• It's July 1st, the start of the third fundraising quarter. Hotline reports some of the Q2 numbers from MoveOn: $243,000 and counting.


• The Greenwich Democratic Town Committee met on Thursday and
  

  ...unanimously called on both Connecticut Democratic candidates in a primary for the United States Senate Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont "to fully abide by the primary process and respect the decision of the voters on Aug. 8 in "the best tradition of our republic." "We call upon both Sen. Joseph Lieberman and challenger Ned Lamont to publicly and unambiguously promise to end their campaigns in the event they lose the primary election."

  The committee also called upon the DSCC to pledge its support to the Primary winner and not support any candidate running against the Democratic nominee.


• While campaigning for Joe Courtney in Connecticut, Ambassador Joe Wilson was asked about Ned Lamont's challenge to Joe Lieberman. Though Wilson had no comment, he did offer an explanation for not answering the question, quipping that he's "already in too many bar fights right now."


• Local bloggers will be catching some rays on Independence Day, marching in the Willimantic boom-box parade on July 4th. Come if you can!

[I'm a guest poster here, so if you'd like to contact me, please send me an e-mail. My websites, www.spazeboy.net and the Ned Lamont Resource, also cover Ned Lamont.]

With just less than eight hours left before a new fundraising quarter begins, I want to make one final appeal to your generosity. I see that the "goal boat" is overflowing, the LamontBlog boat is also overflowing (see it on the sidebar there, in all it's glorious overflowingness), but I've yet to reach my own modest fundraising goal of $100.

Please give if you can. Believe me, it's for a good cause!

If you've given already, or are unable to give at this time, there are other ways to help out, don't be shy!

[I'm a guest poster here, so if you'd like to contact me, please send me an e-mail. My websites, www.spazeboy.net and the Ned Lamont Resource, also cover Ned Lamont.]

In the Litchfield County Times this afternoon, I stumbled across this line featuring my favorite camera blocker, Marion Steinfels:

Ms. Steinfels said that "the Lieberman campaign is critical of some of the items that appear on the campaign blogs."
She said that the senator has not established a blog from his campaign Web site and instead has concentrated on providing issues positions at the site where voters can learn more about his positions.

I wonder what kinds of blog postings might the Lieberman campaign have reason to be critical of. Maybe the one where I wrote about the time Joe sat down with me at a diner? Or the one where my friend Bob tried to help Joe Lieberman implement his suggestions for rape victims? It could have been the time my pal CTBlogger learned that Joe wasn't ruling out an independent run, and the local Fox affiliate began that evening's broadcast with "A Democratic Senator since 1989, Joe Lieberman ponders jumping ship."

As for the Joe2006.com website being chock-full of issues positions--Joe seems to be missing a few. Steinfels would know that if she spent less time acting kooky and more time reading the blogs.

[I'm a guest poster here, so if you'd like to contact me, please send me an e-mail. My websites, www.spazeboy.net and the Ned Lamont Resource, also cover Ned Lamont.]

• First up, I'll be gone for the next few days, but I'm thankful and thrilled that spazeboy - of spazeboy.net and the Ned Lamont Resource - has agreed to do some guest-blogging here over the weekend.


• "Go for it, Mr. Lamont!" Ned's new ad has already been seen over 8,131 times on YouTube alone in just the last 18 hours.


• End of quarter at midnight tonight, and the campaign has almost surpassed its already once-raised goal of 750 contributors. Push it real good.


• The Courant watches senators squirm when they're asked CTBlogger's "simple question". Sen. Dodd still refuses to support the winner of the primary, but notably doesn't promise he'd support "his boy" if he bolted the party either:
  

  "My boy Joe's going to win the primary." Pressed on what would happen if he does not, Dodd gets more serious. "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," he said. "I learned not to answer questions like that until I have to."

  
  Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) comes closer to answering the question:
  

  "I support the party nominee and I'd be hard-pressed not to support that one," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., of Lamont.

