That's the buzz today.

Update: Meanwhile, the gubernatorial vote is as close as expected, as CT-N is reporting an unofficial final tally of DeStefano 800-Malloy 797, with multiple challenges to the vote. ConnecticutBlog and Connecticut Local Politics are liveblogging from the floor.

The final count after all the challenges is Malloy 799-DeStafano-795. Malloy got exactly half of the vote plus one. Wow.

As Colin McEnroe notes in his convention postmortem (hat tip MikeCT), Joe wakes up this morning to find himself in some real trouble. A true gauge of support for Ned Lamont on the convention floor would have had him at a lot more than the 33.4% he won.

Many delegates admitted that they voted for Lieberman half-heartedly last night in a public ballot, but plan to vote full-heartedly for Lamont in August in a private one. McEnroe talks of stories he heard of delegates staying home last night rather than show up and feel forced to vote for Joe, and I've heard the same stories (one where such a delegate refused to take Joe's phone call a few days earlier). And many more delegates voted for Joe for reasons of personal gain, political strategy, or just plain inertia. Very few - if any - voted for him in anything approaching full agreement or enthusiastic support of his candidacy. (Reportedly, the only even attempted pro-Joe enthusiasm in the place last night were the college kids he paid to run around and try to start cheers, and they quit trying about halfway through.) And as Jon from Kiss Joe Goodbye points out, if you take away the five large machine-dominated cities where bloc-voting (not a true gauge of support) brought Lieberman the bulk of his votes, Ned actually won 41.35% of the vote. (Read Tess Wheelwright's excellent micro-breakdown of the New Haven delegation, from one such city.)

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to claim that if a free vote - a true measure of support for Lamont - was taken last night, Ned would have ended up as the endorsed nominee of the party. And, this morning, Joe Lieberman would be deciding whether to switch parties or retire.

So what's next for Ned? He'll continue to run a huge field operation, which is and will continue to be the centerpiece of this campaign. The campaign will gladly accept support from the blogs (where ActBlue donations passed $200,000 last night) and groups like MoveOn (whose CT members will vote next week on whether to get involved in this race) but that will in many ways be superfluous - the campaign is well-organized in the field and due to the petition drive has an army of tested volunteers ready to go. He'll continue to visit and talk to groups of voters in big cities and small towns whose phone calls Joe still won't return. And he'll have to prepare himself to withstand a barrage of slime coming his way from a frightened and desperate incumbent.

Joe has it a lot tougher. This is already the low point of his political career, and he can see nothing but lower points ahead. Did he promise to stay in the Democratic party in order to get Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton to write endorsement letters to delegates? If not, he must be considering whether to bolt the party and run in a friendlier electorate (i.e. Republicans). If he decides to cut-and-run, he needs to do so soon. Otherwise, he's in for a huge fight, and with no other elections going on anywhere in the country in August, it's going to get national attention.

Most importantly, though, 33.4% means that all Democrats in Connecticut - from the highest elected official to the union member to the long-time supporter of Joe - no longer have anything to fear by openly supporting Ned Lamont. And that's probably what's scaring Joe this morning most of all.

---

Tim already has some video up at the official blog, and more is coming soon at Nedheads on YouTube, I'm sure. And thanks to everyone on the ground and online who helped out in covering the event last night.

• A Windsor delegate:
  

  "Joe Lieberman is an icon in Connecticut," said Al Simon, 46, a delegate from Windsor, which passed a resolution this year censuring the senator for his position on Iraq. "For this to happen is indicative of the depth of anger felt by a lot of rank-and-file Democrats against Democratic leaders."



• A Lieberman delegate:
  

  “Now we’ll get a chance to vote again in the primary,” said Montville delegate Candy Buebendorf, who voted for Lieberman, but remains uncertain about her continued support. “I’ve asked to talk with him. I need to ask him how can we know that we can trust him.”



• Sean Smith, tonight:
  

  Sean Smith, Lieberman's campaign manager, protested after the balloting that Lamont had won roughly the same number of delegates he had been "saying all week" and stressed that the party had still gone "two-to-one" for the senator.



• Sean Smith, yesterday:
  

  Smith... said he would be thrilled if Lieberman leaves the convention with 70 percent of the delegates.



