Spoiled Eggs

Ned Lamont, the Democratic senate candidate for Connecticut, seems to have gone off of the radar in the national media coverage. In today's New York Times, however, there was a full page devoted in the New York/Region Section to Ned Lamont. The article covered, among other things, Lamont's personal and professional histories, and his current stance in the race. The article also depicted a "dethroned" Joseph Lieberman, who is presumably glad to hear that Lamont's current statistics are lagging.
I don't know whether this has really been discussed in any setting besides my head, but I feel that the situation that Joe Lieberman is putting the Democratic Party in by running as an independent may ultimately hurt both sides and end in a GOP takeover of yet another Senate seat.
There are several factors that can contribute to a Republican takeover:
1) Ned Lamont is inexperienced- Mr. Lamont has never been in any major public office above town-level (although the town was Greenwich). He is a skilled businessman, though, and has, so far, done pretty well at selling himself as the right candidate. He has started a successful cable company in Connecticut and is selling himself as a genuine candidate and person.
2) Ned Lamont can't relate to the average citizen- Lamont is from an old money family (his great-grandfather was the chief executive for JP Morgan) and has an estimated value between $90 and $322 million dollars. This puts him above the average Connecticut resident, financially, and may alienate him from the people he's running to represent. He doesn't know what it is to be hungry, or broke, or unemployed, trying to raise a family. He may, however, sell himself just as Michael Bloomberg has in his New York City mayoral race.
3) Lieberman may prove to be a spoiler- Just as was the scare in the 2004 presidential elections with Green Party candidate Ralph Nader runnning. Independents who are liberal have two choices, while Republicans only have one. This can lead to a split between votes for Lamont and Lieberman and a full 100% of Republicans voting for the same candidate. Even if Lieberman can pick up a full 75@ of liberal votes, that still only works out to 30-something percent of the vote, while the Republican ticket may still get at least 50%.

I feel that the Democratic Party, yet again, does not have itself prepared for what the rest of the political world has to dish out. I am a registered Democrat myself, but I'm starting to feel like we're fighting an uphill battle. It's as if they congregate together in a room and come up with great plans but never make accomodations for something like what's going on with Joe Lieberman adding himself to the ballot after being rejected in the primary. The Democrats need to work a lot in these last remaining days before these crucial elections or else they may find themselves crushed again, bitter again and ready to plan out another rediculous plan.
Best to all, and Happy Elections!

The Democratic Mask

Shuffling through the paper this morning, catching up with news I’ve yet to read since Friday, I found quite an interesting piece on Congressman Mark Foley , who apparently had a sexually explicit conversation with one of his pages and resigned from office on Friday. This, six weeks before the election, can not look good for the Republican party, considering the its uncertainty for many crucial seats up for grab this November.
What I find rather odd is that the Republican party is already trying to pass off a male representative having a strongly sexual conversation with a 16 year-old boy as nothing major, even though just seven or eight years ago they were scandalizing then-President Clinton’s alleged sexual relations with a 20-something year-old Monica Lewinski, calling for his impeachment.
Democrats in both the House and the Senate called for intense FBI investigation to the affair, while Senior Republicans admitted that they had known about the affair for six months to a year. Republicans claim that nothing has been done to protect these children (namely the boy with whom Foley had spoken) except for warning Foley to break off any internet, telephone or other contact with the individual.
Senator Nancy Pelosi said after requesting an ethics committee meeting, ”…Republican leaders have admitted to knowing about Mr. Foley’s outrageous behavior for six months to a year, and they chose to cover is up rather than to protect these children.”
It’s clear that the Republican party not only wants to protect its hide pending the upcoming mid-term elections, as it would probably want to do with any other situation, but also wants to cover the fact that it’s got a scandal involving homosexual pedophilia amongst it’s ranks.
The Waterbury Republican, long known for its politically far right-winged coverage of American politics, reported this developing scandal in today’s Sunday Republican on page 6 of the main news section. The title was “Democrats seize opportunity following Foley e-mail scandal.”
This article didn’t even have a picture of Mr. Foley, but rather had a photo of Sen. John Kerry meeting with the democratic runner in Palm Beach. The piece focuses almost entirely on the fact that Democrats are scrambling to build a strong race in an area that’s almost always voted Republican, and only mentions the scandalous happenings in the last paragraph:
“Foley e-mailed the page in August 2005. The boy was 16 at the time. Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails.”
The bias is hard to deny here. If you read the script of the Aol Instant Messenger conversation had between the congressman and the child, it’s clear that he did much worse than ask for photos. Here’s just a small example to leave you with (“Maf54” is Mr. Foley):

Maf54 (7:46:33 PM): did any girl give you a haand job this weekend

Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:38 PM): lol no

Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:40 PM): im single right now

Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:57 PM): my last gf and i broke up a few weeks agi

Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): are you

Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): good so your getting horny

Xxxxxxxxx (7:47:29 PM): lol…a bit

Maf54 (7:48:00 PM): did you spank it this weekend yourself

Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:04 PM): no.

I hope the citizens of Waterbury find the truth, eventually.