That's the under-the-radar Oman Free Trade Agreement, which Sen. Lieberman voted to approve tonight (hat tip Joementum.com). Workers rights? Human rights? Environmental concerns? Who cares! (Well, Sen. Dodd did, for one.)

David Sirota has more:

More than 400 labor, environmental and human rights groups wrote to Congress asking it not to sellout and instead reject this disastrous accord. The concerns about this pact - which has virtually no labor, human rights, environmental or workplace protections - are many.

Ned Lamont's position on trade:

I support strictly-enforced fair trade policies which level the playing field.... I would support only reciprocal trade agreements which include strong labor and environmental standards.

Connecticut teachers (both the AFT-CT and CEA) have already endorsed Ned Lamont. Now his own students have endorsed "Mr. Lamont" too:



(YouTube)

Update: Best commentary on the ad yet:

How long until Joe finds some Harding High Students for Truth to tell the story about the "real" Ned Lamont?

• More reports coming in of people receiving Lieberman's push-poll. Seems to be coming from a company called Mountain West Research out of Idaho. More on this later today.


• NBC30, who will be televising the debate on July 6, is allowing viewers to submit questions to either Lamont or Lieberman in advance. The debate airs at 7pm and will be an hour long. You can watch it with a bunch of Lamont supporters at the watch party/small dollar fundraiser at O'Neill's in South Norwalk.


• July 4th weekend fast approaching: Ned will be in Hamden for the fireworks tomorrow night, and at a bunch of other events over the weekend.


• Dick Morris joins Republicans and right-wing bloggers in telling Joe to give up on the primary and leave the Democratic party. Democrats continue to ask him to stay in the party.

Joe's internal polling must be sinking faster than the Titanic, since he seems to have resorted to push-polling Connecticut Democrats with the same pathetic lies about Ned Lamont that he's been using in his attack mailers. The poll also seems designed to assure Democratic voters that he will still caucus with the Democrats once he jumps ship.

I've read online of at least two instances of voters receiving calls from an unidentified polling company, and I've had confirmation of a third. One reports:

They asked to respond to two statements and about whether I was more reassured about the candidate:

The two statements:

The first was a long statement (really a mini-speech) by Joe Lieberman and how he WOULD DEFINITELY run as an independant if he lost the primary. And how if elected as an independant he would continue to caucus and vote with the Democrats; and would continue to show his loyalty to the Democratic Party.

The second was a statement ABOUT Lamont stating how in Greenwich he side with Republicans 80% of the time including to cut school funding.

Another reports receiving a similar call:

I just got called by a pollster — apparently paid by Leiberman — using some of the same accusations about Lamont’s background (when you tell a guy making $65k a year that Lamont lives in a 6-million-dollar Greenwich mansion, you don’t expect him to say “how nice!” — he was also a cable TV executive [everyone hates them] and voted to make Greenwich civil servants pay more for their health benefits when he served in town government [moral: never leave a paper trail].

If you receive one these calls, please let me know, by email or in the comments.

Update: More reports at My Left Nutmeg and ConnecticutBlog.

The Hill reports on the contentious relationship between Lieberman and labor that was revealed for everyone to see yesterday in New Haven. Again... his union supporters want to "beat the shit out of him." And his union opponents know the real history involved:

“I can go back to 1993 and say Joe Lieberman was not there on trade,” said William Rudis of the International Association of Machinists, quoted by the Hartford Courant. “We don’t need to be in Boston to spill the tea.”

Lieberman’s views, especially on Iraq, “will splatter our banner with the blood of innocent people,” said Bill Shortell, vice president of the Central Connecticut Labor Council. “No. No. We’ve got to go with Lamont.”

"If he were to desert his party, how long would it be before he deserted labor?"

- Sharon Palmer, president of Local 871 of AFT, on Joe Lieberman and labor, in the New Haven Register (hat tip BranfordBoy).