• Political Wire:
  

  Worse for Lieberman, he now faces what will be the first national campaign of the election season, turning what should be a state primary into a nationwide referendum on Iraq and President Bush's foreign policy. Both men will look far outside Connecticut for resources to fuel their campaigns.

Latest unoffical count I have is 505 votes for Lamont, out of 1,509 total votes. Over one-third voted for Lamont.

Joe Lieberman was severely rebuked tonight by the grassroots and the insiders of his own party. Ned Lamont exceeded even Joe's inflated expectation of 30%. There are many more who would have voted for him if they would have been allowed to vote their conscience.

Tonight was a stunning victory for Ned Lamont. The mood at the convention center is elation and celebration for Lamont supporters. The campaign is psyched. Lieberman supporters are walking away completely dejected.

Anyone who thought this campaign wasn't for real... now it's for real.

Contribute or sign up to volunteer to keep the Nedmentum going.

Update: To complete the evening, Mets 7-Yankees 6, David Wright with a walk-off hit in the bottom of the 9th. Nice.

Now we just have to see what the final vote is!

Updates below (newest on top):

8:33PM: Southbury , whose town chair says, "we asked for a visit from Lieberman in February and we're still waiting for a call back" goes 5-0 to Lamont. My final total for the 5th is 111. For a total of 500. I'll see what other people come up with for an official count.

8:28PM: New Britain 24-7 to Lamont!

8:26PM: On to the small towns of the 5th district: Canton goes 5-0 for Lamont. Cornwall's one unanimous vote for Lamont! Danbury 18-5 Lieberman.

8:20PM: Stamford 37-13 for Lieberman. Trumbull (DiNardo) goes 15-0 for Lieberman. 4th has 107 total for Lamont. My total so far is 389!

8:15PM: 57 votes out of the 3rd CD. Total of 282 so far!

Onto the 4th: Bridgeport goes 55-6 for Lieberman. Big cities are breaking hard for Joe as expected. Darien 5-0 for Lamont. Fairfield "realizing that our country and Sean Hannity's Favorite Democrat is going in the wrong direction" goes 18-6 Lamont. Greenwich, Ned's hometown goes 19-3 for Lamont. Monroe 8-0 Lamont. New Canaan 5-3 Lamont. Norwalk 14-8 Lamont! Oxford 3-0 Lamont!

Ned's running the table in the 4th!

(Newest updates at top.)

8:06PM: My count is 129 for the 2nd CD. Three more districts to go, including Ned's home district, the 4th.

I'm calling it: Ned has the votes! He's on the ballot!

8:02PM: Ned is getting at least some votes in almost every small town. Vernon 9-4 for Lamont.

7:57PM: Mansfield goes 10-0 for Lamont. New London 6-5 Lamont. So far, a very good showing for Lamont.

7:48PM: Ashford 3-0 for Lamont - more cheers. Canterbury 2-0 for Lamont. Nice to see some shutouts here. Columbia 2-1 Lieberman (and this is Edith Prague's hometown). Coventry 5-1 Lamont. I'm gonna stop with the town-by town unless it's someting big.

7:43PM: West Hartford 25-14 for Lieberman. Winchester 3-2 for Lamont. Windsor 13-4 for Lamont - big cheer from the crowd.

So far my count is 96 votes for Lamont from the first CD. On to the 2nd.

7:38PM: Hartford: 43-11 for Lieberman. Manchester 20-7 for Lieberman. Someone tries to vote for "John Stefano." New Hartford 3-0 Lamont.

7:34PM: First two votes go to Lamont! So far most delegations are splitting their votes. East Granby goes Lamont 3-0. Glastonbury 9-8 for Lieberman. Granby 5-1 Lieberman Lamont.

7:32PM: Nancy DiNardo does her best schoolmarm impresseion and tells the crowd to sit down and shut up or she'll kick everyone but the delegates out.

Rules: when called upoin by secretary each chair shall anounce total vote of his or her own town delegation, then file with sec. of conv. duly certified record of the vote of each member. Order of voting by Congressional district. Each delegation may elect to pass once, but onlly once. and must do so before it's CD is closed. At end of roll call for all CDs, the chairs shall return by CD to offer any delegation the opportunity to change their vote.

