Ned Lamont forces Bush's Boy to primary

Posted by Bob Geiger at 12:49 PM on May 20, 2006.

It's the day after the Connecticut State Democratic Convention and all is right with the world.

While George W. Bush's favorite Democratic lackey, Joe Lieberman, was officially nominated by the convention for the U.S. Senate seat he has held for three terms, Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, the candidate of the true Democratic wing of the party, garnered enough support to force Lieberman into a primary this summer.

Lamont finished with an astounding 505 delegates -- after only announcing his candidacy in March -- to Lieberman's 1,004 and will now go head-to-head with Bush's Boy in the August 8 primary.

The vote was a huge victory for Lamont and for all of us who have grown increasingly disgusted with Lieberman's continued support for Bush and an Iraq war that the vast majority of the country now believes was a catastrophic mistake.

You can find excellent, detailed coverage of the convention from our friend Matt Stoller at MyDD.com and at LamontBlog.

"Everywhere I'm going, people are telling me, 'We want this primary, we want a debate on the war and the direction of the country,'" said Lamont after the vote.

Meanwhile, Lieberman supporters tried to keep a brave face and gave lame arguments about supporting Lieberman based solely on tenure and Lamont's newcomer status. "This guy has come out of the woodwork," delegate Bob Bradley said, referring to Lamont. "You don't know what he's going to do."

That may be true in some areas but, in life, sometimes making a decision comes down only to knowing what most assuredly is not good for you any longer. And having a Democratic Senator who embraces George W. Bush and the lies he proffered to take us to war, is not what we need. And there is certainly no longer a place in the Democratic party for the likes of Lieberman, who has consistently supported a president leading the country in a direction that polls show Americans massively rejecting.

Gregory Spear, a member of the West Hartford Democratic Town Committee, summed it up handily: "With 77 percent of the Connecticut citizens against the war and probably 95 percent of the state's Democrats against the war, the party has no business nominating a pro-war candidate for senator."

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Bob Geiger is a writer, activist and Democratic District Leader in Westchester County, NY. You can reach Bob at geiger.bob@gmail.com and read more from him at Democrats.com.