An article in today’s Hartford Courant by Mark Pazniokas presents a highly critical take on the Lamont campaign’s decision to keep Joe Lieberman’s character as an issue in the general election. According to Pazniokas and some of purveyors of common wisdom, including Dan Gerstein, Lamont’s labeling of Lieberman as a turncoat is a failure to address Connecticut’s voting public and is an example of novice myopia on the few Democratic voters Lamont failed to win in the August 8th primary. Common wisdom says that this is a waste of time, energy, and money and Lamont is off his rocker for making Lieberman’s presence in the general election as a fifth party candidate an issue.

This is utter nonsense. First, Lamont did not run on Joe Lieberman being a turncoat in the Democratic primary. It wasn’t an issue because Lieberman had not yet acted on his July 3rd promise to bolt the party. Lamont and his supporters were working hard to beat Lieberman on Iraq and win with a wide enough margin that Joe would have no standing to ignore the voters of Connecticut (I’ve argued that Lamont winning by one vote would be more than enough mandate to shut Joe out, as that is how the democratic process works, but obviously Lieberman didn’t listen to me). Lamont ran on Iraq and accountability and his campaign succeeded in convincing a majority of primary voters to vote for him.

Second, and much more importantly, this campaign has to be about Joe Lieberman’s character. He made a promise. He broke a promise. He has declared his employment status to be more important than the health of American elections. He is a turncoat in the sense that he split the Democratic Party after it found a candidate that would serve them better, but to say he’s a turncoat is not a designation limited to his relationship with the Democratic Party.

Joe Lieberman’s decision to ignore the results of a primary election certified by the Connecticut Secretary of State and voted in by a whopping forty-three percent of registered Democrats says a great deal about his character. He has bolted from a party and voters who have supported him for over thirty years of public service - he was loyal only as long as he won; some might call Joe a fair weather friend. Lieberman is running on his own party line, though he is the de facto Republican nominee. When you split your lifetime party, form your own, and then take huge donations from Republicans under Karl Rove’s direction or endorsements from Republican leaders like Jack Kemp, Al D’Amato, Mike Bloomberg, and Ann Coulter, you’re saying that the things you’ve fought for and people you fought against are no longer what they once were. Lieberman’s moral compass is spinning at a mile a minute and any claims to moral authority are belied by his comfort in associating with anyone who will lend their name to his campaign.

As we saw with the attacks on John Kerry as a flip-flopper, voters don’t like candidates who don’t have a clear vision of what they believe in. Despite Lieberman’s protestations that his is a campaign for unity and purpose, it was born out of his cataclysmic split from the Democratic Party and his singular mission to keep his ass in office. Labeling Lieberman a turncoat reminds voters - Democrats, Republicans, and independents - that Joe’s character is not what he makes it out to be. Lieberman made clear everything the people of Connecticut need to know when he stabbed the Democratic voters in the back at 11:00pm on August 8th.

Lieberman bolting the party should be an issue in this campaign because it’s the only reason this campaign is taking place. Were it not for Lieberman’s decision qua turncoat, Ned Lamont could be coasting to victory over Alan Schlesinger and spending his time getting Chris Murphy, Diane Farrell, and Joe Courtney elected to the House.

Oh, and then there’s this:

“It is somewhat perplexing to us that Ned is choosing to rerun the primary,” Gerstein said.

I’d say it’s some fucking bullshit somewhat perplexing that Joe is choosing to run in the general election. I don’t think anyone working for a candidate who ignored the results of the primary and continues to run in the general election gets to complain about his opponent talking about the primary. When facing hypocrisy of this high order coming from a turncoat’s campaign, I’d hope that Pazniokas and other purveyors of campaign news refuse to print it.

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