"[Lieberman] staffers said the choice of locations was all part of a carefully organized plan; each day had a theme. Meanwhile, reporters tried to recall a more painful display of catch-up campaigning. One New York reporter said watching Senate hopeful Rick Lazio step in dog poop on the eve of his loss to Hillary Clinton was pretty sad. But nope, she decided, this was definitely worse."

- Helen Ubiñas on Sen. Lieberman's bus tour, in the Hartford Courant.

Blogging will be minimal for the rest of the weekend. It's far less important now than doing the real work that will get voters to the polls on Tuesday.

If you are in or anywhere near Connecticut, stop whatever you're doing, and come help out.

If you are somewhere further afield, there are other ways you can help.

Rock the boat.

Three days... GOTV!

• Marion Steinfels admits that the 50 or so Lieberman staffers in Greenwich yesterday and the 15-20 in Meriden on Thursday, who tried to disrupt three Ned Lamont events in total and provoke violence, are indeed Lieberman campaign workers, and defends their actions:
  

  Marion Steinfels, a Lieberman campaign spokeswoman, said the Lieberman workers had stayed within bounds.
  
  "They went to Ned's rally in support of Joe Lieberman," she said. "My understanding was there was no inappropriate behavior."



• At the rally itself, Ned Lamont got his message across - change, or more of the same?:
  

  "Look, there's an awful lot of cameras around here," he said. "There's an awful lot of folks that are just beginning to pay attention in this race because not only do you have a choice, but your vote on Aug. 8 makes a real difference. Your vote on Aug. 8 is going to say a lot about what type of country we have. Do you want to stay the course or do you want to change course?"
  
  Weicker, a former Republican who later left the party and became an Independent, re iterated Lamont's message, extending it to the GOP as well.
  
  "I have come to the conclusion that for many years, we have been ill-served by a tired old coalition of Republicans and Democrats for whom re-election is more important than the courage demanded of conviction," Weicker said. "America needs a house cleaning in Washington on both sides and Lamont can be a part of that process."

  
  
• A poll commissioned by the New London Day has Lamont +10. And an overwhelming two-thirds of Democrats want Sen. Lieberman to respect the results of the primary and bow out gracefully if he loses.


• So much for this primary "hurting" the Democratic party, as Joe Lieberman tried to claim and continues to claim. So far, the excitement surrounding this race has resulted in 11,496 unaffiliated voters becoming Democrats, in addition to 10,344 new voters who have registered as Democrats. Win or lose, the Democratic party in Connecticut has been strengthened by this race.

Admitted dirty-trickster, D.C. corporate lobbyist, and all-around incredibly angry guy Richard Goodstein is now the public face of the Lieberman campaign. Along with dozens of teenagers who are being taught his particular brand of politics.

BranfordBoy and Maura have other accounts of the Greenwich rally tonight.

Does Sen. Lieberman approve of the actions of Richard Goodstein?

Update: CTBob has video. Just go watch it now.

George Stephanopoulos (who was in state to tape interviews with both Sen. Lieberman and Ned Lamont for This Week on ABC this Sunday) made a short appearance on WTNH (YouTube) this afternoon, and voiced the clear opinion of the D.C. establishment about Joe's possible independent run:

STEPHANOPOULOS: This going to send shockwaves... through the entire Washington establishment in the Democratic party. It will also send a signal to the Republicans that this war is an issue that could work against them in November....

MARK DAVIS: If he loses the primary, is the Washington Democratic establishment, from what you understand, going to try to put pressure on him to withdraw?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Tremendous pressure. What you're going to see is, even people who supported Sen. Lieberman, like former President Clinton, like Hillary Clinton, like the leader in the senate Harry Reid, they're all going to say "we have to abide by the results of the primary." I think there will be overwhelming pressure on Sen. Lieberman not to run as an independent.... I've talked to a lot of Democrats in Washington, and a lot of them want to support him through this primary process. That support is likely to evaporate the day after the primary, if he loses.

DAVIS: I can tell you that we hear that from Democratic operatives here as well.

Both Stephanopoulos and Davis are vociferously stating what is clearly the emerging strong consensus of establishment Democrats in both D.C. and in Connecticut - if Joe loses the primary, he needs to bow out gracefully.

Lieberman's latest gambit in a week that's been full of them was to have Sen. Lautenberg suddenly try to suggest that Ned Lamont has to win by 10% in order to get Joe to respect the results of the primary. The number is arbitary, of course, and it would be ridiculous to assume Lautenberg just spouted it randomly. It's an attempt at gaming the system, to hold off the "tremendous" and "overwhelming" pressure that is sure to come Lieberman's way in the aftermath of any loss, close or otherwise.

More than that, the "10%" gambit likely represents one of the last in a series of last-ditch moves.

But they're going to try with all their might to pull this one out, and there's no doubt they still can. Joe's ground game isn't disappearing. Their canvassers are out knocking on every door they can find (even, apparently, Ned Lamont's daughter's!)

Not to mention, Lieberman raised a huge sum of money from PACs and corporate donors over the past few weeks, and if Joe really does start believing he needs to win on Tuesday to save his career, it's spend it or lose it. As David Sirota notes, it's not just the 50-something former dirty-trickster D.C. corporate lobbyists starting ruckuses with teenagers in cheeseburger shops who are Joe's true core constituency and will back him to the bitter end. Powerful lobbyists and corporate interests of all stripes are deathly afraid of a Sen. Lamont:

“The Washington lawyers and lobbyists in those rooms will come back for Joe Lieberman. Who knows what Lamont would be like?”

- Enron lobbyist and former Lieberman chief of staff Michael Lewan, at a fundraiser this week by Washington lobbyists for Joe Lieberman [Source: Hartford Courant, 8/4/06]

But if it doesn't work out for him, and if Sen. Lieberman loses - by any margin - on Tuesday night, it's increasingly clear that he really has no other choice but to concede gracefully, and to help unite the Democratic party for November.

(Ned at the Machinists' Union rally yesterday, courtesy of the official blog.)

This race is very close, and Sen. Lieberman has by no means given up. Given the constant spin from the insane amount of local and national media coverage, it's impossible to divine what he's up to, if anything. He may only now be realizing that winning on August 8th is his only route to victory in November. The extent to which the field campaign is being cut seems to have been greatly exaggerated by their own campaign. Lieberman staffers are taking their $60 a day and knocking on doors and making phone calls at this very moment.

GOTV: the only thing that matters.

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."

Gets it again:

So Lieberman isn't losing because a blogger lurks behind every tree in Connecticut's bosky dells. He is losing because Connecticut Democrats, like Democrats everywhere, have had enough of the war in Iraq, and because they have the one and only Democratic senator who's put himself on record not merely in favor of the war but in opposition to those who would criticize -- or, as Lieberman would say, undermine -- the president for his initiation and conduct of that war.

Many of my fellow pundits read all kinds of sinister meanings into Lieberman's pending defeat, including a purge of moderates from Democratic ranks. But, as Michael Tomasky demonstrated a couple of days ago, the moderate forces within the Democrats' Senate delegation are still very much alive and well. Next Tuesday, in fact, Connecticut Democrats will be doing exactly what small-d democratic theorists would have them do: decide an election by opting for one clear policy alternative, as personified by one candidate, over another personified by the incumbent.

Eric Schmeltzer suggests the recent seemingly coordinated leaking of depressing info from inside the Lieberman campaign may be a last-gasp attempt at disinformation in an attempt to demotivate Lamont supporters. Could be. But it could backfire too:

In campaigns, this type of tactic happens on a much lower scale all the time; it's called lowering expectations. Whether it is predicting lower fundraising than you really have just before quarterly reports are filed, or pretending your opponent is an Oxford-level debater and yours is Howdy Doody, whispering to reporters that you're not as good as they say is a fun game.

