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).

Friday, August 04, 2006

 

Meltdown

Greg Sargent for TPMCafe's Election Central:

Well, Election Central just reached out to the office of registered-D.C.-lobbyist Richard Goodstein, got his cell number, and reached him. When I asked him if he was a Lieberman supporter and was the man in the pic on the front of the Herald-Record, he confirmed that, yes, he was a Lieberman backer and that he was the same man as pictured on the paper's front page.

Then the conversation went south. When I asked him if I could confirm that he'd said what the paper said he had, Goodstein asked me why I wanted to do that and whether I worked for the paper. I said I didn't and noted that I wanted to get confirmation of his quotes straight from him.

After a somewhat abrasive back-and-forth, Goodstein said: "Do me a favor email me the last good story you wrote about Joe Lieberman." When I asked why that was relevant, Goodstein said: "Bye. Bye" End of conversation. Well, at least now we know who the mystery heckler was. But I didn't get to ask him about the nature of the heckling operation, or about the nature of Goodstein's relationship to the campaign. I've got a call into the Lieberman campaign about this. Hopefully we'll have more soon.


Update: A long history of this kind of stuff... Goodstein was apparently implicated in dirty tricks during the Mondale campaign. (For president.)

More specifically, he spied on people and stole stuff:

It turns out, this recent flap isn't the first time Goodstein's been in hot water. Way back in 1983, Goodstein -- then a lawyer for the doomed Mondale for President campaign -- "surreptitiously took" a notebook from a Philadelphia office in order to hide the nature of the campaign's scheme to use rather flimsy outside organizations to evade fundraising laws. The action was disclosed in a 1985 book and reported in the Washington Post. (The notebook was returned soon after Goodstein took it, the paper reported; the FEC discovered the ruse, and Mondale -- after losing 49 states to Ronald Reagan -- paid over $379,000 in fines.)

As Goodstein told the Washington Post (article not online) at the time of its article on the topic: "It was the middle of a campaign and the stakes were high. . . It seemed to be the thing to do at the moment."

Comments:
When you plant a heckler who turns out to be a corporate lobbyist from D.C. and it makes the front page, the claim that you represent the people and your political career are over.
 
DC INSIDERS SAY: (Lautenberg) If Lamont can win by 10 points or more, Lieberman will not run as independent

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/08/lautenberg_lieb.html
 
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