Too Close To The Flame?
Well, my prediction about Lamont disowning Jane Hamsher was wrong. Still, others are noticing that Lamont got himself into the mess in the first place by getting too close to the netroots. John Dickerson, writing in Slate for example.
If Lamont wants to get to Washington, he's going to need to learn one of the most important senatorial clichés: "I'd like to revise and extend my remarks." He can't run from the bloggers. And he can't run from Hamsher, who has raised money for him, boosted him tirelessly, and even helped him shoot a video blog. He's their guy. He put Markos Moulitsas, the founder of DailyKos, in a campaign ad. Bloggers are integrated into his Web site. One contributor to a Connecticut blog designed a fabulous float depicting the Bush-Lieberman kiss. It has been used to lampoon Lieberman across the state and is used in this Lamont ad. He can't say the bloggers aren't his problem now.
Lamont, who thus far remains the "not Lieberman" choice, is also missing a chance to be senatorial. His spokeswoman denounced Hamsher. Why didn't he? The campaign asked Hamsher to take down the image from her post; she did, and then offered the non-apology preferred by loutish boyfriends—I'm sorry if I made you upset. Lamont should have gone further to show some spine.
Of course Lieberman has to make so much of the issue. He's getting thumped in a Democratic primary he didn't think he'd have much trouble winning. Lamont is ahead by 13 points in the most recent polls. But the link to Hamsher is more tenuous than the Lieberman camp would like to make it. She doesn't work for the campaign. (It's hard to picture her pickaxe among the earnest staffers.) Yes, it's true she has worked hard to portray herself as inside the campaign bubble. (She's backstage and gives top officials air-conditioned car rides.) But if Hamsher really were inside the Lamont campaign, she would know it was stupid to start posting offensive racial images the day the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were campaigning with Lamont. (The campaign had been touting the visits to rebut the Lieberman campaign's charge that Lamont was a member of an exclusive country club. It was that campaign that Hamsher was responding to in her post.)
Dickerson appears to believe this incident won't change the outcome of the primary. But he also notices that support by bloggers may be a two-edged sword. I, for one, am not writing Lieberman off. I know the poll released yesterday showed Lamont ahead, but that was before the uproar over the picture. I'm also on the record as not being a strong believer in polls or polling, especially these days. I really have a gut-level feeling that the picture did some damage, we'll see if it was enough to really hurt Lamont or not. We'll see if circling too close to the open flame singed Lamont's wings.
By TC@LeatherPenguin, August 4, 2006 @ 8:26 am
Like you, I not really paying any attention to the latest poll that gave Lamont a double digit lead. That said, Lieberman’s camp should just release an all-out media blitz between now and Tuesday showing Connecticut voters just who excatly are the drivers of the Lamont train. “Screw You” Kos was featured in a campaign ad; Hamsher’s produced campaign video, and he had the brass to say he didn’t know anything about blogs or bloggers? Beat him over the head with the bloggers! Most people in Conn. probably never read a blog: show them what brand of blogger Ned’s using as unpaid staffers.
By TC@LeatherPenguin, August 4, 2006 @ 10:52 am
When they say “it’s not just about the war,” they point to Joe being willing to experiment with school vouchers And relief from Affirmative action crap.
Does such a stand really, truly, break with the–not Party conflicted–electoral base?