But predicting your own political death is the "nuclear option" of campaigns. It could work, and get Lamont's network to take a little rest and pat themselves on the back prematurely, or it could backfire and completely destroy the morale of the Lieberman network of voters who lay down their arms and surrender before Tuesday.

Bill Clinton would support Ned Lamont in a three-way general election.

Al Gore and John Kerry would support Ned Lamont in a three-way general election.

Sean Hannity would support Joe Lieberman in a three-way general election. Over the Republican candidate.

Aldon at MyDD did some digging, and discovered that the lead Lieberman supporter at the Meriden event yesterday was what else but a corporate D.C. lobbyist:

The Meriden, CT paper has this article about the confrontation in Meriden CT yesterday. They say,

" "It was supposed to be a laid-back event and (they) ruined it." "We're just using our right. We're just exercising our rights to enjoy a burger," said Lieberman supporter Alex Hoffman of Boston. Supporters of each candidate debated outside on the sidewalk while many Lieberman supporters continued to badger Lamont, who acknowledged most questions. Richard Goodstein, one of the most vocal Lieberman supporters, repeatedly shouted, "Are you a Bill Clinton Democrat or an Al Sharpton Democrat?" Lamont calmly said he supported both.

So, let's see what we can find out about Richard Goodstein. I assume this picture on Flickr is of Richard Goodstein. With a little searching, I find this article about Richard. The picture sure looks the same.

Yes, it certainly does:



Goodstein's bio:

Mr. Goodstein is now Washington Representative for Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., and for Air Products Healthcare, one of the most prominent companies in the home medical equipment field. Mr. Goodstein has been an active advocate on behalf of Air Products Healthcare in Congress and with the administrators of the Medicare program. Mr. Goodstein also appears regularly on the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and other TV networks to offer political and legal analysis.

Four days... volunteer! Ned needs every last vote.

• The Washington Post reports what others online had suggested last night - that Lieberman's campaign is slashing their field campaign in order to save funds for the general election. Still no news about whether Tom Lindenfeld is still working for Joe or not:
  

  Facing a likely defeat, Lieberman has scrapped plans for a massive and costly get-out-the-vote operation on primary day, according to several Democratic sources. Instead, he will shift some of his resources into more television commercials designed to highlight his accomplishments for the state, in hopes of boosting his battered image....
  
  The Lieberman campaign, fearing that low voter turnout in the primary would favor Lamont, had plans to build a get-out-the-vote operation bigger than any seen in a state race in Connecticut. But in the face of discouraging polls, campaign officials concluded this week that the money likely would be wasted.

  
  And those rumors about Joe making an Iraq mea culpa commercial? Looks like that's not going to happen:
  

  Lieberman plans to spend the remaining days of the campaign making a positive case for himself through television ads and a series of media interviews, according to campaign officials. He has decided not to attempt to discuss the war in his final commercials.



• If Joe wants to polish up his image, he's going to have to rein in his paid campaign staffers. The Record Journal covers yesterday's attempt by Lieberman staffers to disrupt a Lamont event in Meriden. View the full front page here:
  
  
  

  Lieberman supporters piled into every booth at the tiny eatery and snatched up every seat at the counter roughly half an hour before Lamont's arrival. Then, as he walked down the sidewalk from Sherman Avenue, they threw on white Lieberman T-shirts and waited. Moments later, they pounced.
  
  Initially, Lamont appeared stunned by the ambush. However, he remained composed throughout the ordeal. He attempted to answer each question and made an effort to shake many of his opponent's supporters' hands at the second of two campaign stops in the city Thursday. After both sides sparred for several minutes, Lamont left the restaurant without ever sampling one of Ted's famous steamed cheeseburgers.



• The Courant has more on the down mood in Joe's camp. And in the media, hardly anyone is even bothering to pay attention to his desperate attacks anymore:
  

  As Lieberman was touring West Hartford, two of his supporters - AFL-CIO President John Olsen and House Speaker Jim Amann, D-Milford - took aim at Lamont. But the event - a sparsely attended press conference at the Legislative Office Building - raised no new issues.



• The Courant also reports that, finding no support in CT, Joe is hitting up his true constituency - D.C. insiders - for funds for the general election:
  

  The one group regarded as most loyal to Lieberman are the Washington veterans who show up not only for the lunch at the hotel, but other Capitol Hill fundraisers in recent weeks. Among the hosts were Tony Podesta, a high-powered Washington consultant, and his wife Heather, a Washington lawyer....
  
  "The Washington lawyers and lobbyists in those rooms will come back for Joe Lieberman," said Michael Lewan, a Washington consultant and former Lieberman chief of staff. "Who knows what Lamont would be like?"



• Ari Melber writes about the statistical proof that Joe is indeed a "Fox News Democrat":
  

  As I've said before, if he's avoiding conservative media in an effort to win back Democrats, he might as well say so. It's hard to get credit for responding to criticism if you insist you are not actually responding. But the numbers don't lie: Lieberman went from 25 Fox appearances during the 2004 presidential campaign to 4 appearances in 2005 to 0 this year.



• While this has been true in Connecticut for a while, Lieberman is now nationally more popular with Republicans than he is with Democrats, according to Gallup:
  

  The latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds Lieberman with the worst ratings from Democrats nationally since Gallup first measured his image in 2000. As a result, he is now more popular with Republicans than with supporters of his own party. Among Republicans and Republican "leaners," a plurality of 46% view Lieberman favorably, while 27% view him unfavorably. Democrats are more evenly divided in their attitudes, with 38% viewing him favorably and 32% unfavorably.
  
  



• CBSNews.com has a decent profile of Ned's grassroots campaigning in the closing days of this race (click on the third image!):
  

  “I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a business guy,” Lamont told CBSNews.com. “I think if you see a problem, you want to go out and fix it.”...
  
  The roots of Lieberman's free fall in the polls (complacency, hubris) have been hashed over in the press.
  
  But Lamont's secret recipe probably deserves a little more attention. While there's no question about the fact that Lamont's anti-war crusade is driving his candidacy (65 percent of the Democrats in the Quinnipiac poll say they're voting against Lieberman), Lamont has also been boosted by a frenetic, hustling grassroots campaign....
  
  Half a year of visiting picnics, parades, nursing homes and school auditoriums around the Nutmeg state hasn't hurt. His modus operandi at small gatherings is to try to meet every attendee before delivering a short speech that often evokes cheers, laughter and questions.

Atrios is right. This is over-the-top, and seemingly devoid of any actual, you know, facts. I literally started laughing out loud from the first sentence. No more Rennie for me. Or at least, from now on, only for the beautifully flowing prose and historical metaphors.

Eyes on the prize.

Update: I'm bumping this post from earlier this evening, beacause this is what the campaign is all about, and this is what we should all be focusing on with only a few days to go. Please read CTBlogger's entire post. It's inspiring, and a needed antidote to recent nastiness and negativity which I'm afraid will only get worse as Sen. Lieberman grows even more desperate.



As CTBlogger notes, Rev. Jackson really brings the election into focus. This election presents a clear choice to voters about real, terribly important issues. And Connecticut Democrats have a unique chance both to send a message and hire a great senator in the process.

Rumors are flying fast and furious that the Lieberman campaign has decided to cut their entire field campaign for Tuesday, and save their corporate millions to fund a Lieberman Party run after August 9th. It is also questionable whether recently hired field guru Tom Lindenfeld even has a job or not anymore.

Today was an absolute PR disaster for the Lieberman campaign, as they imploded on all levels.

Apparently this happened at a couple of events today, but I've only received reports about one. Matt Stoller already has most of the details, but here's what I've been able to gather independently from Lamont supporters who were at the event.

