Hardly A Surprise
But not worth much, either. The New York Times pulls out the stops and tries to drag Ned Lamont across the finish line.
We wanted to see a capacity for growth and change in Mr. Lieberman. The country is full of Republicans who now realize the Iraq invasion was a disaster, either in its basic concept or in its execution. The most honorable of them are in agony over what has happened. Mr. Lieberman, who had not only continually defended the administration’s Iraq policy but also attacked Democrats who criticized the president, had more cause for soul-searching than most.
But instead of re-evaluating his own positions, Mr. Lieberman blamed his constituents for failing to notice that he had offered some negative comments about the conduct of the war, too, mainly when he was running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. He did not protest when Dick Cheney said that people who voted for Mr. Lamont were giving comfort to “Al Qaeda types.” His only reflection seemed devoted to a re-examination of the rules for getting back on the ballot.
They could have saved lots of ink if they had just said what they really meant: we wanted to see Joe Lieberman to come over to our anti-war anti-administration position. Since he didn't, we don't like him.
Ned Lamont has run a far less polished campaign than Mr. Lieberman, but the more we see of him, the more impressed we are by his intelligence and his growing sophistication about the issues facing the nation. He is very much in the Connecticut mold of basically moderate, principled politicians, and his willingness to take on Mr. Lieberman when no one else dared to do it showed real courage and conviction. He would make a good senator. More important, he has the capacity to continually become a better one. We endorse Ned Lamont for Senate.
Since Ned Lamont is pretty much a one trick pony, it is hard to see where the Times saw any evidence of growing sophistication. But this is not surprise, either. The Times endorsed Lamont in the primary, too. The endorsement of newspapers, and especially that of the New York Times, is not that important these days as the old media fades in power and authority. So they can try to drag their one trick pony across the line, but it won't make much difference.
By Black Jack, Sunday, 29 October , 2006 @ 5:43 pm
Ned Lamont is a Lost Kos. He’s the poster boy for an opportunistic rich guy pandering to moonbats on the Internet to buy himself a Senate seat. He’s an example of everything that’s wrong with today’s Democrat Party.