Primary True Colors

We mean then by the “good” those whose actions and lives leave no question as to their honour, purity, equity, and liberality; who are free from greed, lust, and violence; and who have the courage of their convictions.
Cicero (106 B.C.–43 B.C.).

There was no trick to low, no turn to scurvy to be utilized in the primary campaign against Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut by his challanger, millionaire Ned Lamont, a self styled Progressive. Mr. Lamont reportedly spent over $3 million of his own money to demonstrate just how much of a populist he is.

Earlier this week, on the Huffington Post, a Democrat activist named Jane Hamsher sunk to a new low in political rudeness by portryaing Sen. Lieberman in blackface. Today, on primary day, Sen. Lieberman's web site was hacked, preventing his supporteds from getting information, rides to the polls, etc. His opponent, Mr. Lamont, airly says that it's all nothing to do with him, even though Ms. Hamsher is a long time campaign volunteer and media worker. Even if a crazed fan hacked the Lieberman web site, Mr. Lamont never actually condemened that action; he simply said the Lieberman campaign attributing it to him was another 'scurrilous attack'. Perhaps he was waiting for Karl Rove to confess.

***Update - Porcupine's loyal opposition at the web site Blue Mass Group have stated that Mr. Lamont DID properly acknowledge the hacking incident, and have provided the following quote as a demonstration : If Senator Lieberman's website was indeed hacked, we had absolutely no part in it, denounce the action, and urge whoever is responsible cease and desist immediately. It is our sincerest wish that everyone planning to vote for Ned Lamont or Joe Lieberman does so today. Porcupine does not have a source for the quote, but does not doubt that this is a statement made by the campaign. However, to Porcupine, it smells of the lamp. It is not a spontaneous statement, as was the charge of scurrility which Porcupine saw proceed from Mr. Lamont's mouth with his own eyes. Also, the 'If' at the beginning renders it a rather less than full expression of sympathy. Porcupine has also promised to mention that the Lamont campaign did offer technical assistance in getting the site up. If Mr. Lamont made such an offer, it was unreported by mainstream media, at least at the time of posting.*****

Porcupine is genuinely troubled by the treatment of Sen. Lieberman in tbis primary race. Ned Lamont, by not *vigorously* rejecting his smarmy proxies like Ms. Hamsher, has proven himself unfit to hold public office. This mindless bile reminds Porcupine uncomfortably of the treatment that another Senate moderate faces, tis time from the far right. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine is often the subject of similar attacks, but she has no GOP challanger this year. The extremes of the parties have really taken hold as primary participation plummets. Seriously, thinking back to the heated debates on the Equal Rights Amanedment, Porcupine never thought he'd live to see the day when Sen. Arlen Specter was accused of being too liberal!

In his concession speech, Sen. Lieberman said, "I am of course disappointed by the results...For the sake of my country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result [of Lamont winning] stand. I expect that my opponent will continue to do in the general election what he has done in the primary: partisan polarizing instead of talking about how we can solve the people's problems."

At the end of the day, what was Lieberman's great sin? He is just as liberal as he ever was. He votes with the Democrat Minority 90% of the time. He supported the war in Iraq. He cannot be forgiven because he is alarmed and angry over images like this - the flag of Hezbollah flying side by side with the UN flag. Porcupine is equally disturbed by the accusation by Kofi Annan that Israel deliberately targeted UN Forces, but of course, when the two groups are sharing water and other resources since Israel left 11 years ago, it makes it hard to be sure that UN soldiers aren't hit. Porcupine is annoyed that all the reporting of this conflict focuses upon the casualties in Lebanon - why is there no reporting of the effect of 130 missile per day being lobbbed into Haifa? Porcupine first noticed a new and virulent strain of anti-Semitism in the Democrat Progressive wing last summer, when Cindy Sheehan was protesting in Crawford, Texas (see web site HERE). With the outbreak of hostility between Isreal and the terrorists bombing them from within Lebanon, it has only gotten worse. Sen. Lieberman is the first casualty of this new trend, and Ned Lamont is the first beneficiary.

As unfit as Mr. Lamont is, it is not his potential victory that is most disturbing. Rather, it is the death knell of moderation. How can compromise be reached - a necessary function of government - when only those who adhere to the most extreme positions can be elected? A person who held to certain ideas, while espousing others which did not fit with the prescribed template, has become an enemy, a person to be eliminated. The defeat of Joe Lieberman was nothing less than a victory for political zealotry, and continuing and deepening schism.