Ned walks into Ted's Steamed Cheeseburgers for the event, and the 3 or 4 booths inside are already packed, as are some of the counter seats, with about 15-20 teenagers and one older gentleman, many of whom had asked for and received Ned Lamont stickers from the Lamont staffers organizing the event. Ned says hi to the owner. As Ned starts talking, the teenagers reveal Lieberman T-shirts. The older gentleman starts yelling "Are You an Al Sharpton Democrat or a Bill Clinton Democrat?" and something along the lines of "because Bill Clinton has the support of everyone and Al Sharpton only has the support of..." trailing off. Ned decides to leave, with his staff fearing for his physical safety.

The entire scene moves outside, where about 6 reporters are there, witnessing the entire spectacle. A near melee ensues as at least 5 of the Lieberman kids continue to yell and scream at Ned and get physically abusive with Lamont staffers, even bloodying a photographer's nose.

A Lamont supporter at the scene noted the Lieberman staffers looked "red in the face" with anger.

Ned attempts to talk with a 90-year-old WWII veteran pilot from Virginia who wanted to discuss his opposition to the Iraq war. The Lieberman kids scream accusations about Ned's patriotism, spewing right-wing bile accusing him of not caring about our troops, and questioning whether he would (not verbatim) "let our citizens die again," assumedly a reference to 9/11.

One reporter goes up and tries to ask some of these kids whether they are volunteers or paid staffers for the Lieberman campaign. The kid screams in response, "Let me see your credentials!" The reporter produces said credentials. The kid replies "those are fake." None of the 15-20 Lieberman kids there would admit to being paid staffers. Nor would they tell the reporters their names, or any other personal information.

Ned eventually escapes. In the meantime, the teenage Lieberman staffers continue to yell and scream at the Lamont supporters who had shown up just to have a cheeseburger with Ned. Ned returns about 10 minutes later, when things have calmed down.

The reporters were, to a person, understandably horrified at the spectacle.

With the entire field campaign possibly abandoned, and even Lindenfeld's employ in question, the entire substance of Lieberman campaign seems to have degenerated into little more than official, paid-for thuggery at Ned Lamont events.

Either former GOP State Sen. Kevin Rennie is part of some grand plan to lull Lamont supporters into complacency, or his reporting is correct and Lieberman's campaign is in complete disarray.

Word is leaking out of the campaign that efforts to hire and organize several thousand itinerant campaign workers have fallen far short of expectations and necessity. Lieberman and his battered brain trust will now have to decide whether to continue investing funds in that effort or save money for November. These primary troubles are a preview of what he can expect in his new life as an independent should he lose on Tuesday. Much of his weak campaign organization will dutifully head to the triumphant Democratic nominee or simply sit out the race.

Party professionals are appalled at the parlous state of Lieberman’s campaign organization. And that’s something it takes more than a few weeks to build. The invoice for neglecting Connecticut Democrats for the past six years is now due. It’s a ruinous sum for George Bush’s favorite Senate Democrat.

Either way, it doesn't matter. This election will be decided on turnout and turnout alone, and Ned needs every last vote he can get. GOTV.

Between the Q-Poll and now this endorsement, a merely bad news day just turned into a horrible one for Lieberman.

Meanwhile, The Politicker gets the perfunctory Steinfels quote of the day:

Joe Lieberman's campaign staff is staying resolutely upbeat about today's Q-poll that has Ned Lamont leading by 54-41 -- to say nothing of the decision of SEIU Local 1199 to support Lamont.

Lieberman spokesperson Marion Steinfels actually went so far as to suggest that there's a bright side to all of it. "Many of our supporters weren't really aware of how serious the challenge was, and this makes them aware of how serious it is."

Steinfels this morning in an email to supporters:

We’ve known from the beginning that this was going to be a close race and we have been treating it as such.

Well then, it's settled. The Lieberman campaign has by their own admission completely failed to convince their supporters of what they claim to have known since the beginning of the race.

Today is the last day to send them a postcard about Ned.

Sign up to volunteer this weekend and through primary day.

A few weeks ago, Harold Meyerson wrote one of the best analyses of the senate race in Connecticut to date, pointing out the real reasons Lieberman is in trouble, and the real issues at stake for Connecticut Democrats:

Lieberman has simply and rightly been caught up in the fundamental dynamics of Politics 2006, in which Democrats are doing their damnedest to unseat all the president's enablers in this year's elections. As well, Lieberman's broader politics are at odds with those of his fellow Northeastern Democrats. He is not being opposed because he doesn't reflect the views of his Democratic constituents 100 percent of the time. He is being opposed because he leads causes many of them find repugnant.

Lieberman supports many of the causes of - and therefore counts on support from - right-wingers Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, Tom DeLay, Bill Kristol, and William F. Buckley (hat tip to Liebermania for many of the links).

He pays the lodging, food, and transportation costs of College Republicans who want to come work GOTV efforts for him. Everywhere he goes, the few real supporters he runs into are often if not mostly Republicans, as was the case just yesterday:

The most enthusiastic voter Lieberman ran into on his rounds was someone who cannot help save him on Tuesday. Susan Bushey said she saw Lieberman's bus in Colchester and, with four of her five children in tow, pulled into the parking lot to offer moral support.

"Good luck to you," she said to him. "I'm a Republican and I want to vote for you."

Why do right-wingers feel so strongly about a Democratic primary? Because Sen. Lieberman supports many policies that the right wing agrees with. On Iraq, foreign policy, social security, healthcare, and a whole host of issues.

And this election is about real issues - life or death issues. Real issues are the reason Lieberman is sliding so rapidly in the polls. Real issues are why volunteers are working tirelessly canvassing and phonebanking for Ned while Joe has to pay $60 a day for teenagers who don't even know Joe is for the war. Real issues are why the New York Times so vociferously came out in support of Ned Lamont.

And real issues are why Joe's deep-seated "Connecticut problem" isn't going away anytime soon, no matter what happens on August 8th.

Update: CLP notes one way Joe might be getting around his Connecticut problem: hiring Texas Republicans to collect petition signatures to help him leave the Connecticut Democratic party.

(Photo of Jesse Jackson and Ned Lamont by Melissa Bailey for the New Haven Independent.)

Five days... volunteer!

• The new Q-Poll shows the Joementum continuing with Lamont now up 13 points. Regardless of the LV model accuracy, the trend is clearly with Lamont.


• The Greenwich Time reports on last night's appearance in New Haven with Rev. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton:
  

  "[Ned] has earned our respect," Sharpton said. "He has earned our support."...
  
  "That's kind of what Ned represents, the Samaritan," Jackson said. "You're measured not by what you have, but what you share."

  
  Update: Melissa Bailey files this excellent report at the New Haven Independent:
  

  Just a few blocks away from where U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman staged an embarrassingly flaccid reelection "rally" two days earlier in the heart of New Haven's black community, the Rev. Jesse Jacakson energized a packed house at Dixwell's Mount Bethel AME Church on behalf of Lieberman's surging challenger in the Aug. 8 primary, Ned Lamont, as well as Democratic gubernatorial primary candidate John DeStefano. Jackson decried Joe Lieberman as a Bush apologist and endorse challenger Ned Lamont in a fight for the "identity" of the Democratic Party.



• Lieberman tries but fails to credibly cricitize Bush on Iraq. Amazing what being down in the polls can do to a senator's "principled" position. I guess that whole "Bottom line, I think Bush has it right" thing is now inoperative.


• CTBlogger has the Joementum bus tour schedule for the day.
  
  While Joe is supposedly focusing on "you, your family, and your future," I hear his surrogates will be appearing at a separate news conference called specifically to slam Ned Lamont. Again, amazing what being down in the polls can do to a campaign. The desperation on their side is palpable, throwing anything against the wall to see what sticks.