So this will not be final until the last minute.

The Roll call vote begins with 1st CD.

(Newest updates at top.)

7:18PM: Fabrizi speaking. Some more reports for the floor indicate that at the cheering/booing for Lamont was at least 50/50. Check out the official blog, Tim has more pictures. Next update will be in a new thread.

7:13PM: Dodd still speaking. Mentions veterans. Crowd erupts in a chant of "BRING THEM HOME!" Dodd changes subject to stop chants. Introduces John Fabrizi, mayor of Bridgeport to second the nomination. This is the same guy who said of Bush's visit to his city in April, "It's an absolute honor for the president to visit our hometown. I'm excited and I'm elated."

7:02PM: Dodd is nominating Joementum. His voice is hoarse. Joe's name is mentioned to what sounds like a chorus of boos. Surprisingly he's sounding somewhat conciliatory: "I welcome the debate in our party."

6:58PM: BranfordBoy calls in with a report: he's hearing that the Hartford delegation has been released to vote freely tonight. This could possibly mean an extra 15-20 votes for Ned that were not expected earlier!

6:53PM: The crowd erupts as Medina finishes his speech. "Ned! Ned! Ned!" Annie Lamont, Ned's wife, is now speaking. Scratchy picture of crowd's reaction:


6:45PM: And the nominations for U.S. Senate begin... Max Medina of the Bridgeport board of ed. is speaking, officially nominating Ned Lamont. "Ned Lamont belives it was wrong for Bush and the Senate to intervene in the final days of Terri Schiavo's life." Getting at least half cheers from the crowd it seems. Mentions Iraq, Alito, gay rights... Someone cuts his mike... nice try, Joe! "Ned knows that we are at our best... when we stand up for what we believe."

6:33PM: Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez speaking. Big Lieberman sticker on his lapel. This is moving along at quite a clip so far, hope no Lamont delegates got stuck in traffic.

6:25PM: Nancy DiNardo speaking. Mentions GOP failures on federal and state level. Focusing a lot of fire on Rell. No mention of the biggest GOP failure of all: Iraq. Do you need any more reason why Lamont needs to lead CT Dems in November with a clear voice? Credentials committee is now reporting. The challenge to the Hartford delegation has been withdrawn and Perez's delegation has been seated. More procedural votes now.

6:16PM: Convention called to order by Nancy DiNardo. People still milling around the hall. Danbury ROTC leads Pledge of Allegiance. (No... not allegiance to Joe. That one comes later, I think...). Then the National Anthem (in English!)

Guys serving hors-d'oeuvres in bow-ties, top-shelf liquor, goodie bags... Joe is doing his best to buy off delegates at his tent. Or at least get them drunk enough to forget for one night that he's George Bush's Favorite Democrat. Meanwhile, Ned's tent is serving cajun food in honor of the 48-minute rubber-stamp confirmation hearing that Joe gave to Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown.

Tim snapped this shot of Lamont's campaign table:



Just about to get underway for real now.

BranfordBoy just called from the convention and reports that the challenge to the Hartford delegation has been withdrawn, and the Perez delegation will be seated. Presumably this means this won't be fought out on the floor. (I'll try to cross-post this over at the convention liveblog that Neal has set up once I get posting privileges there.)

And a first look at the convention floor, via spazeboy on flickr:



More as things get started in Hartford at 6pm.

And CT-N says they will have live streaming coverage of the events.

Now Joe's playing dirty tricks with the weather! Who does he think he is, Pat Robertson?



Never fear, Ned's got a tent. Get there at 3pm and get under it!

(Stolen almost entirely from spazeboy.)

Info posted on the Connecticut Expo Center website:

DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION - Private Event
For information, contact: Democratic State Central Committee (860) 560-1775

Friday, May 19, 2006
4:00pm Registration opens
6:00pm Preliminary Session

Saturday, May 20, 2006
8:00am Registration opens
9:00am Convention Session

PARKING IS FREE

Directions from the Expo Center website (Google Map).

If you're a delegate, get there early, and be prepared - possibly - for a late night.

