Reid and Schumer to back Lamont (but wil they ask Joe to step aside?)

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/nyregion/09campaign.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
August 9, 2006
Lamont Defeats Lieberman in Primary
By PATRICK HEALY


......The senator said he was staying in the race because Mr. Lamont had run a primary campaign of “insults” and “partisan polarizing” that relentlessly blamed Mr. Lieberman for President Bush’s wartime policies, which the senator has supported and defended but also criticized at various points.

“For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot, I will not let this result stand,” Mr. Lieberman said of the Lamont victory.

Mr. Lieberman’s determination to remain in the race may soon collide with the will of many Democratic leaders in Washington and Connecticut, however. The Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, and Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who is leading the effort to elect more Democrats in November, planned to announce this morning that they were supporting Mr. Lamont and that the party should unite around the nominee, according to Democrats close to both men. A spokesman for Mr. Schumer said a statement would be forthcoming, but declined further comment.

“Reid and Schumer will back Lamont, but the big question is if they will approach Joe about dropping out, because they don’t want to get his back up against the wall,” said a senior Senate Democratic aide who was involved in the Reid-Schumer discussions but was not authorized to discuss them publicly........

[longship]

1. Revoke Lieberman Senate committee assignments

If he files, he no longer has party credentials.

[rodeodance]

2. I do not know what those rules are. Interesting thought though.

[rodeodance]

3. a “unity press conference” with Mr. Lamont with be on Tues am.

...Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, Mr. Lieberman’s Democratic ally, privately congratulated Mr. Lamont last night and was expected to appear at a “unity press conference” with Mr. Lamont and other candidates at state party headquarters this morning. Two Lamont advisers said that they expected Mr. Dodd to help smooth Mr. Lieberman’s exit from the race; a spokeswoman for Mr. Dodd, however, said he would not play a go-between role to broker the senator’s exit.

A spokeswoman for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, restated Mrs. Clinton’s announced intentions to support the Democratic nominee in Connecticut — now Mr. Lamont. A spokesman for former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for Mr. Lieberman last month, did not return a phone message late last night.

Unofficial returns this morning showed that Mr. Lamont won with 51.8 percent of the vote, with 98 percent of the electoral precincts reporting.