• An editorial in the Advocate endorses Ned:
  

  ...Getting rid of a candidate who no longer represents the interests and views of his constituents is what political parties ought to do. It´s not unworthy, it´s actually the point, I would have thought. Whether Mr. Lieberman likes it or not, he´s supposed to represent what we think, and our interests, and it is pretty clear that his hawkish stand on the Middle East is out of step with what most people in this state believe. It has also proven to be very dangerous.... As an 18-year veteran in the Senate Mr. Lieberman´s vocal and principled opposition to the Bush administration´s abuses of power would have carried tremendous weight. He could have been a bulwark against all that we´ve endured. Perhaps if he´d raised principled objections to the Bush war plan at the time, we wouldn´t be in the mess we are in now.



• The Advocate also has a very interesting article about Ned's personal relationship to tragedy in Iraq:
  

  Sitting at a cafe in downtown Bridgeport, drinking iced tea and devouring most of the contents of a bread basket, Lamont described when the Iraq War first became personal for his family. Lamont recounted how his cousin´s son suffered serious shrapnel wounds while fighting in Fallujah two years ago. He tells the story with dramatic simplicity worthy of a Hollywood script.
  
  ¨He was thrown back hard, took a couple shots at this insurgent, got him,¨ Lamont says. ¨This guy went down, but he was wired. Totally wired with explosives. And when he dropped his gun, it exploded and it was shrapnel from that that took out my cousin´s son. And he went to the Green Zone, to the hospital, was in a slow recovery there ... He was looking out the window and a kid was outside the gate getting closer and closer and closer, and the guards were saying, ´prohibited´... That´s one of the problems. We´ve got 130,000 troops they can´t communicate with anybody, ´Go away, go away, not safe.´ The kid got closer. And they went out to turn the kid around, get him away from the hot zone there. And his dad was behind some bush with a cell phone, using that to remote-detonate his child. Blew up and took out two of our GIs with him.
  
  ¨We have no idea the nature of the war we´re in over there. And I was always opposed to the war. I just thought it was badly conceived, naïve going in there. I´ve heard thousands of stories since ... You know who´s most opposed to this war? It´s veterans, it´s parents with kids there.¨



• Cocoa Puffs refuse to lure Sen. Lieberman to Colbert:
  

  Colbert said on last night's show that the offer to Lieberman, dubbed "Showless Joe," still stands. The empty leather chair remained next to Colbert's desk, but he said there's now a fresh box of Cocoa Puffs and, possibly, a "glowpen" in the package.
  
  Colbert said he expected Lieberman to accept his challenge to appear on the show last night. He even turned to interview Lieberman at one point, and asked about the senator's relationship with President Bush.
  
  But the chair was still empty. "I set aside the whole portion of this show for an interview," an apologetic Colbert said to the audience.

  
  Don't worry, Stephen, you're not alone. Lieberman has refused interview requests from Al Franken and NPR in recent days, too.

New poll:

Said pollster Douglas Schwartz: "Sen. Lieberman’s campaign bus seems to be stuck in reverse. Despite visits from former President Bill Clinton and other big name Democrats, Lieberman has not been able to stem the tide to Lamont."

The trend is as clear as these things get. Lieberman was up 55-40 (+15) in June, Lamont was up 51-47 in July (a dead heat), and Lamont is up 54-41 in August (+13). That's pretty much a straight line of Joementum. And Connecticut Democrats like Ned more and more (he's +10 in favorability since July).

Expect Lieberman's desperate irrelevant attacks to be stepped up even more. They've got $10 million to spend and everything to lose. Sen. Lieberman knows that Ned wins on the issues, so he won't discuss them.

And the truth is that no one knows what a likely voter is, not Quinnipiac, not any other pollster, not either campaign. Given Lieberman's huge cash advantage, this is still anyone's race. Get out the vote!

Sen. Lieberman, just this past Monday:

"Every campaign is about the future, about tomorrow. So far in this campaign there has been so much media attention on me and my opponent. But it should be about you and your family and your future."

When do we start focusing on that, Senator?

Sen. Lamont would side with Senate Democrats, Connecticut Democrats, and the majority of the American public on Iraq:

Ned Lamont expressed shock that his opponent continued to refuse to join Democratic House and Senate leaders in calling for President Bush to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of the year.

The measure, put forth in a letter by Democratic House and Senate leadership, calls for a phased redeployment to begin by Dec. 31, but did not set a deadline for all troops to be home. The July 30 letter is signed by every top Democrat on committees with oversight of military, intelligence and international affairs, but not Lieberman.

“I would support this measure, as I would other measures to establish a plan and begin bringing our brave troops home,” said Lamont. “It is exactly the kind of effort we need, solidifying the Democrats’ position and presenting a unified presence.”

This is one big reason why Rev. Jesse Jackson is speaking tonight in support of Ned's candidacy. Yesterday, Jackson wrote this moving appraisal of the stakes of this election, as he sees them:

To this day, Joe Lieberman still doesn’t get it. The 18-year incumbent Democratic Senator from Connecticut is in the battle for his political life in the Democratic primary. He dismisses his challenger – Ned Lamont, a Connecticut businessman whose campaign is grounded on opposition to the war in Iraq, as a single issue candidate.

But Iraq is not a single issue; it is a central issue – both for the country and for the Democratic Party....

Lieberman’s opponent, Ned Lamont, has run a principled campaign, devoid of personal attacks or gutter politics. He simply has agued, correctly, that Lieberman has not simply been wrong on the war, but a leader of the war hawks, the president’s favorite Democrat and leading defender....

Whatever happens in the primary next Tuesday, the message has already been sent. Americans don’t pay much attention to politics. They are easily roused by appeals to patriotism and fear. They tend to re-elect incumbents. But periodically, democracy works. A defining issue rouses opinion, and that leads to a defining election. In Connecticut, the Democratic primary is just that. And every member of the club better listen to what the voters are saying.

So much for his campaign focusing solely on the primary, according to Kevin Rennie:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) will shake up his campaign staff if he loses Tuesday’s Democratic primary to challenger Ned Lamont. Lieberman supporters have watched with growing dismay since the spring as the three term senator’s campaign has gone from oblivious to defensive. They expect to reap a bitter harvest in 6 days.

Expect Lieberman to can anyone who was associated with 2004 Kerry campaign and replace them with a team of pungent veterans who will take the fight to Lamont. As Lieberman tours the broiling state, you can almost hear the gloves coming off in preparation for a fight to the finish in November.

It'll be sad to see Sean Smith go.

Update: A commenter raises an excellent point. What does knowing that you or your bosses are going to be fired do to morale in the Lieberman campaign?

Also, Wonkette's take on the possible replacements for the for-one-week-longer employees of Lieberman who are hiring College Republicans to do GOTV work this weekend:

Are the people who quit Katherine Harris’ campaign going to work for Lieberman? Where else would one find such a monumentally dense staff?

(Update: PsiFighter at MLN says that the College Republicans were trying to "infiltrate" the Lieberman campaign, and were not invited on and did not organize this trip.)

Wow.

Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:52:09 -0400
From: "[windows-1252] College Republicans"
Reply-To: College Republicans
To: collegerepublicans@PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Unconventional Primary Campaign Opportunity (LIEBERMAN)

Republicans,

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. In June, I informed you all of a campaign opportunity for State Senator Tom Kean race for U.S. Senate in NJ. Continuing the tradition of letting you about summer campaign opportunities here is a much more unconventional option:

Incumbent Senator Joe Lieberman (Democratic Primary)
Lieberman is facing a tough primary fight versus far-left anti war activist Ned Lamont.
----------------------------------------------------------------
August 4-9th Primary Campaigning:

Elissa Harwood '09 (NOT A CLUB MEMBER) has organized a series of buses departing on Friday August 4 from Washington DC (6:30 Foggy Bottom Metro) and NYC, destination: Hartford, CT

People interested in campaigning for Lieberman in the Democratic Primary will have lodging accommodations paid for (by his campaign), as well as food and transportation.