LamontBlog will be liveblogging from afar, and Tim Tagaris will be liveblogging from the floor of the convention. Other bloggers that will be there include: Matt Stoller from MyDD, ConnecticutBlog, My Left Nutmeg, ConnecticutBob, Without A Purpose, CTBlue, Connecticut Local Politics, and La Resistance.

Word is that Joe Lieberman is having DTCs call "emergency meetings" tonight in order to pass resolutions to force bloc-voting in the Senate nomination tomorrow night.

What's next? Is he going to hold an "emergency meeting" to change the location of the convention?

Ned Lamont will be on the ballot in August no matter how many dirty tricks Joe tries to pull in the next 24 hours.

Update: Hmm... interesting that http://dems.info, the URL for the state party website, should suddenly stop working the day before the convention. (Another URL for the site, http://ctdems.org, is still working.)

Dear Senator Lieberman,

I supported you as the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States six years ago. However, I am deeply disturbed to find you openly contemplating an Independent run for U.S. Senate this year. As you well know, Democrats are on the cusp of reclaiming the congress for the first time in over a decade. Your threats seriously undermine the progress of the national party towards that goal, again.

Ned Lamont has already pledged to support your candidacy should you win this August. On the eve of the Connecticut Democratic Convention, I urge you to do the same.

Sign your name here.

Also, check out Colin McEnroe's take on the convention and why a Joe-less ticket is the key to Democratic success in November:

A final thought about Lieberman. I don’t buy the argument that hurting him hurts other state Democrats, especially in the three battleground congressional races. Come November, the gale force wind blowing through electoral politics will be a furious rejection of Bush and his policies, and Democrats all over the country will reap bountiful harvests from it. In Connecticut, we have the one American Democrat most heavily identified with and lovingly allied to those very Bush policies and people now in widespread disrepute.

He’s supposed to be an asset?

DavidNYC at Swing State Project has more convention thoughts.

And next week, MoveOn will conduct their own primary of CT members in order to determine whether Ned Lamont gets the groups endorsement.

Lieberman has a couple of new ads up today, too, including this one touting his supposed credentials on energy:



Lieberman's real position on energy?

• He was the only New England Democrat to vote for George Bush's 2005 Energy Bill which gave $14.5 billion in tax breaks to the same Big Oil companies he now claims are "gouging" consumers.


• He has accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations and at least one private jet flight from a company that California's Attorney General called "Enron's twin brother."


• He was pretty much the last politician in the region - in either party - to oppose the contruction of the Broadwater LNG terminal in Long Island Sound, flip-flopping on the issue only after Ned Lamont made noises about jumping in the race back in January.

A lot going on today (scroll down for news), but I just loved this quote from a New Haven Advocate article about labor abandoning Lieberman:

"He's a high-maintenance senator," says [AFSCME Council 4 spokesman] Dorman. Even when Lieberman comes out on the right side, like opposing Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, "it takes a heck of a lot of work" to get him there.

The third ad is up at the official blog:



First two ads here. Contribute to keep them on the air.

Sounds like they need one:

"He actually called me four times," said Sanchez, a Head Start administrator who had been angry with Lieberman over the war and skeptical of his commitment to Democratic ideals. "I had four conversations with him."

Four times? I'd rather have four conversations with Gilbert Gottfried. No wonder the guy agreed to support him. Seems a small price to pay to stop having a patronizing one-way "dialogue" with Sen. Stalker.

The Courant also reports that:

Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, will be absent from the convention Friday night in observance of the Sabbath. In other years, he has recorded a message accepting the nomination.

This year, Lieberman has decided that a prerecorded message would be inappropriate. His acceptance speech will be delivered by a surrogate, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District.

Why is this year different from all other years? Could it be that Joe is afraid of getting booed again?

Tim Tagaris launches the official blog (at http://nedlamont.com/blog) with a bang - the long awaited Lamont TV commercials that are hitting the air as we speak:



These ads by Bill Hillsman are genius, as expected. You can't go wrong with cute dogs. (Or with Markos, either, I guess.)

Tim has more on the making of the ads.

Contribute to help keep these ads on the air!

