instead wasted in a Nutmeg State pissing contest over "Joe's seat".
And if Joeblivious isn't a member of the Democratic Party anymore, then they obviously owe him nothing. (They owe him nothing either way, but still.) It's time to get off the field, Joe. Do it now and maybe your party works with you to find you some sort of intraparty sinecure; keep wasting finite time and resources, and you wait and see what a pyrrhic victory you get with your new Rovian buddies.
I still think there's a better-than-decent chance that he's angling for Rumsfeld's job anyway. I have no idea why he would, but this morning on Face The Nation he was adamant in his insistence that Rummy had had enough chances to get it together. Without proffering a specific replacement, given all the rumors for the past months, it's reasonable to assume that Joe, as always, is keeping his options open.
Lieberman must hope that most Republican voters stick with him rather than defect to Schlesinger, who, despite President Bush's neutrality in the race, is offering himself as the real Republican.
The more important question in deciding Lieberman's fate is whether the 35 percent of Democrats supporting him in the Quinnipiac poll will abandon him in favor of Lamont. Given Connecticut's Democratic tendencies, if voters perceive the race to be between a Democrat who opposes the war in Iraq (Lamont) and a Republican-leaning independent who supports it (Lieberman), the challenger is the favorite, analysts say.
Right now Lieberman has around a 10% lead overall, but part of this is undeniably due to a divergence in campaign strategies; Lamont went on vacation in Maine immediately after the primary, while Lieberman, desperate to get the word out that he was determined to monkey-wrench this cakewalk election at all costs, mounted an aggressive publicity tour the very next day. This is going to even out over the coming weeks as Lieberman has to rely more and more on the help of his new friends in the GOP, but at what cost overall?
Joe and his supporters should be proud of themselves. They are willing to undermine party strategy for the sake of false political comity. Lieberman again piously proclaimed the need to "work with" Republicans in the classic "bipartisanship" spirit. How's that been working for you, Joey?
It's pretty simple, Connecticut voters. You can either vote for a battered wife of an incumbent who is just sure as shit that her husband's going to therapy this time, or you can register your disapproval with the way things are. It is being portrayed as an "anger vote", and what's wrong with that? Exactly why shouldn't sensible people be angry at what Chimpco has done to this country, and how they've gone about it?
Despite Lieberman's nonsensical entreaties, there is nothing to "work with" them on -- they don't think there's a problem. Destabilization is a feature, not a flaw. Bush is never wrong, even when he contradicts himself. Oceania has always been at war with
And as for Lieberman's own feints toward other Democratic planks like health care reform, fine. Let's hear your plan, buddy. Because last I heard, both you and your wife were in the hip pocket of Big Pharma, and until they and the insurance companies are reined in, nothing is ever going to change in that area. As the baby boomers continue to approach their dotage, this crisis looms ever larger, and if someone serious and unfettered by corporate ownership doesn't step up and actually do something about it, rather than just humping Bob Schieffer's leg and whining about doing something about it, the shit's gonna pile up pretty fast.
So there's your big choice, Connecticut voters. You got about ten weeks or so to sort it out, whether you want a "same as it ever was" jerkoff who only shows up when it's time to criticize his own party, or at least a shot at real change, and a chance to move on to other states and send some worse people home.
Loserman hopes to win bt getting Rethuglican votes. But he went on a Sunday squawk show and said Rumsfeld should resign. Won't that piss off Repigs who idolise all leaders of the cult? But I suppose that would depend on R's having any sense of logical consistency. Which they don't. They'll vote for this tired sack of shite no matter what he says about Rummy, simply because he's the man the Dems DON'T want. "If yer agin it, I'm fer it!" Those bastards would vote for Osama if the liberals said they shouldn't, just for spite. What a bunch of sick fux. I am SO glad I emigrated to Australia...
ReplyDeleteThat the Joementum may be angling for a fallback political position as Secretary of Defense* makes some plausible sense--but only at first blush. First, it's an illusion to think would ever sack Rumsfeld. The man has fucked up massively several times now, and the most Bush could bring himself to do was to castigate him sotto voce, while declaring publicly that Donnie is doing a superb job. That is because von Rumsfeld is part of the inner circle, unlike many others. Look at what happened to John Snow and Paul O'Neill--all they did was to open their mouths in a manner mildly critical of the Monarch and they were told not to let the door hit them on their way out.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, Joenertia at the Pentagon would be useful (as a lightning rod for public ire over future fuck-ups in Mesopotamia, of course) only if he were still part of the Democratic Party. "Look," Ken Mehlman would say, "you can't be too angry about the war now. Your boy Joe is running the show in Iraq these days, from his bunker in the E-Ring. Now ain't bi-partisanship grand?"
Third, we'd be misguided to think that an outsider would be entrusted with such an important job as Secretary of Defense. This administration has shown repeatedly that you must have the proper credentials to be entrusted even with fetching a tray of cheeserbugers in the Oval Office (that's why they picked Andy Card to do that). In the case of making war, you have to have been part of the Nixon/Reagan/PNAC connection, to which Joementum doesn't belong. Surely they wouldn't appoint a former Dem to give orders to the likes of Eliott Abrams, Douglas Feith, Larry Franklin, and Abram Shulsky.
So fat chance we'll see Joey's oily, pasty mug at the Pentagon. K-Street, maybe.
*In former, more honest times, this position was known as the Minister of War.