My in-laws live in CT, and they were glad to see someone other then Lieberman run. I haven't talked to them yet, but I suspect they aren't exactly happy to see him still in office.

Thank you, Ned. Your candidacy started a new story, a story of hope.

Hear! Hear!

very well said, Patrick.

I'm baffled that my former state made the wrong pick at the end. But I am convinced that this whole election went better as a result of Ned Lamont's actions.

He is a fighting Democrat--fighting for America, and for America's honor.

Thanks.

Thank you, Ned Lamont, for standing up to be counted.

So say we all.

Thank you, Mr. Lamont.

So say we all indeed.

Thank you, Mr. Lamont, for insisting your voice be heard.

And look what it took to beat him. A turncoat, scrabbling for personal advantage, and a bunch of crooks.

The results were actually very heartening. 40% is a damn good showing for Lamont; Leiberman obviously pulled far more votes from the Republican than he did from Lamont.

Thereby, of course, confirming what we all knew, that Leiberman was not a Democrat any longer.

To paraphase John Adams in the musical, _1776_:

"Gentlemen, I say ye Ned Lamont."

I think that's the best-written post-mortem piece on Lamont's campaign I've seen yet.

From the far end of the next state over, thank you Ned Lamont, and thank you to everyone who worked to make him happen. (This means you, Susan)

Swiped from the Lamont blog:

"The worst Ned did was to be the guy who made sure everyone got out of the burning building before him. All the winning Democratic candidates, all the people who hoped for nationwide change in this election, the majority of Americans who think our Iraq policy is a failure; everyone went ahead of him as he bravely held the door open for them with his reputation, time, energy, and personal fortune all on the line. Had he not run and won in the primary, the anti-Iraq position would not have been confidently embraced by a major party until the next election cycle; that�s an additional two years of bloodshed, chaos, and enabling terrorist recruiment that he just saved us from). If Lamont got everyone out of the burning building before him, and didn�t make it himself, that doesn�t make him a failure; it makes him a hero."

(maybe a little over the top, but we're still mourning over there)

The personal fortune in question, by the way, is the $16 million he and his wife Annie (the main breadwinner in the family) put into this race. Even for people at his level, that's a nontrivial sum of money, and it's not like he would have made it back on a Senator's salary. Three cheers for Annie, and also for Ned's folks, who were out there campaigning at the polls with us in Milford and elsewhere last night.

This Nutmegger says, Hear, Hear!!

But damn, I wish Ned had been able to pull it out. Now we're stuck with Jumpin' Joe for six more years of his warmongering, wholly-owned-by-the-military-industrial-complex, your-opinion-doesn't-matter-unless-it's-mine, Republican-in-sheep's-clothing bullpuckey.

*sigh*

I suppose all we can do is hope his absentee voting record continues as it's been for the past term. If he's not in D.C., he can't do much damage.

Here's hoping that whatever the House's subpoenas bring to light, Joe is caught with his hands in the cookie jar...

From The Onion:

Republicans Blame Election Losses On Democrats

WASHINGTON, DC�Republican officials are blaming tonight's GOP losses on Democrats, who they claim have engaged in a wide variety of "aggressive, premeditated, anti-Republican campaigns" over the past six-to-18 months. "We have evidence of a well-organized, well-funded series of operations designed specifically to undermine our message, depict our past performance in a negative light, and drive Republicans out of office," said Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, who accused an organization called the Democratic National Committee of spearheading the nationwide effort. "There are reports of television spots, print ads, even volunteers going door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote against us." Acknowledging that the "damage has already been done," Mehlman is seeking a promise from Democrats to never again engage in similar practices.

Also: http://thismodernworld.com/3315

I was thinking of Lamont this morning, and am glad to see this eloquent tribute to him.

My 83-year-old dad lives in CT (where I grew up) and registered as a Dem for the first time this fall so he could vote for Lamont in the primary.

It's sad he didn't win, but he really was a hero.

He lost.

Thank god.

Tim: Why? Are you saying that Lamont has positions on specific issues that you feel are terrible, or what?

Leslie @ 20, your dad isn't the only one to register as a Dem just to vote against Joe. I was registered in Philly in '88, so I didn't get to vote against him then, and in '94 no one remotely left of center would have considered voting for Labriola. But by '00, I was sufficiently distressed by his alignment with Helms on the amendment to ESEA, his inability to commit to the Gore ticket and make way for another Democrat in his Senate seat, etc. that I wrote in a vote for Weicker, who's party I belonged to in name at least until this past winter, when I decided that I would register as a Dem to have some say in who stood for the general election.

Clearly, great minds think alike. Howie Klein puts it this way:

The biggest success last night went to a man who won't be going to the U.S. Senate. Ned Lamont is the one who spoke, before anyone, for everyone who had had enough. There weren't many Democrats willing to just say no about Iraq before Ned came along and said it, loudly, clearly, unapologetically. Because of the issues Ned raised, the floodgates of support opened as Americans rushed to embrace people who would stand up to Bush and stand up to his rubber stamp Congress.

It's a shame that Jody Rell won the Governorship in Connecticut; now I can't even legitimately hope Holy Joe falls to be replaced, because that replacement would give the Senate back to the Republicans.

An article on why Lamont's campaign failed which pretty much matches my ground-level view of things, though I'll have a few harsher words for Connecticut voters when I get around to writing my version.

#25, Susan: Thank for the pointer to the article and for your hard work. I really look forward to reading your account of what happened.

What I'm hoping is that this year, because the Democrats actually won, they will avoid the circular firing squad which they had formed after previous elections. In particular, Ned Lamont did a great job of letting the country know it is ok to express disapproval of the war in Iraq. Being against this war can be an act of blatant patriotism.

What the article made clear to me, which hadn't occured to me, is that while Joe can still be the self-promoting gadfly, he will not be able to do it with the imprimatur of the Democratic party (unless Harry Reid foolishly gives it to him). He can only bash Democratic positions as an outsider. He may be still annoying, but probably less devastating. I worry that he may make up for this by turning into some sort of swing voter.

Then again, I still don't understand why he continued to run after his primary loss. I wonder if he still has presidential ambitions, but I'd have thought continuing to run after the primary loss wouldn't have been a smart choice in that case.

I hope, though, that this isn't the end of Ned Lamont's political career.

Almost every major figure in national Democratic politics save John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Wes Clark and John Edwards refused to seriously help the Lamont campaign.

Howard Dean stayed away, Susan? If true, that sucks the big one.

If Joe still has Presidential ambitions, JC, he might as well sit on them and give the whole thing a few spins.

аааа! говнюки
Старый Жо будет иметь весь ваш сенат в жопу два года. А потом вам уже будет и жизнь не в радость!

Odd UTF encoding, at any rate...

In Unicode it turns into Cyrillic.

Interesting. Any idea if it actually *says* anything that isn't spammish?

Concerned DINO is obviously deeply concerned about all the talk of dinosaur sodomy around here.