That was the sentiment in Pennsylvania yesterday, where primary voters threw out 10 sitting state legislators, including the state senate Republican leadership, and gave sex-scandal-plagued Rep. Don Sherwood (R) a huge scare versus a relatively unknown challenger.

While these results were mainly due to a local issue (the legislature voted themselves a middle-of-the-night pay raise last year), such anti-incumbent feeling isn't limited to any one party in any one state. In Hawaii, a surprising poll shows 16-year incumbent Sen. Daniel Akaka (D) only 2 points ahead of challenger Rep. Ed Case (D) in the Democratic primary. In Rhode Island, Steve Laffey (R) continues to close in on Sen. Lincoln Chafee. And almost 70 percent of the country thinks we're on the "wrong track."

This can't be good news for incumbents anywhere. Including George Bush's Favorite Incumbent Democrat.

The majority of Democrats say they support Sen. Joe Lieberman in spite of his backing the war, since Iraq, after all, is only one of many issues facing voters.

Hello! To characterize the most monumental screw-up of our times as "only one of many issues" is like admiring the theater marquees on Broadway with King Kong on the loose.

- Lowell Weicker, in a must-read Hartford Courant op-ed today.

Things are really ratcheting up...

• My Left Nutmeg has the transcript of Ned's remarks today accepting the NOW endorsement. CTBob has some video up from the event, featuring Ned taking a look at a printout of the hospital maps Bob so helpfully drew up for Joe Lieberman. Bob promises more video from the event soon.


• Bill Reid at Danger High Voltage writes up Lamont's appearance in front of the Hebron DTC tonight. ABC was at the NOW endorsement and will air an interview with Ned on Thursday evening (hope all on-the-fence delegates will be tuned in).


• That same Thursday night, on the eve of the convention, Ned will be speaking to the Brookfield and Redding committees, which will raise the total number of DTCs he's visited to just around 50.


• Keep an eye on the official website for dedicated convention coverage beginning soon.


• Firedoglake has an excellent round-up of various women's groups rejections of "Enrique Suave Lieberman."


• Another reminder: you can get your petitions notarized and handed in and celebrate the grand opening of the Lamont congressional district HQs in both Willimantic and Watertown tomorrow.

Chuck Schumer seems to have trouble remembering, according to Pachacutec at Firedoglake who was on a blogger conference call with the chair of the DSCC today.

Question: I’m curious: Is the DSCC taking a position where it will unconditionally support the eventual nominee of the Connecticut Democratic Party?

Schumer: We haven’t taken a position on that yet. . . (interrupted by crosstalk with staff over timing for a vote). What we do is. . . we are an organization of incumbents, and while we certainly find challengers who go up against incumbents, we support incumbents, so I know I didn’t answer your question, but we are supporting Lieberman at this point. Our general rule, and I don’t think there’s been an exception, is that we support the Democrat against the Republicans. We expect Lieberman will win, but if he doesn’t and Ned wins, my guess is we will support him. We haven’t taken a position on that but we’ve almost never deviated. I do not know of a time that the Democrats have deviated and not supported the Democrat.

In reality, this is the strongest signal yet from the DSCC that they would support Ned (D) in a potential three-way race vs Joe (I). But it really shouldn't be that hard to come out and say: "The DSCC supports Democrats. The DSCC will support the Democratic candidate for Senate in Connecticut in November."

One commenter on the above post does make a convincing case in defense of Schumer:

I understand why Schumer wants to protect Lieberman. After all, the democrats wouldn’t want to go pissing Lieberman off. Who knows what he might do - Start stabbing fellow democrats in the back left and right? Defend bush in the war in Iraq? Take republican positions on family planning? Vote to prevent filibustering of extremist supreme court nominees? Give Bush standing ovations every time he mentions ‘terra’?

On a related note, many thanks are due to Jane Hamsher, who has been amazingly supportive of Ned Lamont's candidacy from the very beginning and has blogged profusely about Ned (Check out all of FDL's Lieberman posts here). You can contribute to the campaign through Firedoglake's ActBlue page, which has already raised over $27,000.

Lieberman responds to NOW's endorsement of Ned Lamont:

Marion Steinfels, a spokeswoman for Lieberman's campaign, said the senator's "entire career in public service has been fighting for women's rights."