One might think he's already "deserted labor" by voting repeatedly for free trade agreements like CAFTA (one of only 9 Democrats to do so), for corporate interests on any number of issues, and for the horribly anti-worker Alito to sit on the Supreme Court.

George Bush, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter... now Michelle Malkin? Joe's really piling up those endorsements...

Too bad for him he's running in a Democratic primary in Connecticut and not a Republican primary in Alabama.

Update: Keep Ned's ad on the air, keep annoying Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin:

"I hope that after this is over we can get Joe Lieberman, all of us, even the ones that get along greatly with Joe, and beat the s--t out of him."

- Ken Delacruz of the Metal Trades Union, at the AFL-CIO convention today (via WTNH).

Update (& Bumped): Spazeboy has the video:



That's what a Lieberman supporter at the convention was saying. And William Yardley at the Times reports that the actual yeas and nays were pretty damn close:

After the vote, Mr. Olsen was asked whether the "nays," which were not far below the "yeas" in volume, suggested that labor leaders were split over the endorsement, and he noted that no one had challenged the vote after it was completed.

• The Lamont campaign reached their initial goal of 500 contributions (for over $30,000) by the end of quarter Friday... and it's only Tuesday. How far can we push it?


• A trip down Marion Steinfels Memory Lane: back at the convention in May, she was the Lieberman staffer who hilariously kept stepping in front of Spazeboy's camera as he was trying to video Sen. Lieberman. If you didn't see it then, watch it now. Funny stuff.


• Iraq isn't the only thing missing completely from Lieberman's website. So is any notice of public campaign events and any district office directions or volunteer contacts. He really is running a stealth campaign.


• Speaking of stealth campaigning, Joe Lieberman will be a guest on WTIC 1080-AM tomorrow (Wed.) morning at 8:20 am. If call-ins are allowed, the # is (800) 966-WTIC(9842). (Hat tip mikect).

In a likely fatal blow to any Lieberman plans to leave the party, the AFL-CIO today refused to endorse an independent Lieberman candidacy in November, flying in the face of statements made yesterday about supporting Joe in November regardless of how he fared in the primary. BranfordBoy described the stakes earlier today. (Update: To clarify, as expected, the AFL-CIO did endorse Joe for the primary only).

And Maura has a must-read post on Joe Lieberman's pandering and insulting rhetoric in front of union members yesterday:

Something patently offensive to progressives comes out of Joe's mouth just about every day nowadays, but as a union member I have to say that this one wins the "Clueless Joe" award of the week. Addressing members of the CT AFL-CIO, Joe arrogantly claimed:

"I have earned your decision to rehire me," Lieberman said. Then he smiled and added, "As a matter of fact I think if you fired me now, based on my experience and record, it would be an unfair labor practice."

Well, gee, is Joe going to call up his union shop steward and file a grievance about democracy?

Somewhere along the line, Joe Lieberman forgot that the privilege of public office is not a lifetime appointment; nor is it an automatically renewable union contract.

Oh my god. I'm still laughing. From Colin McEnroe:

In response, the Lieberman press secretary [Steinfels] issued list of “facts,” a political term meaning “things which, if they were true, would make our jobs a lot easier.”

Here are my two favorite facts:

1. Joe Lieberman has been a scathing critic of the Bush Administration. This would be “scathing” in its mostly idiomatic and colloquial usage as a substitute for “fawning.”

2. Joe Lieberman is the only person in the United States of America who ran against George W. Bush twice, and beat him once. This is an apparent reference to 2000, when Lieberman ran against Bush the way Dan Quayle ran against Mike Dukakis in 1988 and the way Ed McMahon was the long-running and widely respected host of the “Tonight” show. This is also an apparent reference to 2004, when Lieberman wanted to run very badly and sort of did. Actually, he didn’t get to run against Bush at all that year , especially after he finished unambiguously fifth in the New Hampshire primary and subsequently announced he had tied for third.

