Lieberman's 1,877-page campaign finance report, made public by the Federal Election Commission this week, shows that while he relied on a lot of familiar Democratic names to help him collect $5.1 million since beginning his general election campaign Aug. 9 as an independent, he also got significant help from the White House donor network....

Among the post-primary contributors to the Connecticut senator, running as an independent for a fourth term, was Joseph Allbaugh, one of the four members of Bush's tight inner circle during his 2000 presidential campaign, and two Republican Senate committee chairmen.

Also giving was Melvin Sembler, former ambassador to Italy and longtime friend of the Bush family, former assistant Republican Senate Leader Don Nickles, and dozens of others from Texas, Missouri, Colorado and other states where Lieberman usually does not find contributors.

From Texas came typically Republican donors like Allbaugh, Bush's 2000 national campaign manager and now an Austin-based business and homeland security consultant; Benjamin Warren, chief executive officer of ITC Trading Company; Leo Fields, a Dallas investment adviser; Alex Thomas, a San Antonio investor; and Robert Marbut, a San Antonio television executive.

From Florida, there was Sembler and his wife, Betty; Lake Worth builder Bruce Toll; St. Petersburg college executive Carl Kuttler; and Weston attorney Teddy Klinghoffer.

And from all over the country came other big GOP names: Maryland attorney Peter Winik; New York corporate executive Lewis Eisenberg; Greensboro, N.C., foundation executive E.S. Melvin, Washington consultant Debra M. Bryant and Chattanooga retiree Dudley Porter.

The list reads like a Who's Who of players at the Capitol: American Council of Life Insurers, John Deere, MetLife, GlaxoSmithKline, Phoenix Companies, KPMG, Raytheon, Heineken, Bechtel, Laborers, American Federation of Government Employees, Honeywell International, Constellation Energy, AT&T, Walgreens, Friends of American Hospitals, Friends of Israel, John Hancock Financial Services, Allstate, Pfizer, BMX Technologies, Lumber Dealers, Northeast Utilities Employees, the Farmers Group, American Apparel and Footwear, Real Estate Investment Trust, American Bankers Association and others.

Lieberman had his Spiro Agnew mask on at the Bushnell, a face he seems increasingly comfortable wearing. It's sad. Either way, this is probably Lieberman's last campaign, and it's a strange and pathetic show. He repeated his absurd and insulting final position on Iraq: He wants the soldiers home "as soon as possible," but not too soon. And he doesn't want to "dishonor" them. Is there someone who does? Leaving them as sitting ducks in Iraq would seem both dishonorable and dishonoring....

But Lamont knocked the ball out of the park in his summation. He talked about how, when he decided to run, someone told him it was "impossible but important." And then he talked about the issues - his issues - ones that compelled him to run: 47 million Americans without health insurance; Dick Cheney and the oil companies making federal energy policy; Joe Lieberman agreeing with the Republican right wing that the federal government had a right to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case, and family decisions about life support. But, "most of all," said Lamont, "the war, and the Bush rush to war." As Sen. Chris Dodd recently said, "We made a terrible, terrible mistake." As Lamont sees it, we "made our nation less secure" and we "undermined our liberties." It is not, he concluded, as Joe Lieberman would have it, that some are being "negative" and asking too many questions, but that we have asked too few questions, starting with "Can't we do better?" ...

"Now we've got 18 days left. Eighteen days of knocking on doors. I know you all know how to do that, because you did it for Ned Lamont before the primary," Dean said. "Work like crazy. Some of you might drop dead, but I promise you on Nov. 8, the resurrection will occur."...

"I don't know if they polled Massachusetts residents, or perhaps they confused the names of Lieberman and Schlesinger in this particular poll, but I have to question it, because, I'll tell you, my race right now is so different than it was last week," Schlesinger said.

"These numbers are going to be very fluid," he added. "My campaign started Monday. Their campaigns have been going on for several months. You have got to give me a little time here, and I think you'll see the numbers change dramatically."

Tom Swan, Lamont's campaign manager, said they flat out don't believe the poll results.

"I find the Q poll to be both inaccurate in terms of the state of the race, but also bordering on malpractice for a polling firm," he said. "For Doug Schwartz to imply in his press release that his poll numbers reflected the outcome of the last two debates is as intellectually dishonest as anything I've ever heard from a pollster."

And Lieberman also bridled at another question — why was he making an issue of Lamont's campaign expenditures when Lieberman's campaign has raised more money?

“If I could be real personal about this as a candidate,” he said, “in the last week and a half, he wrote two checks for two million dollars. Do you know how hard it is, how hard Susan Collins and I have to work, to raise four million dollars? A part of this is envy!”