The New Face?
This is what a political earthquake looks like. Meet the new face of the people-powered movement.
- Markos Moulitsas Zuniga
One would think a little makeup is in order.
Even better ...
So Ned Lamont did defeat Joe Lieberman. But Lamont won by just under four percentage points, a far cry from the huge margins he'd captured in the polls just a week ago. Lieberman's concession speech was also a declaration of intent to run as an independent where there are more potential independents than Democrats and Republicans . But, if Lamont is trying to put himself forward as a new face in the Democratic Party, the two men who planted themselves right in back of him on the stage at the victory party gave it all away. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are hustlers, and racist hustlers at that. They have accomplished nothing for African-Americans, nothing. Jackson keeps himself alive by conning big corporations out of bags of cash. He is a one-man reparations racket. Sharpton is the reverend with the big silver jewelry, and it isn't a cross. He sups off his perennial political campaigns and has been known not to pay taxes besides. His ugly history includes leading the riots against a Korean-owned grocery in Brooklyn, the violent picketing of a store on 125th Street store that ended in a fire and in a death, and the 1991 rampage in Crown Heights during which an Australian Orthodox Jew was stabbed to death. And, of course, Sharpton was the chief incendiary of the utterly fraudulent Tawana Brawley case in which vicious lies tripped off his mouth for a year and more. Ned Lamont, the candidate from gentle-mannered Greenwich, should be ashamed to have had two such thugs as his intimate supporters.--Martin Peretz
Love it -- finally, someone actually calls Jesse and Al on to the carpet! Hip, hip hooray!
"finally, someone actually calls Jesse and Al on to the carpet" - Lovely Rita
Yeah, cuz no one EVER picks on those two ya twit... lmao
You people gotta get out of your bubbles sometimes, I swear...
Kinda like that time greg posted this gem:
"I'm just really curious what the party line of the far left will be after Joe wins the nomination. "
I just guess you'll have to remain curious, wontcha, blowhard?
Don't you feel like a damn fool now? You should never have underestimated the power of the net and grass roots. Based on your own words below, I think it is time for you to cough up a few apologies especially to Chris Bowers, KOS and Atrios to name a few.
Lieberman - 68%
Lamont - 13%
Unsure/Other - 19%
"Chris Bowers goes off his usual cliff in deducing that these numbers mean that Ned Lamont is "right where we want to be" ... 55 points down with six months to go!
Of course, he does so by comparing polling for a Presidential race to ... well ... nothing really. Apparently one race makes for a trendline here.
I'm just really curious what the party line of the far left will be after Joe wins the nomination. Perhaps ... just perhaps ... it'll be as riddled with misconceptions and "facts" as the explanations for Dean's downfall in early 2004".
Why no recollections today about how phenomenally wrong you were? Lieberman's independent bid is D.O.A. Where is he going to get the fundraising resources together to stage this bid? The organizational power? 58% or so of this country thinks the disapprove of the job the president is doing. Ned Lamont isn't some lefty wingnut. He's a pragmatic businessman who understands that the Administration's foreign policy is a complete disaster, and is making the US less safe, not more.
Greg, have you heard that Karl Rove is reaching out to Joe now? Whatever the Bush White House can do to help. You know, the worst administration in our lifetimes. Maybe you, Karl, Marshall Wittman and Peretz can cook up some hard-hitting 'Lamont is a wacko' smears.
I'm no Sharpton fan at all, or Jesse either for that matter - he hasn't been relevant for years and years - but I'll take Jackson any day over Lieberman supporters like Hannity, Malkin, Coulter, the corrupt, wrong-headed neocons and the GOP extremists who view Joe as their pet Dem. Nice doggie - now call your party a bunch of soft-on-terror nuts! Now roll over! Good boy!
You forgot Tom DeLay's endorsement of Joe.
Analysis: A Referendum on Moderate Incumbents?
This entry was posted on 8/9/2006 11:17 AM and is filed under Election 2006.
Tuesday's defeat of Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman in the Democratic Party primary and Michigan Congressman Joe Schwarz in the Republican Party primary may have offered a telling sign for the future of American politics. Lieberman and Schwarz are moderates of the centrist wing of their respective parties. Lieberman backed the War in Iraq and Schwarz voted often in favor of abortion and gay rights issues. Both elected representatives worked across party lines only to be defeated by challengers promising to return the seats to the core principles of the Democratic and Republican Parties.
