LamontBlog: Ned Lamont (D) for CT: Dan Gerstein's Greatest Hits

Disclosure: I worked for the Lamont campaign doing web design and production and some writing for the official blog (from 9/5/06 to 11/07/06).

Monday, August 21, 2006

Dan Gerstein's Greatest Hits

Uh, Dan... when your boss disregards the results of a record-turnout party primary he ran in and lost, isn't he really "purging" himself from the Democratic Party? As noted below, the DSCC agrees - Joe is no longer a Democrat. End of story.

On a related note, how does Dan Gerstein retain any shred of credibility with reporters? In a matter of a few months, in both official and unofficial capacities with the campaign, Gerstein has managed to make an absolute joke out of both himself and his candidate almost every time he opens his mouth. And he makes a joke out of the reporters who repeat his increasingly laughable claims without challenging them.

A quick and noncomprehensive list of Dan Gerstein's lies, blunders, and inconsistencies:

In early March, Gerstein anonymously demanded that the Huffington Post censor Howie Klein because Klein had the audacity to write a hard-hitting blog post about Lieberman's troubled history on civil rights and gay rights. Gerstein refused a chance to respond, he just wanted Klein's piece removed.

In July, Gerstein lodged some particularly disgusting anonymous smears to reporters about Ned Lamont's commitment to Israel, going after Maxine Waters in the process.

That same week, Gerstein served as the chief defender of the Lieberman campaign's race-baiting fliers handed out in black neighborhoods, telling reporters:
"We're surprised that the Lamont campaign wants to make an issue of this," Gerstein told Election Central. "This flyer simply states the facts, and in particular repeates a very questionable statement Mr. Lamont made which raises many questions he has yet to answer. If he's so concerned about discrimination, why didn't he resign from this club before he became candidate for u.s. senate? Also, what are the policies at the club and why won't he answer that question?"

On primary day, now in an "official" role with Lieberman, Gerstein flew into an apoplectic rage about Joe's "hacked" website. In full-on attack mode, he called every reporter he could, falsely claiming that Lamont campaign or its supporters hacked Joe2006.com, when actually they just didn't know how to run a website. Gerstein even went to the FBI with this bogus claim. He eventually admitted that it was all bullshit, and that they had no evidence whatsoever to back up their very serious charges of "disenfranchisement" lodged against the Lamont campaign:
Sargent asked Gerstein directly if they had any proof at all that Lamont or his backers were behind the attacks on the Lieberman site.

"Here’s the thing. We are not putting the blame on the Lamont campaign," said Gerstein. "We think it's very important for them to put out a statement throughout the Net roots that they not only don't support these tactics, but want them to stop."

Post-primary, Gerstein took the lead in pushing a non-story about a joke Lamont's campaign manager made about two (very corrupt) Republican mayors of Waterbury, forgetting to inform reporters that Lieberman himself made similar jokes about Waterbury while defending his buddy Rowland a few years ago.

The same week, Gerstein went to reporters attacking Lamont for having the support of Rev. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton, forgetting to inform reporters that Lieberman asked for Sharpton's endorsement a week before he endorsed Ned, and forgetting Lieberman's courting of Farrakhan in 2000.

Also that week, Gerstein went into red-baiting mode with reporters, calling Ned Lamont "slightly to the right of socialist Bernie Sanders on fiscal policy"... forgetting to remind reporters that the Lieberman campaign spent basically the entire primary race calling Ned Lamont a closet Republican.

Also that week, Gerstein completely flip-flopped on the Lieberman Party's relationship with Harry Reid, first telling reporters that Joe didn't want to be Reid's "political football," calling both Reid and Cheney part of the "petty partisan game playing which is stalemating Washington," then a mere three days later, telling reporters that Joe was "committed to supporting Reid as leader."

Finally, just this past Friday, Gerstein sent out a press release to reporters touting Lieberman's hiring of "Democrat slayer" GOP pollster Neil Newhouse, but neglecting to inform reporters that merely weeks earlier, the press secretary he replaced, Marion Steinfels, had (falsely) attacked Ned Lamont for hiring Republican consultants:
...The Joe Lieberman campaign has just announced the hiring of GOP pollster Neil Newhouse, whose top clients include Rick Santorum, Jeb Bush and Pat Roberts. But Election Central couldn't help but notice that this announcement is strikingly at odds with the fact that in late June, the Lieberman campaign vigorously attacked Ned Lamont for... hiring a onetime Republican operative as a consultant.

This is just a small sampling of Gerstein's work for Lieberman this cycle. He continually misleads and lies to reporters, making them look like fools. They need to stop taking him seriously.

Late Update: Of course, these are just the 10 or so "greatest hits." There's much more:

As Scarce notes in the comments, Gerstein recently equated Ned Lamont's victory by 10,000 votes in the record-turnout Democratic primary - you know, the election that was actually supposed to decide who won the nomination - to Joe Lieberman's piss-poor performance among the party insiders at the state Dem convention, which of course is meant to decide no such thing:
Gerstein took issue with Orman's claim that Lieberman is wants "a do-over," bending the rules so he can run twice for the same race.

"It's not a do-over," Gerstein said. "It's just like saying that Ned Lamont got a do-over after he lost the convention."

As Tim notes at the official blog, Gerstein took a similar low road with Tom Suozzi's equally desperate campaign, attacking Eliot Spitzer (D) in the NY-GOV race before bailing out (not before a big payday) to take on the sinking ship S.S. Connecticut For Lieberman. The Politicker described just some of his hilarously "fearless" spin for that campaign a few weeks ago:
And here's what [Gerstein] said about the significance of the upcoming debate:

"In my view this is like opening night of the campaign. This is the first time of the two of these guys are side by side. If you discount the meeting in Mineola."

"There is a lot of pressure here for [Spitzer] to nip this in the bud."

This?