"As a defender of a woman's right to choose, he opposes all efforts to undercut Roe vs. Wade," she said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that struck down bans on abortion.

"Opposes all efforts"?

That wasn't exactly how Joe put it to his pal Sean Hannity back in February:

HANNITY: ... by the way, I was mad at you at Alito, and one day I'm gonna pull you aside, and I believe in my heart, I really believe in my heart that if the president really needed your vote, you would have been there.

LIEBERMAN: (Sigh) Well, OK, you pull me aside and we'll talk. (Laughter)

HANNITY: Alright, you don't want to answer that publicly, do you?

LIEBERMAN: (Laughter) Cause I voted no.

HANNITY: I know you voted no but...

LIEBERMAN: But I did vote against the filibuster cause I thought that, you know, it was time to move on.

Update: And don't forget that Lieberman played the same game with Clarence Thomas' nomination, supporting it until the moment it was clear another President Bush didn't need his vote. From the New York Times, Oct. 16, 1991:

Mr. Lieberman said in an interview that he did not decide to oppose Judge Thomas until 15 minutes before the vote.

"I felt he deserved some benefit of the doubt because you wouldn't want to disqualify someone for the Court based on a lone allegation," he said. "But ultimately, what made up my mind was Professor Hill's testimony and then those four corroborating witnesses. Ultimately, it just raised too many doubts in my mind. I decided if I was going to err it was better to err on the side of caution."

It's official:

These are precarious times for women. We cannot be satisfied with a senator who votes for women much of the time, or even most of the time. We need courageous leaders who will protect and advance all of our rights all of the time. The winner of this election will have profound influence on national policy which directly affects women and girls in Connecticut, in the nation and throughout the world. We are confident that we have found principled leadership in Ned Lamont and are proud to endorse his candidacy for U.S. Senate.

Keep in mind, NOW rarely endorses in primaries.

They did so with Alan Sandals in the PA senate race, but Bob Casey (a) isn't an incumbent, and (b) is staunchly opposed to reproductive rights.

Joe Lieberman, on the other hand, is an 18-year incumbent who puts phrases like "protecting women's right to choose" in his campaign ads. He claims to be firmly pro-choice.

This endorsement is absolutely devastating to that claim.

(Full statement from NOW PAC after the jump...)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2006
CONTACT: Mai Shiozaki
c. 202-641-1906

NOW PAC Endorses Ned Lamont for U.S. Senate in Connecticut

Statement of NOW PAC Officer Melody Drnach

The National Organization for Women Political Action Committee is pleased to announce its endorsement of Democratic candidate Ned Lamont for the United States Senate. The purpose of NOW PAC is to advance women's rights through electoral activity. NOW PAC is the only political action committee that bases its endorsements on a candidate's support of the full range of feminist issues, including (but not limited to):

• Support for reproductive rights without restriction


• Economic equality for women


• Civil rights for all


• Constitutional equality for women


• Affirmative action


• Elimination of violence against women.

Our endorsements go to the strongest feminist candidates. We listen to our membership and respond to their requests for action in races in their states. Therefore, pursuant to the request of Connecticut NOW, NOW PAC is endorsing Ned Lamont for the U.S. Senate.

Ned Lamont ardently supports a full range of reproductive choices for women. He certainly understands that reproductive justice includes full access for rape victims to emergency contraception. Ned Lamont recognizes that "civil rights for all" encompasses the right of everyone to marry the person they choose regardless of gender. He acknowledges that support of the continuing war in Iraq continues to decimate our economy and our standing in the world. Finally, Ned Lamont knows that allowing Samuel Alito's Supreme Court confirmation vote to proceed in the Senate has put Roe v. Wade in extreme jeopardy.

The stacking of the courts has emboldened those who wish to turn back all progress in the area of civil rights, privacy rights, and of course reproductive rights. The attack on Roe in South Dakota was predictable and a direct consequence of the confirmation of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. The strategy to pack the courts with right-wing judges who are committed to overturning Roe is no secret. Yet, Senator Lieberman is one of seven Democrats who have promised not to filibuster any of President Bush's judicial nominees, except under "extraordinary circumstances." Well if packing the Supreme Court with abortion opponents like John Roberts and Samuel Alito is not an extraordinary circumstance, then we don't know what is.