That was the same kooky press secretary who called me up recently and asked me what kind of radio show I do and how she could listen to it and whether my newspaper column is exclusively political. I sort of figured this was one of their improv skits, so I went along as though these were perfectly reasonable questions to ask me. I then suggested that she could better understand one of my takes on Lieberman by reading a certain posting elsewhere in this blog, whereupon she told me she makes it a point never to read any blogs because they get things so wrong. I love this press secretary.

The mysterious and spooky campaign manager [Sean Smith] is very funny too. He has kind of exploded the old crypto-truckling stereotype of political operatives dealing with members of the press by pretending to threaten one. Here is how he concluded an email to a local TV reporter: “If you distort the truth and report that we are running a negative campaign and Ned is not, I will not forget it.” Ooh! It’s only June, and they’re already propping up pony heads in our percale, those scamps!

Really, read the whole thing.

Update: It seems Marion Steinfels' ineptitude in dealing with the public isn't limited to well-known CT figures like Colin McEnroe, but also extends to lowly interns of progressive D.C. magazines:

I just got off the phone with Lieberman's press secretary, and I can confirm that yes, she is a bit "kooky." I had called to find out simply what polling company the senator was using, and she nearly jumped down my throat: "Are you working on a story? Is this for a process story?!" She then ranted about how the campaign was focused on the issues of Connecticut voters, all the while growing more agitated. She terrorized me for a few minutes, asking why I had called, until I told her that I was only a lowly intern who knew nothing and oh, would she please let me go… Needless to say, she didn't answer my question.

Attorney General Blumenthal adds his name to the growing list of Democrats who will not bolt the party when Joe Lieberman does.

Full list here, including some more new names.

In yesterday's meltdown of a press release, Sen. Lieberman's spokeswoman Marion Steinfels bizarrely went after Bill Hillsman, who is responsible for Ned Lamont's recent innovative ads, for having worked for non-Democratic candidates in the past. Hillsman's ads are thought to have been crucial in getting the late Paul Wellstone elected to the senate for the first time, as well as to the success of Democratic campaigns in Colorado and around the country. Like most ad firms, he's done work for people across the political spectrum, but with a special focus on outsider candidates (like Jesse Ventura and Kinky Friedman), being an outsider to the usual D.C. firms himself.

It's ridiculous and more than a little pathetic to respond to the charges of ad by attacking the producer of that ad for having worked for independent candidates in the past. Advertising is a profession, and almost all firms cross party lines once in a while. And Hillsman in particular made his name electing the most prominent progressive senator of the last 20 years. If any campaign should want his name featured prominently in the press, it's the Lamont campaign.

But if Joe's going to go the "glass houses" route, let's take a look at the people who are doing his ads, the super-beltway-insider Glover Park Group. Their recent work includes ad campaigns for such staunchly Democratic and progressive interests as Pfizer, Smirnoff Vodka, MCI-Worldcom, and the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers Association of America.

Most interesting is Glover Park's stealth work for Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp., at whose behest Lieberman's firm secretly created a fake grassroots organization ("Don't Count Us Out") in order to pressure Nielsen to refrain from making changes in their TV ratings system. As the above article notes, Glover Park lied about the group's origins:

Don't Count Us Out describes itself as "a coalition of minority leaders, community groups, producers, directors, actors and everyday viewers concerned about fair and accurate television ratings. We think it is time that Nielsen is finally held account [sic] for their efforts." Unlike many websites, however, DCUO's doesn't provide a list a members, a board of directors, a blurb about its founders -- all the info you typically expect from an advocacy group.

So NewsCorp's proxy, the special-interest group DCUO, used "a campaign to disrupt Nielsen's operations in which 'calls and e-mails were targeted at Nielsen executives, shutting down their corporate switchboard.' "

Is Glover Park planning on pulling similar dirty tricks for Lieberman in this campaign?

It'll be worth watching out for.

Update: Matt Stoller had a whole lot more to say about the Glover Park Group earlier this month.

