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Blogometer PM Extra II

August 10, 2006 3:21 PM | |

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CT SEN: More Righty Reax

Patrick Hynes at Ankle Biting Pundits wins the prize for most audacious CT SEN reaction. His header "Um, the Bush Candidate Got 48% in a Dem Primary [!]" and he writes: "There is very little Democrats should be happy about regarding this debacle. The party’s 2000 Vice Presidential nominee has bolted. The white rats are running the laboratory. And the pro-Bush candidate just got 48% in a Democrat primary. Yeah, that last one’s gotta sting. You see, I take Markos Moulitsas and other liberal enthusiasts at their word that their support for Ned Lamont was “not all about the war.” But it was all about President Bush. There seemed, frankly, to be more discussion about “the kiss” than about troop levels in Iraq.

Meanwhile Right Wing News offers eight reasons GOPers should get behind Lieberman:

  • #1) The Republican candidate, Alan Schlesinger, is not going to win. So, that means the choice is between Lieberman and the ultra, left-wing thrall of the netroots, Ned Lamont.
  • #2) If Lieberman wins as an Independent, with lots of Republican and Independent support, the Democrats will no longer be able to strong arm him into party line votes and it seems very likely that he'll move to the center to better represent the make-up of his new constituency.
  • #3) Even if Lamont and Lieberman were exactly the same on domestic issues (and they're not), Lieberman is serious about national security while Lamont isn't. That alone gives Republicans a good reason to support him.
  • #4) By backing Lieberman, the GOP may help widen their appeal to Jews, hawks, and moderates that have been leaning towards the Democratic Party.
  • #5) If Lieberman stays strong, it will divert millions of dollars in Democratic resources and time to Connecticut that could be better used elsewhere. Moreover, it'll create nasty rifts in the Democratic Party as the hard core left-wingers slug it out with the moderates.
  • #6) The Democrats are portraying Lamont's win as a huge victory for the anti-war movement. Therefore, it follows that if Lieberman wins in a liberal state like Connecticut, it'll be viewed as a loss by the anti-war crowd.
  • #7) The liberal netroots "own" this win by Lamont so it also follows that they would "own" the loss. Having Joe Lieberman knock off their candidate would be a real thumb in the eye to the left side of the blogosphere.
  • #8) If Lieberman wins, it's possible that he may end up voting to give control of Congress to the GOP. Now, he may not say that, but if it gets really nasty, and the GOP is friendly enough, you never know what might happen in 2006 and beyond. In any case, if control of the Senate comes down to one vote, Republicans would be much better off having Joe Lieberman as that vote than Ned Lamont.