"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" -Oscar Wilde |
"The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself." -- Proverbs 11:25 |
Campaign Trail Counter-Programming
By Nicholas Confessore
They’re baaaaaaaaaack.
The pro-Joe Lieberman, anti-Ned Lamont protestors that Mr. Lamont’s supporters dubbed the “LieberKidz.”
We last saw them dogging Mr. Lamont during the heated Senate primary, and today they showed up in force at the morning kickoff of Mr. Lamont’s “Stand Up For Change” bus tour, day two, mobbing the parking lot of a Hartford residence for the elderly, and cheering “Vote for Joe” as Mr. Lamont tried to speak with some of the residents.
Mr. Lamont’s staff, somewhat outnumbered by the three dozen or so Lieberman supporters, looked annoyed.
“This is what you can do with $387,000 in petty cash,” fumed Mr. Lamont’s spokeswoman, Liz Dupont-Diehl, referring to the as-yet-unexplained, unusually large petty cash fund Mr. Lieberman maintained during the closing days of the primary.
Later, on the bus, Mr. Lamont weighed in. “I wish Senator Lieberman has showed up for the debate last night,” he said, referring to a debate held with his G.O.P. opponent, Alan Schlesinger, which Mr. Lieberman declined to attend.
Day Two of the Big Bad Bus Tour isn't exactly off to a good start. This morning's first rally was to be outdoors at the Percival Smith Towers Senior Center. Before the event was even underway, a crowd of Lieberman supporters turned up. They have a fake voting booth set up in the bed of a Toyota 4×4 and speakers that play that insipid jingle, ("When you're in the voting booth/Watch out for the LieberYouth…") over and over and OVER. It looks like a porta-potty on wheels and the music coming out of it is akin to the smell one would expect from such an enclosure.
They started out at the street, holding signs and chanting, a clot of 25 to 30 thick-necked Young Republican types. Then they moved up the driveway to the Senior Center and blocked the bus. They formed a noisy, chanting mob around the bus door and blocked anyone from getting out. Eventually Ned and some others managed to push out through the crowd, but the noise only increased and the LieberYouth pressed tighter, chanting so that the news cameras and microphones couldn't pick up a word Ned was saying.
It was an ugly and intense little scene. The few seniors who had come outside were rushed back in by the Percival Smith staff. I did manage to ask one bright-eyed little senior lady what she thought of all this, but she just pointed at her temple and twirled her finger in the universal sign for "crazy" and then she was whisked away by a staffer.
So this is what it has come down to, Mr. Lieberman? Sending your thugs out to physically intimidate old people? Nice. Classy.