Buses would bring you back on August 9th.

If Interested, E-mail: XXX@Princeton.EDU or call her
at (757)-XXX-XXXX.

Joe needs Republicans. Ned needs you.

(Bumped - and if you want to help Ned combat millionaire lawyer Joe Lieberman's $10 million campaign and army of paid workers on the ground, Ned needs you!)

So far... (with Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson in the state, there are likely to be some even better candidates later today):

"I was disappointed that every time we came out of the huddle, it seemed like my friend Joe had the other team's uniform," Sharpton said....

"Ned Lamont is right on the issues," Sharpton said. "This war was unjust from the beginning and is unjustified now."

Also worth remembering the March 2004 CT presidential primary, where favorite son Sen. Lieberman finished in what he might have called a "four-way tie for third place" with Rev. Sharpton:

The Journal-Inquirer finds out that town clerks across the state are reporting similar mysterious phemomena this past week: papers full of signatures are starting to trickle in to their offices, all with the words "Connecticut for Lieberman" at the top. But no one will admit to submitting them:

Manchester Town Clerk Joseph V. Camposeo said today that his office received 450 signatures that must be examined. East Hartford Clerk Sharon A. Miller said her office has received 154, and Vernon Town Clerk Bernice K. Dixon's office reported today that 213 signatures have been turned in....

Lieberman campaign spokeswoman Marion Steinfels declined to comment on the petition drive early today, saying only that the senator has directed his campaign staff to remain focused on the primary.

Six days... volunteer!

• The big news this morning is that, thanks in large part to the "millionaire's amendment" allowing him to rake in six figure sums every day from corporate PACs and D.C. lobbyists, Millionaire Lawyer Joe Lieberman will pass the $10 million mark in contributions today or tomorrow. Yet he still has the gall to attack his opponent for spending about half as much. More from the Courant:
  

  Lieberman has been taking in six-figure sums almost daily, with much of the money coming from the bigger donations. Monday, for instance, the campaign reported donations of $102,300, including 15 checks for more than $2,100. The mega-contributions accounted for $67,700.
  
  As of Monday, Lieberman had taken in about $9.69 million since the campaign began, and at its current pace, contributions to his campaign should top the $10 million mark today or Thursday....
  
  Lieberman also continues to collect large amounts of political action committee money. Monday, PACs from Wachovia Corp., Microsoft Corp., Goldman Sachs Group, Verizon Communications, Auto Dealers and Drivers for Free Trade, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants all gave to the campaign.



• Anne Kornblut at the New York Times writes a revealing piece that seems to hint that Lieberman - who has been collecting signatures for the Lieberman Party in secret - may actually be convinced to bow out gracefully by his D.C. backers if he loses the primary. The article is filled with on-the-record and anonymous quotes that seem to indicate a push by national Democrats to get Joe to accept the results of the primary. If not, it suggests many Democrats, including Sen. Kerry, will campaign against their colleague:
  

  Although Mr. Lieberman has attracted support from several of his Senate colleagues — and former President Bill Clinton appeared with him in the state last week — only a handful have pledged to remain loyal to him if he loses to his antiwar challenger, Ned Lamont, and mounts an independent campaign.
  
  Furthermore, some forces within the party, including Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, will be willing to campaign actively for Mr. Lamont if he is pitted against Mr. Lieberman in the general election, many Democratic officials said....
  
  A Democratic adviser who considers Mr. Lieberman a friend and therefore would not speak for attribution, said: “If Joe loses, it will be a pretty powerful thing, and I think it’s enormously complicated if he decides to run as an independent. It’s really complicated for the Democratic Party, not just in Connecticut but all across the country.”



• The New York Observer reports the Lieberman campaign was "stunned and dismayed" to hear that the New York Times was endorsing Ned Lamont. "Stunned and dismayed"... accurately describes their entire bungled, angry campaign, doesn't it?


• Met00 discusses whether the Lieberman campaign's plan to hire a New Jersey firm to pay 4,000 teenagers $60 a day to work for him (since he can't find any volunteers) is in fact an effort to buy their votes for the day:
  

  A decent media buy will cost $1-2 million and there is no assurance that you will get one additional vote for any of that spending.
  
  On the other hand, at $60/day for 7 days the Lieberman camp is planning on "hiring" 4000 people. One would hope after taking $420 from the candidate that these 4000 would also vote for the candidate.
  
  For a cool $1.7 million Lieberman is assuring himself of 4000 votes.



• Spazeboy catches Stephen Colbert ripping on Lieberman again last night.


• See the post below for today's campaign schedule for both candidates.

Why isn't this the focus of every article about the Joementum 2006! Tour? This entire made-for-press spectacle is nominally about Joe connecting with voters across the state... so when they don't show up, shouldn't the news be that he's not finding any?

Anyway, let's try to help Joe get some better crowds tomorrow, once again. Perhaps someone will ask him why he took $1,000 from Wal-Mart's PAC yet is attending a rally condemning Wal-Mart's labor practices. Or why his campaign has defended slimy flyers attacking Lamont on race. Or why he's basically buying 4,000 votes from kids looking for summer jobs for $60 each on election day. Or why he personally still won't answer questions on Iraq, and may have personally killed a Democratic amendment on Iraq scheduled for a vote in the senate this week for his own selfish political reasons (if his stance on Iraq is so "principled," why is he not willing to defend it?)

Anyway, here's the schedule for tomorrow, for both Joe and Ned, below the fold:

Joe Lieberman's Schedule for Wed. Aug. 2nd

8:00 AM - Colony Diner
611 North Colony Road, Wallingford, CT

8:45 AM - Jennies Diner
833 East Center Street, Wallingford, CT

10:00 AM - Milford Senior Center
9 Jepson Drive, Milford, CT

10:35 PM - The Sundae House
499 New Haven Avenue, Milford, CT

11:30 AM - Galaxy Diner
4241 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT

12:00 PM - Wake Up Wal-Mart Rally
Bridgeport City Hall Annex
999 Broad Street, Bridgeport, CT

1:00 PM - Testo's Italian Restaurant
920 Madison Avenue, Bridgeport, CT

2:15 PM - Stratford Stop and Shop
The Dock Shopping Center
200 E Main Street, Stratford, CT

3:15 PM - Kevin's Community Center
31 Pecks Lane, Newtown, CT

Ned Lamont's Schedule for Wed. Aug. 2nd

8:00 AM - Stamford ministers breakfast with Al Sharpton
Union Baptist Church, 805 Newfield Ave, Stamford

8:30 AM - Ned and Al Sharpton will be on the Tom Joyner Radio Show

12:00 PM - Wake Up Wal-mart Rally
City Hall, 999 Broad St., Bridgeport

3:00 PM - Ned will be a guest on Al Sharpton's Radio Show

5:45 PM - Wilton Meet and Greet
Town Hall, Meeting Rm B, Wilton

6:45 PM - Rally with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson
Mount Aery Baptist Church, 73 Frank Street, Bridgeport

8:00 PM - Rally with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson
Bethel AME, 255 Goffe St. New Haven

Steinfels unloads another laugher:

[Lieberman spokeswoman Marion] Steinfels said the flyer is being distributed to other groups besides black voters...

"Other groups besides black voters?" Which particular groups is Steinfels talking about? Seeing as that the flyer is obviously targeted towards black voters, even going so far as to state in large type:

ON TUESDAY AUGUST 8TH, STAND BY THE GUY WHO HAS STOOD BY US AND ALWAYS WILL.

• Volunteer - especially for this weekend, Monday, and Election Day.


