A lot of great things from 2006 are making a comeback in 2010. Ned Lamont is running. Dan Malloy is running too. I’m even blogging semi-regularly again.
But it’s not all good. Joe Lieberman’s failed strategies are making a comeback as well.
You see, in 2006 Joe Lieberman’s strategist was Roy Occhiogrosso. Roy drove the message of the Lieberman campaign all the way to defeat in the hotly contested Democratic primary. His two key strategies were…
“Ned Lamont has decided that his only chance of defeating me is to try to buy this election with millions of dollars in negative ads full of distortions and deceits about me,” Lieberman said at a news conference. “A lot of it is going to be nonsense and lies, so beware.”
Facing his first serious challenge in 18 years as a senator, Mr. Lieberman has sought to brand Mr. Lamont as a wealthy dilettante who is trying to buy his way into office, and who is out of touch with ordinary Americans. One of Mr. Lieberman’s first advertisements began: “Meet Ned Lamont. He’s a Greenwich millionaire.”
Occhiogrosso is now working for Malloy, and he’s using the same strategies against Lamont in 2010 that didn’t work in the 2006 primary. Take a look:
Accuse Ned Lamont of trying to buy the election? Check.
“Ned’s strategy is clear: he’s trying to buy the Convention with TV ads. Dan’s trying to win the Convention the old-fashioned way: talking with delegates about his values and his experience. In the end, all the ads in the world can’t hide the difference in this race: Dan Malloy has the values and experience that money can’t buy.” [Dan Malloy for Governor Press Release - 4/8/2010]
“Ned seems to think his millions of dollars and his background as a cable executive are why Democrats should choose him over me.” – Dan Malloy
These strategies didn’t work in 2006, and they won’t work in 2010. Democrats have their best chance in decades to win the Governor’s office, and we can’t do it if our candidates are doing Chris Healy’s job for him. What we need is a campaign about ideas, not a bloody primary.
This is the kind of thing I’d like to see more of, but instead, we’re getting a replay of 2006.
Today Lamont announced the start of a television ad campaign, and the Malloy campaign responded by having staffer Matt Gianquinto send an under-the-radar e-mail to supporters using the ol’ Lieberman ‘06 strategies that Occhiogrosso sold ‘em. An excerpt:
Hey Team,
[...]
I heard a supporter once say they are supporting Dan because he has the values and experience that money can’t buy.
[...]
We have the best candidate, the best team, and the best supporters. Ned can buy a lot of ads, but no amount of money can buy the candidate, the team, and the supporters that we have.
[...]
PS – Feel free to forward this message as a heads up to any of our supporters, donors, and friends.
The only good reason to keep using Lieberman’s old strategies for the primary is if you plan to use his post-primary-loss strategy of forming a vanity party. Dan Malloy is not Joe Lieberman, and we will not see a Connecticut for Malloy Party forming this summer. But by using Lieberman’s failed strategies, Malloy is very likely to meet the same fate in the primary.
Connecticut Bob posted something disturbing today (in addition to the creepy Bill O’Reilly audio clips that are making the rounds ::shudder::) about how Senator Chris Dodd intends to be the one who opens the door to let Sen. Joe Lieberman back into the metaphorical family home of the Democractic Party. Bob writes:
Joe Lieberman has been, for all intents and purposes, forgiven by Chris Dodd and the Senate leadership for his little foray over to the dark side in 2007-08.
Of course, Lieberman wants to have it both ways, and he continues to call himself an “Independent Democrat”. I don’t know if that’s supposed to be a party designation or simply an expression of what a wild and unpredictable “free-thinker” Lieberman fancies himself to be.
Using his video expertise, Bob put together footage from Sen. Dodd’s appearance on Face the State with tape of Joe Lieberman stumping for McCain:
Below is how I imagine things went on the day that Joe Lieberman decided that he wanted to rejoin the Democratic Party:
*Knock-knock*
Sen. Chris Dodd: Who’s there?
Sen. Joe Lieberman: Why, it’s Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman. I plan to endorse you in 2010, won’t you let me in?
Sen. Chris Dodd: Sure!
What I have trouble illustrating with words above is that it seems that Senator Dodd could not open the door fast enough.
Senator Dodd has many redeeming qualities–and I am a big fan of his work–but his soft-spot for Joe Lieberman goes a long way toward overshadowing all of them.
[A]t the weird ritual known as the Annual Alfalfa Club Dinner, outgoing club President Joe Lieberman decided it was a good time to test out some new material that involved that goldmine of comedy material known as torture.
Once inside the banquet hall, which is always off-limits to the media, the Alfalfans took turns trying to crack each other up. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) — the club’s outgoing president — noted that former vice president Richard B. Cheney injured himself while moving into his new home, according to a source inside the dinner.
“I had no idea waterboards were so heavy,” Lieberman quipped.
If after all these years you needed some more evidence that Joe Lieberman’s moral compass is broken, this is it. Joe Lieberman is a man who rails against depictions of violence in video games for adults, but thinks that torture devices make a dandy punchline.
The investigation into the primary election day crashing of Joe Lieberman’s website at Joe2006.com is over. Gabe gives the rundown at CT Local Politics, but I just want my apology.
As a Lamont supporter who is also known to be a blogger and a user of the internet, I was one of the amorphous group of Lamont supporters who were accused of “hacking” Joe Lieberman’s website.
I am waiting for my apology. Senator Lieberman, Marion Steinfels, Dan Gerstein and Sean Smith may address their apologies to LiebermanIsSoVerySorry AT spazeboy.net. All will be cheerfully accepted and posted to the blog.
Connecticut Bob posted 