The “Kiss of Death” in Connecticut Democrat Primary
As U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman campaigned at the
Milford Senior Center earlier this week, a familiar sight arrived in the parking
lot on the bed of a black Chevy truck. Now that he's lost the primary, his
kissy-kissy with Bush assumes even more importance.
As U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman campaigned at the Milford Senior Center earlier this week, a familiar sight arrived in the parking lot on the bed of a black Chevy truck.
Through the glass of the center’s front doors, Malcolm Boxwell, an employee and Lieberman supporter, observed the puckered lips of a giant, papier-mache bust of President Bush aimed at a similar likeness of the senator.
“It’s the kiss of death, I think,” Boxwell said.
The Kiss, of course, is a papier mache replica of image of Bush appearing to kiss him on the cheek after the February 2005 State of the Union address.
For the last month of the primary campaign, “The Kiss” appeared outside many of Lieberman’s campaign stops. No jeering, no negative behavior by the folks driving it around the state — just a reminder of which side they felt Joe Lieberman was really on.
Last night, Lieberman lost the Democrat Primary to a novice politician — an anti-war, libertarian millionaire named Ned Lamont. Lieberman lost by 4 percentage points. Only the 4th Senate incumbent to lose a primary since 1980. And there were other issues.
“Lamont would not have gotten this far ahead if it were not for those other issues,” which boil down to a question of whether Lieberman has lost touch with Connecticut Democrats and their generally liberal views. It’s reflected, for instance, critics say, in Lieberman’s toying with Bush’s proposal to semiprivatize Social Security and his support for Republican efforts last year to keep Terry Schiavo on life support.
Lieberman figured out a few weeks back that he might lose the primary and in a stirring endorsement of Party democracy in action began collecting signatures to put him back on the ballot outside the primary process.
Meanwhile, the Republican candidate — originally intended to be a sacrifical lamb against Joe Liebermann — has less name recognition than Lamont after this bitter campaign. A few weeks ago, the Hartford COURANT dropped this on him.
The Hartford Courant sent a bunker bomb in to Connecticut Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Alan Schlesinger’s flagging campaign today with revelations that the former legislator was successfully sued for thousands of dollars in casino debts he ran up in Atlantic City venues. Schlesinger’s campaign was rocked last week by the news that, among other things, he had gambled in a Connecticut Indian casino under an assumed name, Alan Gold.
The Republicans are probably sitting, right now, in that proverbial smoke-filled room — trying to figure out how to get Schlesinger to withdraw — so, they can join with Lieberman to run him on a Republican “Independent” ticket.
Posted: Wed - August 9, 2006 at 06:25 AM