Someone really doesn't like being called George Bush's Favorite Democrat:

"He's wrong and I am offended by it every time he calls me a lap dog for the Bush administration. That, forgive me, is b.s!" says Lieberman.

Update: From Mark Pazniokas in the Courant, we find out that being called on an outright lie in an attack mailer is just a little "quibble" to Joe:

Lieberman had fired his own salvo over the weekend, falsely claiming in a mailing to Democrats that Lamont's campaign is being run by a former Republican state chairman.

Lamont's campaign is being run by Tom Swan, a liberal Democratic activist. Swan did hire Thomas D'Amore, a former GOP chairman and aide to former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., as an adviser - and that was close enough for Lieberman.

"That's a real quibble, isn't it?" Lieberman said. "A former Republican state chairman is playing a central role in the Lamont campaign."

(Except he's not a Republican, and he's not playing anything close to a "central role" in the Lamont campaign.)

The new ad seems to have caused the entire Lieberman campaign to implode in a fit of furious spin. Here's the new Lieberman press release (via CGG):

Statement from Marion Steinfels on the Lieberman Campaign’s reaction to Negative Ned’s Latest Smear Tactics:

“Ned Lamont’s smear tactics hit a new low today with this vicious attack on Sen. Lieberman. Ned’s army of consultants he hired to run his campaign -from former Republican Party Chair, Tom D’Amore to Bill Hillsman- who have spent years working to defeat Democrats, are at it again.”

Yes... an "army of consultants" consisting of entirely two people. And who are those two people? An adman who got Paul Wellstone elected to the senate and an independent consultant who Lieberman falsely claimed was a Republican and Ned Lamont's campaign manager.

But it gets better...

HERE ARE THE FACTS ON JOE LIEBERMAN:

Joe Lieberman has been a scathing critic of the Bush Administration.

Hold on a sec. My brain just exploded from laughing, and I have to clean it up.

...OK, better now. Let's continue...

Joe Lieberman is the only person in the United States of America who ran against George W. Bush twice, and beat him once.

I'm not even sure I know what that means. But it doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement.

Lieberman criticized the Bush administration before the war started and after it began.

But not on Iraq.

Lieberman harshly criticized the Bush Administration for being unprepared for the post war situation in Iraq.

But he hasn't done anything about it.

...Joe Lieberman Opposes Bush’s Attempts to Pack the Court with Right-Wing Ideologues, including Miguel Estrada and Dennis Shedd.

But Alito was OK.

...Joe Lieberman OPPOSED the Nomination of Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court.

But he voted for cloture, allowing Alito onto the Supreme Court, telling Sean Hannity he did so "because it was time to move on."

It seems like someone really doesn't like being called George Bush's Favorite Democrat.

And a new fundraising goal: 500 new contributions by the end of the quarter this Friday. The ad:



Update: Hotline on Call weighs in:

If Lamont wins this thing, this ad will become legendary.

And Spazeboy came up with this hypnotizing animated gif.

The Slimy Joe Lieberman campaign in a nutshell. Paul Bass debunks Joe's new more-desperate-than-ever attack mailer. Seems they still can't figure out whether Ned should be a Republican or a "left-wing weirdo." Oh, Sean. Decide already!

And check out the caption to the "flattering" photo of Joe at the end of his post. Hilarious.

Apparently, his official position on the 2005 incident is now that there was never a kiss (via Atrios):

Connecticut party officials were particularly incensed when President Bush kissed Lieberman on the cheek following his 2005 State of the Union address. In meetings with state Dems, Lieberman tried to assuage their concerns, but also kept reminding party officials he had a 70% approval rating. Even so, the attacks on the kiss became so vocal that an exasperated Lieberman told one group of Democrats "I didn't kiss him back," a response that didn't exactly hearten them. (The incident has become so radioactive that Lieberman now denies Bush actually kissed him, telling TIME last week "I don't think he kissed me, he leaned over and gave me a hug and said 'thank you for being a patriotic American.'")