• Absentee Ballots - need one? Get yours ASAP.


• Family Friends and Neighbors - Tell Your Friends - last day to get postcards out before primary day is this Thursday.


• Contribute - help combat Millionaire Lawyer Joe Lieberman's $10 million+ campaign.

"The situation in Iraq is a lot better... than it was a year ago."

- Sen. Lieberman, debating Ned Lamont, 7/6/06

One question.

Does Sen. Lieberman still think things in Iraq are getting better?

Aug 1 (Reuters) - The following are security and other developments in Iraq on Tuesday as of 1230 GMT.
Asterisk denotes a new or updated item.

* BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Monday south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

BASRA - A British soldier was killed when a mortar round landed on the British military base in Basra, 550 (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, the British military said.

MOSUL - Gunmen killed a student in the college of Islamic law and wounded another in Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, police said. Gunmen killed a man in a separate incident in Mosul, police added. The reason was unclear.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked two minibuses carrying civil servants in the electricity department of Baghdad, killing four and wounding seven, police said.

NEAR KUT - A roadside bomb exploded beside a fuel truck wounding its driver in an area near Kut, 170 km southeast of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK - A member of the Arab Consultative Assembly, a gathering for Arab tribes and political parties, was gunned down in northern Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Seven people were wounded, including three police commandos, when a car bomb targeting a U.S. patrol exploded on Zayouna district, eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Nine insurgents and 25 suspected insurgents have been detained by the Iraqi army forces in the past 24 hours in different areas of Baghdad, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol exploded on Palestine Street, northeastern Baghdad, wounding two civilians, a police source said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen shot at an Iraqi Army checkpoint in the northern outskirts of Baghdad, wounding five, including one civilian, an Interior Ministry source said.

NEAR TIKRIT - A roadside bomb went off near a bus carrying Iraqi soldiers, killing 20 of them and wounding 13 near Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - At least 10 people were killed and 22 wounded when a car driven by a suicide bomber exploded near an army patrol in the mainly Shi'ite Karrada district of Baghdad, a source in the Interior Ministry said.

MUQDADIYA - Seven people were killed and 15 wounded when a car bomb exploded beside a police patrol near a hospital in the town of Muqdadiya, 90 km northeast of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A civilian was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in northeastern Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - The bodies of three people were found in Baquba, 65 km north of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK - Two policemen were killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said.

(Update: Lieberman claims the contribution in question was returned to Wal-Mart a few days after it's receipt. There is no record of any contribution or any refund in Lieberman's 1Q FEC filing - however, if he did return it, good for him. Either way, it's probably safe to assume that the reason Wal-Mart wanted to financially support Joe's candidacy was because they agreed with his policies on issues like labor and trade.)

Apaprently, Sen. Lieberman has now asked to speak at the "Wake Up Wal-Mart" rally in Bridgeport tomorrow. Unsurprisng, since almost all Democratic elected officials and candidates in the state - including Ned Lamont, Rep. DeLauro, Destefano, Malloy, Farrell, and Dinardo - were scheduled to attend as of a few days ago.

But Sen. Lieberman's sudden opposition to Wal-Mart's policies would be a lot more believable if he didn't accept $1,000 from their PAC in February (major hat tip to Maura at MLN):



PBS's Frontline reported back in 2004 on the history of this particular PAC:

In 1998, Wal-Mart hired its first lobbyist, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Norm Lezy, and created a political action committee (PAC), called the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. PAC for Responsible Government. According to published news reports, in 1999, then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott met with Wal-Mart executives and urged them to increase the company's political profile. In six years, the company has grown from having no lobbying presence in Washington to employing six external lobbying firms (in addition to its internal operation), and becoming one of the top 20 PAC contributors to federal candidates in the 2004 election cycle....

Wal-Mart says that it supports pro-business candidates and its political contributions on the national level overwhelmingly tilt Republican. In the 2004 cycle, the company gave $5,000 to President Bush's reelection campaign, and nothing to John Kerry's campaign. In May 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney praised the company in an economic policy speech at Wal-Mart's distribution center in Bentonville, Ark, saying: "The story of Wal-Mart exemplifies some of the very best qualities in our country -- hard work, the spirit of enterprise, fair dealing, and integrity."

In the 2004 cycle, Wal-Mart gave $1,050,500 to Republican House candidates and $195,000 to Republican Senate candidates, as compared to $273,500 to Democratic House candidates and $76,500 to Democratic Senate candidates. In 2002, 78 percent of the PAC's donations went to Republicans; in 2000, 85 percent went to Republicans; and in 1998, 93 percent went to Republicans.

Wal-Mart heir John Walton and his wife Christy also gave the maximum contributions to Lieberman's 2004 presidential campaign.

So will Sen. Lieberman return the $1,000 contribution? Or will he cancel his appearance at Wednesday's rally?

Can he seriously get away with doing neither?

Seven days... volunteer!

• Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton will come up on Wednesday to campaign for Ned Lamont. Jackson will stay to campaign with Ned on Thursday. The Advocate has more:
  

  Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger said although the preacher had developed a friendship with Lieberman when the two ran for president in 2004, he will endorse Lamont.
  
  "I think he strongly felt he had to make a decision on the policies that would make sure the country is going in the right direction," Noerdlinger said....
  
  Jackson will remain in the state Thursday to campaign for Lamont during a breakfast at Hartford's North End Senior Center, according to his office. Jackson will finish the day with Lamont at a union rally with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft machinists in Middletown.



• In the Courant this morning, Elizabeth Hamilton explores a heretofore pretty much unasked question: WTF is going on with The Lieberman Party's stealth petitioning campaign? As others have found out, the Lieberman campaign doesn't want to talk about it almost as much as they don't want to talk about the Iraq war:
  

  "I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you," was the breezy response from Lieberman's campaign manager, Sean Smith, when asked about the petition drive last week. "I don't get updates. I am completely uninvolved."
  
  So uninvolved, Smith said, that he has no idea who is running the petition drive. After saying he would find out and call back with the information, Smith failed to return repeated phone calls last week. Messages left for the campaign's spokeswoman, Marion Steinfels, were also unreturned.

  
  Update: I missed what is by far the best line in the article (hat tip to Kate in the comments):
  

  But it's impossible to miss the aura of secrecy emanating from the Lieberman campaign these days. Like a dotty Victorian aunt stashed in a back room, the petition organization is kept under wraps lest it attract too much attention and scandalize proper Democrats.



• Speaking of Marion Steinfels, has she been replaced? Former unofficial Lieberman adviser Dan Gerstein has apparently taken over official spokesperson duties, and is now on the campaign's payroll, according to Lieberdem, the blog where he used to post:
  

  Dan Gerstein has just entered an official position with the Lieberman campaign. In light of this development, Dan and I have mutually agreed that it would be best if he ceased being a contributor on the blog while he is officially connected to the Lieberman campaign...
  
  The simple truth is that I did not know Dan had entered into the official employ of the Lieberman campaign until a couple hours ago, and he hadn't officially joined the Lieberman team until last week.

  
  "Last week?" So was Gerstein being paid by the Lieberman campaign on July 28th, the day he told Greg Sargent at TPMCafe that he was an "informal" adviser who was "speaking for himself" in making insinuations about Jewish support for Ned Lamont?
  
  Update: According to an update to the post at Lieberdem linked above, Gerstein claims he is not being paid by the campaign, and did not become an official representative of the campaign until yesterday.


• Mark Pazniokas has a fun piece in the Courant about Ned's appearance on the Colbert Report last night (video available here.)


• CTBlogger got his hands on Lieberman's stealth campaign schedule for the day in Eastern CT. TrueBlueCT has an excellent post on Lieberman's non-rally yesterday, and Paul Bass also writes it up, leading with this sentence:
  

  Joe Lieberman failed to attract even a dozen genuine neighborhood supporters to an anemic reelection campaign rally in his New Haven hometown's Dixwell section Monday.



