Washington Post Compendium on Lieberman's Defeat

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR2006080900543_pf.html

Democratic Leadership Welcomes Lamont
Lieberman Shuns Calls to Drop Out

By Shailagh Murray and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 10, 2006; A01



HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 9 -- Democratic leaders embraced their new antiwar Senate nominee Ned Lamont on Wednesday, but his defeated rival, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) vowed to wage an independent crusade to save his seat and prevent the party from being captured by forces he said are out of the political mainstream.

At a unity breakfast in Hartford, state party officials, who had lined up almost solidly behind Lieberman in Tuesday's primary, including Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), pledged their support to Lamont in the general election campaign.



In Washington, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement that Lamont would have the national party's support. Also laying on hands for Lamont were such powerful party figures as former president Bill Clinton, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).

In background conversations, Democratic officials gently signaled their desire that Lieberman abandon his independent candidacy but appeared reluctant to press him publicly. A senior Democratic official in Washington said leaders had met and decided to put off confronting Lieberman at least for a few days, to allow the senator time to absorb the implications of his loss and his new isolation from longtime colleagues and supporters. "There's a feeling that the dust needs to settle," the official said.

Speaking briefly at the Democratic rally Wednesday morning, Lamont laid out the three main issues of his campaign: bringing the troops home, expanding health coverage, and improving education. He acknowledged the broader implications of his victory. "I think people around the country are looking at Connecticut," Lamont said.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A CAMPAIGN--JOHN KERRY, AL GORE, CALL YOUR OFFICES!


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR2006080901774_pf.html

Jury Out on Lieberman Effect
Independent Run Could Hurt, Help Democrats Seeking House

By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 10, 2006; A04



Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's decision to run as an independent against Ned Lamont, Connecticut's new Democratic nominee for Senate, will mean that three marquee U.S. House races in the state will have to share top billing in November with a bitter rematch that could divert money and publicity from those critical contests.

That could complicate Democrats' designs to win those races as part of an effort to seize control of the House. But by keeping the state's electorate focused on President Bush and the war in Iraq, the Lamont-Lieberman rematch will keep voters energized, and may ultimately bolster the House challengers, Democrats and some independent analysts said.

"Lieberman will do more for Democratic House candidates by being in the race than by not being in the race," said Ken Dautrich, a professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut. "It's plausible that all three will fall, and it's more likely if Lieberman is running as an independent."

Democrats need to win 15 seats to gain control of the U.S. House, and Connecticut -- with its strong anti-Bush undercurrents -- represents potentially one-fifth of that total. Democrats think they have a good chance of unseating Republican Reps. Nancy L. Johnson, Christopher Shays and Rob Simmons.


However, DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel argued -- and Dautrich agreed -- that the Senate campaign's focus on Bush and his Iraq war policies will keep the electorate trained on large national questions, not the local issues that favor incumbents.

SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN! HOPE EMANUEL CAN KEEP HIS FINGERS OUT OF IT


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/08/09/BL2006080901029_pf.html


The Anti-Bush Movement

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, August 9, 2006; 2:18 PM



Political fledgling Ned Lamont's unlikely triumph over President Bush's favorite Democrat in the Connecticut Senate primary lends itself to all sorts of fascinating interpretations -- and one is that it could mark the emergence of an anti-Bush voting bloc.

Lamont's out-of-nowhere victory, fueled by his depiction of incumbent Joseph Lieberman as a presidential patsy, suggests a political awakening of that sizeable group of Americans who intensely disapprove of Bush, his war in Iraq, and pretty much anything else he touches.

Consider that, according to the latest Washington Post poll , a near-majority of Americans -- 46 percent -- strongly disapprove of the job Bush is doing. That's strongly. Another 12 percent somewhat disapprove.

On Iraq, which is the dominant political issue going into the 2006 election, 62 percent disapprove of Bush's leadership (52 percent strongly).

Political guru Karl Rove won his boss a second term in 2004 by making that election less a referendum on Bush as on his opponent, John Kerry. But the potential here is that the 2006 congressional elections could turn out to be the "accountability moment" that Bush retroactively claimed the 2004 election to have been, in a Washington Post interview in January 2005.

GO TEAM!

[cliss]

1. Thank you for the good news, demeter.

And this IS good news...

More than I even hoped for, actually.