Tuesday's primary results show that not only is the electorate polarized, but that the two major political parties in the United States are turning further to the left and right. Any candidate/elected representative who reaches across the political divide is in danger of being challenged from the fringe of his/her party.
Yesterday was not the first time moderate incumbents have been defeated in a party primary. New York Senator Jacob Javitz lost a re-election bid to Alfonse De'Mato in the early 80's as the Republican Party shifted to the right. Recently, moderate Republican state legislatures in North Carolina have been targetted by interest groups ran by pro-business millionaire Art Pope and were defeated in the primaries of 2004 and 2006.
Democracy works because the power rests in the hands of the people. However, a flaw in democracy is that power rests in the hands of the people and is subject to the inflamed passions created by current events. Passion allows for the development of factions that often overlook the greater good of the community. Lieberman and Schwarz were victims of such political groundswells of passion.
As any practicioner of politics knows, inciting the factions within political parties is a successful method to win elections. Unfortunately, most people are not core politicos and are of the centrist persuasion. Wtih both political parties beholden to the fringes, average working Americans are having their issues go unrepresented.
My biggest fear is that Tuesday's primary results will become an all to regular experience. If moderate incumbents continue to be knocked off in primaries, I worry that our government at all levels will become less responsive to the majority of Americans. Gridlock will become more prevalent and major issues will go unresolved.
With the issues that are facing America over the next 50 years, bipartisanship will be necessary to preserve the quality of life Americans have come to enjoy. By declaring open season on any moderate, the special interests are jeopardizing our security and freedom.
Carolinadem confuses bipartisanship with surrender. Working with this administration did not represent bipartisanship. This is clearly the most hard right administration we have ever had with the predictable terrible results.
The Lamont victory was simply a lot of moderates and liberals saying that we will continue to loose if we try to meet these people halfway. They have not shown the least bit of interest in getting along.
We have to all finally get that the war will go down in history as the worst foreign policy disaster we have ever undertaken. Joe was wrong on that point and that alone should cost a leader his job. To compound the error, he won't admit it. The voters of Conn. get this and though they liked Joe and were grateful for his service, it was time for new blood.
Saying that Lamont is a far left wing radical just shows how frightened many democrats are of looking like democrats. Lamont is a white bread businessman for god sakes! One of the guys hero's is Teddy Roosevelt ! Hello?
Democrats need to take a deep breath and start saying what is right and wrong and not worry about saying something that will upset Jerry Falwell. He will never vote for you anyway. Get some backbone for a change. Quit hiding from the word liberal. Define what a liberal is and stop letting the far right define it for you. Abraham Lincoln was a liberal and its time we start pointing that out.
We are not "declaring open season on any moderate" we are saying that this administrations policies are an abomination and imperil our country and constitution and anyone that supports them are NOT moderate and we will vote for someone who is. Eric in Austin
Wow Greg, rethinking that whole friend thing. What did you expect to accomplish by posting Martin Peretz' statement? Was that really necessary?
http://www.wsbtv.com/video/9651508/index.html
The above link is HILLARIOUS!
Two points:
1) So you and Vernon Robinson are on the same page here politically?
2) Lieberman said in announcing his indepedent bid that he was against "insults instead of ideas." You write, "[o]ne would think a little makeup is in order [for Ned Lamont]."
Honestly, Greg, stick with the "War in Iraq: Great War...or Greatest War?" posts when defending Lieberman. At least we're inured to that bad argument.
Greg may be wrong, but not as wrong as Kos is. 52% does not an earthquake make -- more like a teeny tremor. Kos has gotten a massive ego injection from the media attention he now gets, and can no longer see straight.
Many predict that Lamont, once in the Senate, will quickly be absorbed into the the political borg and not heard from much again. Certain he will not move the party balance of power. I am thrilled to see Lieberman gone, and even more happy to see Senate Democrats lining up firmly behind Lamont. I would be even happier to see Katherine Harris and Kay Bailey go down in flames in November! BTW, did you see the Colbert Report coverage of the Lieberman election, with Joe sticking his hand up Kay's blouse? It was hilariously ridiculous.