• Ned will be on the radio and in Killingworth and East Haddam today.

Greg Sargent writes about Lieberman's slimy race-baiting flyers at TPMCafe's Election Central. And who did he get to go on the record representing the Lieberman campaign? None other than Lieberman adviser Dan Gerstein:

Dan Gerstein, an adviser to Lieberman speaking on behalf of the campaign, confirmed that the campaign was behind the flyer and defended the tactic.

"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?"

But the Lamont campaign dismissed the tactic as a dirty trick. "We have been consistently disappointed with Senator Lieberman's tactics throught the campaign," Lamont spokesperson Dupont-Diehl said. "We prefer to focus on the issues."

Gerstein had previously been caught by Sargent shopping around anonymous quotes questioning Lamont's support among Jews, and claimed he was an "informal adviser" who was "speaking for himself". Now he's defending slimy and offensive flyers passed out in parking lots of black churches, speaking officially for Joe.

It seems their previously outsourced smear tactics have now been officially brought under the umbrella of the Lieberman campaign.

Steve Gilliard has more on the flyers.

We know big-time Bush fundraisers are on board with Joe... big-time. But what other characters and nefarious multinational interests are funding Ten-Million-Dollar Joe's surreptitious slimy attacks, his Peter Pan Joementum tour bus, and his 4,000-strong LieberYouth army for election day (at $60 a day, that would be $240,000 for election day alone)?

The answer? Companies with no-bid Iraq contracts like Bechtel:



No wonder Joe doesn't want to talk about the war... even oversight of the war. Without the obscene amount he's raking in from companies like Bechtel (which was dropped from an Iraqi reconstruction project last week after an audit proved they bilked U.S. taxpayers out of millions), he couldn't pay the campaign staff he charges with avoiding discussion of the war at all costs.

Update: Apparently Lieberman is so afraid of talking about Iraq that, this morning, he pulled out of an already agreed-to debate with Ned Lamont this weekend moderated by Mark Davis of WTNH, again proving he respects the local press as much as he respects the opinion of Connecticut Democrats.

Word is he may instead choose to go on Meet the Press with his good friend Tim Russert serving up softballs.

Reid. Pelosi. Biden. Murtha. The leadership of both houses of Congress and the Democratic ranking members of all relevant committees.

The entire spectrum of Democratic lawmakers today signed on to a new, unified Democratic position on Iraq as spelled out in a letter to President Bush calling on him specifically to begin the redeployment of troops before the end of 2006, and to change course the failed approach to Iraq in general.

While the world has been focused on the crisis in the Middle East, Iraq has exploded in violence. Some 6,000 Iraqis were killed in May and June, and sectarian and insurgent violence continues to claim American and Iraqi lives at an alarming rate. In the face of this onslaught, one can only conclude that the Baghdad security plan you announced five weeks ago is in great jeopardy....

In the interests of American national security, our troops, and our taxpayers, the open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot and should not be sustained....

Iraqi political leaders must be informed that American patience, blood and treasure are not unlimited. We were disappointed that you did not convey this message to Prime Minister Maliki during his recent visit....

Mr. President, simply staying the course in Iraq is not working. We need to take a new direction.

While Sen. Lieberman continues to blindly support the Bush and Cheney on Iraq, Sen. Lamont would have signed on to this new position. Watch this new videoblog from Ned Lamont and then and then join the conversation with Ned on Iraq:



Update: Even Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel agrees that we need to change course in Iraq. Even Republicans don't agree with Joe.

The big-money rented Lieberman "ground game" is finally revealed.

According to the New Haven Register (hat tip Matt at MLN), Lieberman, having no in-state volunteer support whatseover, will be relying on an army of paid workers ($60 a day) to work the last week of the campaign. 4,000 of them.

And it turns out LSG, Tom Lindenfeld's emergency field-campaign-for-hire firm out of D.C., apparently doesn't know the state that well... and doesn't care to learn:

[Sean] Smith said they now have between 200 and 300 volunteers and paid staff, to canvass daily. Democratic workers in New Haven said the campaign told them it hopes to hire up to 4,000 workers by Election Day....

Meanwhile, New Haven Alderwoman Jacqueline James, D-3, said a young, mostly white staff from New Jersey was in charge of canvassing for Lieberman, and that hundreds of people were turned away July 22 after being told the campaign was looking for 16- to 21-year-olds.

The alderwoman estimated 56 young people were hired out of about 500 people who showed up, attracted by the $60 a day fee, or about $800 for the duration.

She said LGS does not know the demographics of the city at all. James suggested that they match inexperienced teens with more savvy workers, but this was rejected.

"They kept saying this is how we do it in New Jersey. I kept telling them, ‘This is not New Jersey,’" said James, who no longer volunteers for Lieberman.

An out-of-state field director running a completely paid GOTV campaign who won't listen to local officials who think they just might know their own state a little better - that's the state of the Lieberman campaign right now. They're hoping their corporate millions paying for an army of $60-a-day kids who don't care about Lieberman will be able to overcome the fact that they have no support on the ground in CT.

Perhaps his new party should be named "New Jersey for Lieberman."

Eight days... volunteer this week...

• Ned Lamont will join many other Connecticut Democratic figures at the "Wake Up Wal-Mart" tour on Wednesday in Bridgeport:
  

  WakeUpWalMart.com, launched last year by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, will visit 35 cities in 19 states for 35 days of rallies, town hall meetings and state fair visits to back its calls on Wal-Mart for higher pay and better health insurance for workers.
  
  The tour plans to stop in Bridgeport on Wednesday with a rally on the steps of the City Hall annex. Among Connecticut Democratic politicians scheduled to appear are U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont, gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano and Diana Farrell, a candidate for Congress....

  
  Other national figures speaking out at stops on the tour include Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Gov. Tom Vilsack (D-IA), and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards.


• Colin McEnroe pens the must-read article of the day at Salon, a personal and moving reflection detailing the long history of Joe's break-up with Connecticut Democrats:
  
  

  What has saved Lieberman, time and again, has been his famous charm and affability. When politicians and activists march into his office to complain about something he’s done, they walk in mad and emerge calm.
  
  He’s done it to me too, and it's more than smiling and nodding. Lieberman really seems to be listening and considering the possibility that you’re right and he’s wrong. And he usually makes it clear that he still likes you, even though you sharply differ with him.
  
  That charm and affability have deserted him this summer. The 2006 Joe is one angry guy. One of the first signs was an explosion on my radio show this March. Lieberman hadn’t liked a column I had written the previous Sunday, and he blew up at me. The audio clip went all over the Internet on blogs such as Daily Kos and Firedoglake, which marveled at the crack in Joe's legendary composure and crowed, "He's losing it!"
  
  He never really got his smile back. You might call that a political miscalculation, but I don’t think he can help it. Lieberman is truly appalled by the number of former friends who are now foes. He can't hide it. It's all over his face.



• Ned will be a guest of Joe's right-wing friend Stephen Colbert tonight. Should be tough... Lieberman is surely Stephen Colbert's Favorite Democrat.


• Ned and Attorney General Dick Blumenthal (who has said he will unconditionally support the winner of the Democratic primary) at the Bethel DTC picnic yesterday:
  
  
  
  There are a whole lot more great shots at the official site's Flickr photostream.

"My opponent is spending a lot of money to spread a lot of lies about me." - Joe Lieberman, New York Times, July 31st, 2006

"I felt all along I would have a challenge... But I was hoping God would send me a poor one." - Joe Lieberman, Washington Post, July 29th, 2006

Projection time again. While continuing to question his opponent's personal finances, Lieberman's campaign has in fact been raking in corporate cash at an obscene six-figure a day clip, spending twice as much on this campaign as his opponent, despite having little or nothing to show for it so far:

Every day a fax machine in a Senate office spits out lists of the latest big donors to the Democratic primary campaigns of Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont.

