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Lieberman, the Gold Coast, and, yes, more Lamont

by Cho

Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 01:59:57 PM EST

Promoted. -wander

John Nicol's The Fight for a Party's Soul in The Nation sums up our experience here. I started out in March of 2006 wondering why folks in Connecticut were wasting their energy trying to unseat Lieberman, whom Bill Clinton just on Monday called "a good Democrat."

But back in April, My Better Half came home totally energized after meeting Lamont in one Lamont's early treks up the Quiet Corner. He thought Lamont was a statesman in the making, someone who would be a terrific Senator, interested in working for Connecticut's people.

Yet Lieberman's been working for the people of Connecticut for 18 years. So today I went to Joe's website, which has an interactive map where you can click on the different counties to see what he's done for us overall.

More discoveries below fold.

commentary :: :: :: buzz-it!

18 years is a lifetime - just ask any of the teenage recruits in the Iraq war that Joe supports. So it's not surprising that Lieberman has done a lot of good things in that time. What I found interesting (as a way of assessing Joe's focus) is what his campaign chooses to highlight ...something akin to a visual and numeric counterpart to the revealing "Connecticut for Lieberman" party (as opposed to "Lieberman for Connecticut").

So I clicked on Tolland to see what the Lieberman campaign people felt was significant for this Northeastern county.

Below are Joe's accomplishments, over the 18-year period, that the campaign chose to highlight for Tolland County. There, at the bottom the display, is the back button. So just these two items were deemed worthy of being highlighted.

For comparison, I checked out what Joe's campaign thought noteworthy to highlight for Fairfield County on the Connecticut Gold Coast, arguably one of the richest per capita geographical area in the entire world.

An entire page full of accomplishments deemed significant, with pictures too!

Whoa, Joe's been busy - I just had to keep scrolling.

And scrolling...

And scrolling.

But of course, Fairfield County has more people (900,775) than Tolland (147,634), so it's only natural that the campaign would highlight more accomplishments over Joe's 18-year tenure as a Senator. So I decided it would be more equitable to look at Hartford County with a population of 877,393.

Hartford County includes Hartford with an infant mortality rate of 7.6 per 1000 and a stunning 30.6% of its citizens living below poverty (2000 data). Let's see what Joe's campaign highlighted as having done for Hartford County over the past 18 years.

One event and the back button.

Conservation on the Connecticut River.

Granted, the environment is important. But clearly to someone in the Lieberman campaign, it is the single, most significant accomplishment deemed worthy of highlighting to illustrate Joe's 18 years in the Senate serving Hartford County -- which includes the city of Hartford, with almost one-third of its citizens living below poverty.

After that little excursion, I decided I needed to reread John Nicol's The Fight for a Party's Soul.

Lieberman, the Gold Coast, and, yes, more Lamont | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden)

On each of the pages ... (5.00 / 2) (#1)

one can also click to see a pdf file listing everything thing Joe has "fought for" in the specific county.

Those lists are indeed longer, but I found interesting that what was the focus of each web page for each county.

For Joe's sake, I hope that these are works in progress, soon to be updated in the 11 days before the primary.

by Cho on Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 02:41:22 PM EST

I'm thinkin' (5.00 / 1) (#2)

By the time Connecticut voters get through with Joe, he's gonna look like that guy in the Alltel ad over in the left margin...
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by wanderindiana on Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 02:41:50 PM EST

I am very worried, actually. (none / 0) (#3)

Lieberman campaign workers are pouring into the state right now.

Remember, however, I am a constructive worrier.

by Cho on Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 02:47:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You Are In Good Company (5.00 / 2) (#4)

Markos Moulitsas (Kos) is worried, too--and for just that reason.

Lieberman may have realized late that he needed to pay attention. But paying attention he is!

I just hope that some of his "helpers"--can anyone say "Bill Clinton"?--prove to be less than helpful.

by Aaron Barlow on Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 04:56:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

: Yesterday we noted Lieberman signs (none / 0) (#5)

sprouting up...
sending that link to the Nichols article to every CT Democrat we know.

by Cho on Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 05:08:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I am not relaxing, but (none / 0) (#9)

from some of the reports from Maura, CTKeith, Spazeboy and the rest of the gang over at MyLeftNutmeg, the first day out for the Lieberman bus tour didn't seem to be a rousing success. Lieberman's campaign hit three snags: One, the infamous kiss float followed the bus everywhere.

Two, as Michael Shiavo endorsed Lamont, the CTbloggers posted the unfortunate video of Lieberman's embarrassing verbal embrace of the religious right in the Federal intervention in the Shiavo case. See the video as linked to in MikeCt's diary at MyLeftNutmeg.

Third, the "Hug" button (what a knuckleheaded name -- all it does is remind everyone of that other button "The Kiss") are not union made, leaving Lieberman staffers disavowing responsibility.

Still, I am NOT breathing for ten more days.

by Cho on Sat Jul 29, 2006 at 12:19:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Want to help Ned Lamont? (none / 0) (#6)

Contribute to the Lamont campaign today.
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by wanderindiana on Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 06:36:30 PM EST

Thanks, wander for thinking of that (none / 0) (#7)

Lieberman, despite all his protestations about money, has a ton more than Lamont, and pretty much can blanket the airwaves. We are getting as many as 6 campaign pieces a day in the mail for the senate and gubernatorial primary races -- Lieberman, lamont, destafeno, malloy.

by Cho on Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 06:46:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

: Another option. (5.00 / 1) (#8)

Paricipate in the Family, Friends, and Neighbors campaign outreach.
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by wanderindiana on Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 07:07:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Thanks, Cho! (none / 0) (#10)

I've been thinking about this race this week meaning to send in a donation to Lamont, but now I've finally done it.

It's going to be a nail-biter.

by jeninRI on Sat Jul 29, 2006 at 12:00:06 PM EST

: That's great JeninRI... (none / 0) (#11)

I just saw somewhere (I am bad about keeping the links) that because Lamont has been spending his own money, certain caps are off, and now Liebermna can now accept more... sorry if this is garbled... But it's gonna be a nailbiter and Lieberman is literally able to pour the money in now.

by Cho on Sat Jul 29, 2006 at 05:30:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]