Or a Senate seat, apparently. The New York Times is all but declaring Ned Lamont the loser in the Connecticut Senate race against Joe Lieberman. They report Lamont has just had to contribute another $2 million and that anonymous Senate leaders are firmly telling Lieberman he will keep his seniority in the Democratic caucus.
Democrats here are convinced that Mr. Lieberman stands a good chance of returning to the Senate as an independent, and many have reassured him that he will not be stripped of his seniority if he wins, according to people in several Senate offices, who were granted anonymity to speak of the sensitive situation amid an intense political climate.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lamont, the Democratic nominee, failed to pick up significant momentum early on and has not maintained the level of national excitement that his long-shot candidacy first drew when he roared to victory in the August primary. He pumped another $2 million into his campaign on Tuesday, bringing his total personal contribution to $6 million since the primary, and $10 million over all. And a new poll released on Wednesday showed Mr. Lamont behind by eight points.
Viewed by both parties as basically a battle between two Democrats, with a little-known Republican trailing badly in the polls, the race has become little more than a footnote overshadowed by the national struggle over control of Congress in a midterm season punctuated by scandal. Mr. Lamont is by no means out of the running, but he is not dominating the agenda of the campaign season nationally as he seemed poised to do this summer.
Read the whole thing. There are a lot of straddles so it appears even-handed, but the main theme is that Lamont is is trouble and is unlikely to pull this out. There are also plenty of people minimizing expectations. On both sides.
“I think the conventional wisdom is wrong and that this is still a tight race,” said Lanny J. Davis, a close friend of Mr. Lieberman’s who is advising the campaign. “But I do believe that Lamont has proven that a narrowly based ideological campaign in a primary has to transition into a broader electorate, and he has so far failed to do that. That’s the reason there’s a perception that Joe is safely ahead.”
Me, I have always been of the position that this was a battle that should never have been fought and a mammoth waste of resources.
Perhaps it was a waste but at the very least this race did expose the collectivist totalitarian activists within the Democrat Party.
If the Democrat Party is serious about ever contolling Congress and the White House again they really should begin by purging their own enemy within.
That said, I for one will NEVER go back to that party again.
Tomorrow I’m heading up to Red Sox Nation, with a lunchtime pit stop in Stamford, CT on the schedule. (Wife’s making me eat at Bobby Valentine’s joint to, in her words, “break you of this pathological hatred of anything Met.)
I think I’m gonna do some ad hoc polling in between beers.
Q: Lamont or Liebs?
if answer is Lamont
Q: You realize your betting the “Mentos” candidate?
Hey, I gotta find my fun somewhere beside here!
Thank you syn for usual exaggerations and half truths.
There is no collective totalitarian crap in Connecticut. The Democratic vote was actually relatively evenly split between Lamont and Lieberman. Only the complete loons on the fringe Left thought Lamont had a chance in hell at winning. But of course, that’s the only thing you focus on, so it doesn’t surprise me that you think this way.
And, if you are NEVER going back to the party again, I would have to say that we have begun purging our enemies. You’ve gone from one fringe to the other, a la Horowitz. Good riddance.