The Lieberman list is long, running to several handwritten pages containing a roster of familiar names: members of Congress, Fortune 500 executives and well-connected Washington big shots, all ponying up at least $1,000 to back the incumbent.

Among the names on the list is a PAC called "Alerted Democratic Majority," which gave Joe $5,000 on July 20th:



The treasurer for this PAC (which hasn't given to any other candidates this cycle) is William Batoff, a big-time fundraiser for President Bush in 2000 and 2004 who still brags about bolting the Democratic party on his own firm's website:

Batoff, a longtime player in local and national races, said this week that he was defecting to George W. Bush's camp, pledging to raise money and offer other support for the Republican presidential nominee and predicting that the economy will tank if Gore gets elected....

"I walk in and sit down, and lo and behold, I was met with honesty and warmth," Batoff, 65, said in an interview. "I'm talking to him about issues I've read, and he said to me at the end, 'Bill, I'm asking for your support.' And I said, 'You've got it.'"

Birds of a feather, I guess.

But to pitch in $5,000 to Joe at this point is just throwing bad money after bad. You have to wonder what these hordes of "members of Congress, Fortune 500 executives and well-connected Washington big shots" think they're getting out of picking up the tab for one of the worst campaigns in recent memory.

The Nation gets it right:

The endorsement by the Times, which has backed Lieberman in most of his past races, and which is far more cautious politically than its conservative critics would have America believe, came as something of a shock to Lamont backers. Just a few weeks ago, when I interviewed a Lamont aide in Connecticut, he told me that the candidate was merely hoping for a few kind words from the paper in what was expected to be a pro-Liebermman editorial.

Instead, the Times hit Lieberman where it hurts, ridiculing the senator's suggestion that his support of President Bush's misguided foreign policies makes him some kind of statesman.

No, newspaper endorsements usually don't matter. But this is one that does, because of the devastating content, the timing and placement (Sunday editorial page) and, especially, the standing of the institution that delivered it in the eyes of many of the supporters of the person it was delivered against.

While few voters will probably be swung by any editorial, the voters who do care about what the New York Times says are many of the same ones who cared about what Bill Clinton had to say in Waterbury one (very long) week ago. And Lieberman has made his entire campaign about Clinton in the past week - rhetoric, ads, robo-calls, and non-union-made paraphernalia. So this really does hit Joe where it hurts.

Today Sen. Lieberman (Lieberman-CT) is flying in Sen. Biden (D-DE), Sen. Salazar (D-CO), and Sen. Inouye (D-HI) from Washington D.C. to campaign for him, hidden from the public as usual, as their schedule hasn't been announced.

Ned Lamont will be out and about the state today, actually talking to real Connecticut voters, at events which have all been announced and are open to the public:

8:00 AM: Messiah Baptist Church
210 Congress Street, Bridgeport

11:00 AM: Zion Baptist Church
137 Pearl St., Waterbury

1:00 PM: Bethel Democratic Town Committee
Bennett Park, Shelter Rock Rd., Bethel

2:30 PM: Cape Verdean festival
Cape Verdean Association
235 Linen Avenue, Bridgeport

Nine days...

• Full New York Times endorsement is here. It's a scathing and comprehensive case for how Sen. Lieberman works against the interests of Connecticut voters and the Democratic party alike, and why he should be replaced with with Sen. Lamont:
  

  If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the lead in saying that there were some places a president had no right to take his country even during a time of war, neither he nor this page would be where we are today. But by suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support.

  
  DemFromCT has one good take on the implications of the NYT endorsement.


• While millionaire lawyer Joe Lieberman continues to hold press-only events with no members of the public showing up, Ned talked to about 75 voters in Bristol yesterday afternoon, as well as many voters at a barber shop in Hartford, a gathering at a park in Bridgeport, and a free concert on the green in New Haven:
  

  The pair spent the early part of a sweltering afternoon in Hartford's North End at the It's A Gee Thang Barber Salon at 2576 Main St., where owner Lebert Fitzgerald Lester II said "this community is wondering" about the wisdom of years of dependable support for Lieberman.
  
  After that, in Bridgeport, Lamont shook scores of hands - including that of city Mayor John Fabrizi, who seconded Lieberman's nomination at the party's May convention - during the Father Panik Village residents' reunion at a park next to the site of the demolished housing project.



• "Hubris and Naivite." The story of Joe Lieberman's sorry campaign, ignoring voters' real concerns, as elucidated by Mark Pazniokas in the Courant today:
  

  Today, with nine days left until his Aug. 8 primary with anti-war challenger Ned Lamont, Lieberman is scrambling to regain his footing among Democrats who repeatedly signaled their anger over the war - only to be ignored.
  
  Public and private polling told Lieberman in January that Democrats were abandoning him over his efforts to prop up public support for an unpopular war that was paralyzing the Bush administration and jeopardizing the GOP's control of Congress.
  
  But Lieberman persisted.
  
  "I was worried about a repeat of Vietnam," he said Friday during an interview aboard his campaign bus. "Public opinion was moving away from supporting the war for reasons that were understandable, but not complete."
  
  In acts that seemed infused with hubris and naivete, Lieberman decided he could single-handedly reverse public opinion, first with the op-ed article and then with a speech in which he seemed to warn against dissent, saying "that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril."

  
  Yes, hubris and naivete have both had a lot to do with it, but sometimes it seems like complete stupidity is the real culprit. (i.e. Joe says he was "worried about a repeat of Vietnam"? What exactly does he mean by that? Wasn't he himself an "anti-war" candidate during Vietnam?)


• Speaking of stupidity, here's some more of that from the senator, in another excellent article detailing his complete disconnect from voters by Shailagh Murray in the WaPo:
  

  The strain shows. At campaign events, Lieberman at times appears subdued and weary. He projects little of the cheerful enthusiasm that marked his long-shot presidential bid two years ago. "It's difficult personally," Lieberman said last week of the defections by party veterans such as Stolberg. "I am competing in the most difficult part of the Connecticut electorate for me."

  
  Yes, I think you read that right. Joe Lieberman just said the Democratic party is the "most difficult part of the Connecticut electorate" for him. Shock. And then there's this one:
  

  "I felt all along I would have a challenge," Lieberman quipped. "But I was hoping God would send me a poor one." The senator, however, has raised $7 .2 million for his campaign.

  
  What an absurdly dumb and offensive thing to say. Apparently millionaire Lieberman being able to outspend his opponent 2-to-1 isn't fair enough. He wanted a "poor" challenger, so he wouldn't have to actually face the voters on anything approaching a level playing field. Contempt for democracy. Entitlement. But, mainly, stupidity.
  
  (As an aside, it's interesting how the Courant and WaPo - which both ran boilerplate GOP-rhetoric pro-Joe editorials today - also both ran news articles detailing how he has completely lost touch with Connecticut voters.)


• DeStefano and Malloy both want a piece of Ned's action.

Flashback...

RE-ELECT PRESIDENT BUSH
Hartford Courant, Oct 24, 2004, p. C2

As in many past elections, Americans are closely divided over who should be the next president. It's not a clear-cut case of one candidate being far superior to the other. Yet history is not made by those who stand on the sidelines and wring their hands. The people must choose on Nov. 2, and The Courant recommends George W. Bush over John F. Kerry....

In this age of global terrorism, Americans must have a resolute leader. President Bush is better prepared than his challenger to manage the security needs of the nation. His promise to prevent attacks on the United States by taking the fight to the enemy abroad is one of the main reasons we recommend Mr. Bush for a second term.