Lieberman wins Mark Pryor's Support

Mark Pryor announced that he will support Sen. Lieberman's re-election campaign regardless of the outcome of the primary. His spokesman:

"Mark and Joe Lieberman are personal friends, and [Lieberman] has been a trusted mentor. They both served on Senate Armed Services Committee together and [Pryor] told me he will be supporting him no matter what the outcome."

Watch the Lieberhaters go and claim that this is part of some Washington "incumbent protection racket" of Senators "clinging to power," continuing to ignore the possibility that people in D.C. might actually be supporting Lieberman because they like and agree with him

But of course, most Lieberhaters are too narrowminded to think that any loyal Democrat could support Lieberman unless they have an ulterior motive, despite explicit evidence to the contrary. It's quite sad, really.

Hotline "On Call" Blog's Take

They essentially say that the net impact of the debate will likely favor Lieberman - and pretty strongly.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/07/the_morning_after.html

Mercurio says there are 3 issues that Lamont "handed" to Lieberman:
1) High gas prices
2) Congressional earmarks (Lamont blatantly took both sides on the issue)
3) Failing to answer Joe's question on tax returns and wasting his own chance to ask a question of Lieberman

These issues "will play well with the more practical, less dovish workaday Dems who live far from Greenwich and who have kept Lieberman in office for decades." Mercurio's words, not mine.

The debate was, as I expected, a non-mover. Neither Lieberman nor Lamont would have persuaded any undecided voters with their performances. Lieberman certainly showed a greater command of the issues, but one might expect that from a three-term Senator.

Here's a brief breakdown of the debate:

Joe's Biggest Victory: Repeatedly pointing out instances and ways in which he has opposed President Bush's agenda, his occassional support of which is the centerpiece of Lamont's campaign.

Ned's Biggest Victory: Bringing himself back from the edge of what looked like a nervous breakdown to restate his arguments against Lieberman.

Joe's Biggest Failure: Coming off somewhat like Al Gore did in his first Prez debate in 2000.

Ned's Biggest Failure: Failing to advance his case for election in either of the ways that matter - he didn't land any sharp punches against Lieberman, and he did not produce an image of himself to voters.


I think that this debate probably stiffened the support of those backing each candidate, and maybe moved a couple dozen voters in one direction or another. I can't wait to see what the first post-debate polls say, but I'm guessing that they will show little movement from before. And if this slowed the exponential momentum that I admit Lamont has had for the past few weeks, that alone would be a great victory for Lieberman.

Three Democratic Senators have announced that they will campaign for Senator Lieberman's re-election campaign. The trio of campaigners includes a liberal (Boxer), a moderate liberal (Biden), and a moderate (Salazar).

Now a rational person would look at this and see that this shows Lieberman gaining support from people spanning the entire Democratic spectrum. Of course, Kos and other Lieberhater bloggers instead used this as a rant on how Democrats who support Lieberman are attempting to "subvert the will of the people" and must "value power above all else" because they plan to campaign for Lieberman.

These kinds of comments started off as annoying, but now they're just amusing. Biden and Lieberman have served together in the Senate for 18 years and are obviously colleagues and friends; the same holds true for Boxer, who has served with Senator Lieberman for over a decade. Why is it so unreasonable for one friend to come to the aid of another? Should people only befriend and come to the aid of people who are their political brethren? Hopefully, the Lieberhaters don't really believe that. But if they do, they might want to look in the mirror the next time they call someone "out of touch."

Even more amusing is the Lamont campaign's response to the announcement, with campaign manager Tom Swan saying that "people are fed up with Washington" and dismissing Boxer, Biden, and Salazar as "Washington politicians."

Um...Mr. Swan? Isn't Lamont trying to go to Washington and become a Washington politician? Maybe someone should show the Lamont campaign a map. They might not realize that the Capitol building is not, in fact, next to his Greenwich mansion.

Welcome to the unofficial LieberDem blog. This blog is set up to provide a forum for pro-Lieberman Democrats who support the Connecticut Senator for re-election. The views of the bloggers here may not always be in lockstep with those of Sen. Lieberman, but the purpose of this blog is to prove two things:

1) That there are firmly Democratic bloggers who support Senator Lieberman; and

2) To report on the happenings in the CT Senate race that are ignored by the "pro-Lamont" (well, they are more appropriately called "anti-Lieberman") blogosphere crowd.


The first news story and entry will be posted shortly.