These are precarious times for women. We cannot be satisfied with a senator who votes for women much of the time, or even most of the time. We need courageous leaders who will protect and advance all of our rights all of the time. The winner of this election will have profound influence on national policy which directly affects women and girls in Connecticut, in the nation and throughout the world. We are confident that we have found principled leadership in Ned Lamont and are proud to endorse his candidacy for U.S. Senate.

Women are turning their backs on Joe.

Celebrate the grand openings of the brand-new Lamont campaign offices in the 1st, 2nd, and 5th Congressional Districts this week! Bring in your petitions to be notarized, stop by to say hello and enjoy some snacks at any of the following events:

• West Hartford (1st CD): Tue., May 16th, 4-8pm, at the Lamont 1st CD HQ, 901 Farmington Ave, West Hartford, CT.


• Willimantic (2nd CD): Wed., May 17th, 4-8pm, at the Lamont 2nd CD HQ, 713 Main St., Willimantic, CT.


• Watertown (5th CD): Wed., May 17th, 6:30-8pm, at the Lamont 5th CD HQ, 659 Main St., Watertown, CT.

Congressional District offices are already open in Norwalk (the 4th) and New Haven (the 3rd).

And MyDD just put up a great video from their visit to Meriden HQ last week.

From today's Connecticut Post:

Lieberman stresses... that he remains convinced toppling Saddam Hussein's regime was "the right decision" but also points out his criticisms of the conduct of the war. In particular, he believes more troops were needed at the start of the war. He also stresses the need to work toward a successful and speedy conclusion.

Criticisms of Bush's Iraq policy? Stressing the need for a speedy conclusion? Joe really has lost the plot, not just with Iraq, but with his own recent statements.

This was Joe in March 2005 on Bush's Iraq policy:

But [Lieberman] is unapologetic about his defense of Bush’s Iraq policy, saying, “Bottom line, I think Bush has it right.” When I asked if he was becoming a neoconservative, Lieberman smiled and said, “No, but some of my best friends are neocons.”

And was Joe in March 2006 on the need for a speedy conclusion to the war:

We're talking about 2006, 7, 8... that's three years. And I believe that a lot of very good things can happen in three years in Iraq that ideally would allow us to remove every American soldier who's there today.

The Norwich Bulletin has just put up an online section of short videos of both Lieberman and Lamont addressing individual issues. Good stuff coming from such a small paper.

Watch Joe's answer on Iraq. He looks as if he's providing grand jury testimony: nervous, testy, and defensive.

Meet Ned Lamont:



Robert Greenwald directed this 10-minute introductory video for the campaign, which is being premiered online tonight throughout the blogosphere. Watch it and then send it to your friends and family.

How else to explain "Friends of Joe Lieberman" paying for letters to be sent to delegates from Harry Reid, Deidre Inardi, and now both State Sen. Edith Prague and the biggest of big guns, Hillary Clinton (click for larger versions):





Joe can spend his millions of dollars on cynical mailers from his insider friends in a desperate attempt to try to prevent a primary, but he will fail, as even his campaign admits today.

None of the above Democrats should even consider endorsing a candidate who still pointedly refuses to rule out leaving his party before November.

And no delegate should even consider voting for a candidate who won't do the same. Period.

...is all over the place today, in the Courant, the Stamford Advocate, the Connecticut Post, and the Norwich Bulletin.

Besides the expectations game (Lieberman is trying to game reporters into thinking Lamont will get a totally unrealistic 30%), the only real news is that Lieberman's camp is now actually publicly accepting the reality that there will be a primary. Delegates from big towns (generally folks who like to think they have a future in the party and therefore don't want to piss off the leadership) sound like they're more likely to hold their noses and vote for Lieberman, while those from small towns and rural areas (whom Joe has ignored repeatedly and can afford to vote their conscience) sound more likely to vote for Lamont. We shall see. Lamont is getting on the ballot either way, and Joe now knows it.

P.S. Check back here (or anywhere in the blogosphere) later tonight for some big news from the campaign...