The right-wing American Spectator fills us in on how GOP insiders are planning to help Ann Coulter's Favorite Democrat:

LIEBERMAN'S OPPORTUNITY

All of that bad Democrat news makes the ongoing saga between Connecticut Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman, and his party all the more interesting. At a time when his party can ill afford to alienate centrist constituencies across the country, it is doing just that with Lieberman, and some senior Republicans are wondering whether they shouldn't get into the fight to help Lieberman despite the fact that a weakened Lieberman could mean a win for their expected nominee in the state, Alan Schlesinger.

"Lieberman has been a more loyal American and a real leader for our nation than some of the men we have on our side of the aisle in the Senate," says a Republican fundraiser. "I don't want to see Lieberman lose to a leftist nut like Ned Lamont."

How nice of Republicans to help Joe out, so that Democrats will avoid "alienating centrist constituencies."

It's so rare that Republicans try sincerely to help the Democratic party like that.

(Bumped.) CTBlogger posts that Sen. Feingold (D-WI) showed Ned some love on Meet the Press this morning. More soon.

Update 2: Here's the video (hat tip to Scarce):



Update: Here's the transcript (via MyDD):

MR. RUSSERT: Your colleague Joe Lieberman in Connecticut in a tough primary battle. If Senator Lieberman asks you to come to Connecticut to campaign for him, will you?

SEN. FEINGOLD: I have a lot of admiration for Joe. He's a fine guy. He helped me a great deal in campaign finance reform. I think Ned Lamont's positions on the issues are much closer to mine on the critical issues. I think that this is going to be something decided by the people of Connecticut. I'm not going to go up there, but I'll tell you this, Tim. I will support the Democratic nominee, whoever that is.

MR. RUSSERT: So if Lamont beats Lieberman, you're for Lamont.

SEN. FEINGOLD: That's correct.

MR. RUSSERT: And you will not campaign for Lieberman if they ask you?

SEN. FEINGOLD: I'm not getting involved in the primary. If Joe Lieberman wins the primary, I campaign for him. If Ned Lamont wins the primary, I campaign for him. I'll be supporting the Democrat. [emphasis added]

In an op-ed in the Courant today, former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Curry all but tells Lieberman to cut and run from the party, somehow arguing that in doing so it will change the tone of the debate:

Reporters love to write about political strategy. Their current obsession is whether Lieberman will limit his options to an increasingly competitive primary or opt for an independent spot on the November ballot, where he still enjoys a wide lead....

Polls say Lieberman leads among likely voters. But if he calls them in early July and finds them not home, he'll likely take out his petitions. It will be an opportunity to move the debate to higher ground and to the issue that gives the race its rationale, the failed, bloody and seemingly endless war in Iraq.

This is not about "political strategy." This is about political loyalty. If Joe won't stay a Democrat, why should any Democrat vote for Joe? And if Joe is willing to leave the party just because he's facing a "inconvenient" primary challenge, to sell out his constituents for his own personal gain, isn't that a warning sign about how he'd act in the senate in the next six years?

Plus Curry's logic is frustratingly circular: Joe refuses to rule out leaving the party, that causes the debate to be about meaningless "strategy," and so in order to fix this problem he should leave the party in order to "move the debate to higher ground." Nevermind that if Joe - like Ned - would simply commit to remaining a Democrat, the debate would immediately move to "higher ground."

This is the most "obsessed" about issue now, because Joe himself has made it so, and continues to make it so.

There are only about 6 weeks left until the primary. Now's the time to get involved:

• Meet Ned in Derby today.


• Sign up for Family, Friends, and Neighbors.


• Urge Sen. Lieberman to stay in the party and support the primary winner.


• Volunteer for the campaign. Contact your local district office for more information.


• Write a letter to the editor about Ned Lamont.


• Contribute to the LamontBlog personal fundraising page.

Also, I have changed my nom de blog (for an explanation of the evolution of my username, see the very first post from this blog back in Februrary). Still the same LamontBlog. Take note of the new email address on the left as well.