Some CT State Dems talking up a Lieberman challenge

[Larkspur]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14121431&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6>http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=...id=161556&rfi=6

Connecticut Democrats dissatisfied with U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman want to mount a primary election challenge to the three-term incumbent in 2006 and say they are debating the merits of as many as six alternative candidates.

Tom Swan, executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group and a party insider involved in the insurgency, declined this week to name any of the potential challengers.

"There's a great deal of displeasure with Joe and some of his recent actions," Swan said, referring to the senator's stance on proposed changes to the Social Security system and his support for the confirmations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. "But it would be premature at this point to discuss specifics."

Nevertheless, Swan and Nathan Karnes, a member of a Democratic ward committee in New Haven and a leader of a "DumpJoe" message group at Yahoo.com, said those under consideration include current and past state officials and at least two "high-profile" figures from the entertainment industry who live in the state and are politically active.

They said the latter do not include actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, a Westport resident who had been rumored to be considering a race against Lieberman that party leaders have since discounted.

One former state legislative leader who has huddled with Swan and his cohorts said he had advised that anyone who might take on Lieberman in a primary follow the senator's own example when he successfully unseated former U.S. Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. in 1988.

The opponent, he added, needs to be like Lieberman was then -- hungry, daring, and determined, while portraying the incumbent as an entrenched incumbent out of touch with the party's rank and file.

$25,000 pledged for challenger

The insurgents' comments came as a Web site created by a former Connecticut resident now living in southern California began collecting cash pledges from those who would help fund a primary bid against Lieberman.

Under the rubric "timetogojoe," the site brands the senator as "a Democrat in name only" and seeks to raise as much as $1 million for "any real Democrat" who might oppose him.

The site has collected $25,630 in pledges from 225 people since its inception last week.
<SNIP>

I love how the DumpJoe movement is labeled "insurgent." Yeah, I love being an insurgent!!

[cornermouse]

1. I love how the DumpJoe movement is labeled "insurgent."

Its rather odd how terms connected to terrorism and Iraq keep getting applied to Americans in this country.

You can't help but notice how things like morals, ethics, and standards of behavior have become very badly disarrayed during Bush's terms.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Sam Waterston for Senate???

Sam Waterston, veteran actor and star of "Law and Order" lives in Litchfield County, CT. He's very very active in doing charitable work locally (he just helped raise $50,000 for the Cornwall school and library via a dramatic reading). He stumped for Gore on 2000, and contributed the max to Kerry this past elelction. He has made some rather controversial remarks about television, advertising, and politicians in a recent speech at Yale (see http://www.geocities.com/ayeshahaqqiqa/WaterstonNews.html )His contract for L&O runs out in May of this year, and for the past few years he's worked with a former Repuke senator, Fred D. Thomas-supposedly they've had some interesting conversations on the set. He's a decent, honest man, self-depricating but very very intelligent and caring-would make a great Senator, but I don't know if he's intersted.

[Larkspur]

3. I love Sam Waterson! I didn't know he lived in Litchfield, CT.

I live on the other side, in the Northeast corner of CT.

I'd love it if he ran against Joe, but I too don't know if he's interested in running a campaign.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. not in Litchfield city, but Litchfield County

He bought James Thurber's old house in Cornwall.

His remarks at Yale also talked about saving SS, which made me wonder if he was thinking of running for public office. I'm scheduled to see him in the play "Travesties" at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven in May (God willing). A whole mob of his fans have purchased a block of seats. We're hoping we'll have some time to talk with him....maybe I won't be too agog that I can ask if he's thinking of running.

[applegrove]

5. Oh great! Now we eat our own. Taking a move out of the brownshirt

book. And cutting the 'big tent' idea out of liberal ideology without realizing it.

I am ashamed!

[Beacho]

7. Except that the keebler elf is not 'one of our own'

And since when does using the right to challenge someone in a race 'brownshirt tactics'?

[applegrove]

8. Why are you not targeting the Repukes? Why eat your own. And my

friend I would put fiscal conservatives at over 50% of your party. And I would put Israeli Hawk in pretty high numbers too.

So how is he not one of "us"?

We play into the hands of the Repukes when we start cutting off parts of our 'big tent' just because we are angry. Find constructive ways of dealing with anger instead of copying the Freepers and mobbing (boxing comes to mind, or get involved in organizing and teaching about ideals and learn something new too perhaps about world markets) and practice our adult ability to stop and consider our reactions to every single thing we face: "will this help me change the world or will this destroy by Party". IMHO

[Padraig18]

10. Why not check out his REAL record, instead of the DU version of it?

Except for FP and national-defense, he's a rock-solid progressive.

http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=S0141103

[lonestarnot]

6. Woohooo but must confess only read headline! n/t

[Clarkie1]

9. That's very inspiring news!

We need a strong and dynamic party. Questionable incumbents should never go unchallenged!