New Joementum

Bill Clinton and many other state Democrats appeared at a "raucous" rally in the Palace Theater of Waterbury on behalf of embattled Senator Joe Lieberman.  Here is the Times coverage, which included "raucous"; the Wapo; the Hartford Courant; and the Stamford Advocate.  At a quick read, the Stamford Advocate has the best and most interesting detail.

The event might have been title "Rise of the Machine", since a huge slice of the state Democratic party seemed to be on hand.  The Times and the WaPo are light on names, but the speakers included:

Bishop Brooks
Speaker of the Assembly (names, please - ed)
Mayor of Waterbury, Michael Jarjura
Mayor of Hartford, Eddie Perez (And there is no way I will be the first to call him "Fast Eddie" - he had more energy than any other two people on the stage)
CT Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
Diane Farrell, competing against Chris Shays (R) for the House Fourth district seat
Chris Murphy, competing against Nancy Johnson (R) for the House Fifth district seat
Sen. Chris Dodd
John Olsen of the AFL-CIO

The Stamford Advocate and Hartford Courant note this:

Absent from the stage were Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and New Haven John DeStefano Jr., the two mayors competing for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination on Aug. 8. Malloy arrived late, but stayed off the stage, one campaign aide said.

For my money (just an expression - admission was free), this was a terrific event for Lieberman.  My strongest impression was that the time-servers and dues-payers of the state Democratic Party were rallying for one of their own - Lieberman, as one of the speakers noted, was a political activist, Majority Leader in the Connecticut State Senate, State Attorney General before going to Washington as a Senator.  One might imagine that some party stalwarts consider Ned Lamont to be a wealthy usurper and part-time Democrat who would rather begin his political career at the top.

MORE LATER... 

Comments

[clarice]

Well, I don't understand why Lieberman just didn't hire Armstrong.

[Other Tom]

This almost seems like a no-lose to me. I'm all for Joe, but if he is forced to run as an Indy I think he cleans Lamont's plow (with a lot of GOP crossover) and the moonbats are dealt another body blow.

[topsecretk9]

I think there's a few that have been out Clinton'd.

[epphan]

I guess the instinct is to root for Lieberman. But for the Republican party, aren’t they better served by a Lamont victory?…trading a moderate, but none-the-less partisan Democrat for a moonbat lefty. Doesn’t that – in the end – continue to marginalize the Dems and bolster Republicans? Then again, I guess it doesn’t really serve America’s interests to have another nut in the Senate. A toss-up, I suppose.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

I think independents would prefer a Lamont victory so that the Democrat Party can have the war that it, and the US voters, need to have. We need two competent parties to reflect a message that serves all of our interests. Right now the Democrats have nothing to offer of any interest. Their party needs to have its "netroots v. the Clintons" war.

It's the same as the Dean v. Everyone war that was briefly fought in 2004. Only this time there is a slim shot of actually winning some races this time around.

[Aaron Adams]

JOE lIEBERMAN

Every republican's favorite democrat.

Any wonder why Lamont's primary challenge is so successful?

[Freaknik]

Did you see Jane Hamsher there?

No? Odd...she had a ticket and was psyched to go.

[Jane]

Any wonder why Lamont's primary challenge is so successful?

Perhaps "success" is in the eye of the beholder. Best case scenerio for nutroots is Lamont wins the primary and then Joe wins the election. I don't quite see the "success' in that.

[Rick Ballard]

"Every republican's favorite democrat."

Never mine. Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln and maybe Ken Salazar all rank higher in my estimation. I'm sure that the Kosola Kidz will get around to them eventually.

[Jimmy's Attack Rabbit]

Being a Texan, I'd rather have the guy that would caucus with the Republicans. Whoever the Republican candidate is, (Schelinger?), would but apparently hasn't a chance. .......Aaron, I think every Republican's favorite Democrat is Howard Dean.

[dick]

Lamont reminds me of jOhn Corzine and Frank Lautenslager from new Jersey. Rich men who think they deserve to start at the top and run things. They always end up doing more harm than good. Look at Corzine in the Senate and now as governor. What a waste of air!!

[maryrose]

dick:
you hit it right on the head. What is it about New Jersey and Mass. New York and Connecticut that they would try to pawn off A Jillionaire like Lamont in the same way asDo nothing Corzine made his {irony here} mark on the Senate. These Northeast Senators with the exception of the Ladies from Maine and the Gentlemen from New Hampshire are a liberal wash as far as effectiveness in the Senate. Wanted; somebody in these states that actually cares about the future of America and isn't playing CYA politics all the time. Someone with a feasible agenda would be nice.