Disgusting, cowardly

KING HENRY V

I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill:
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field; they do offend our sight:
If they'll do neither, we will come to them,
And make them skirr away, as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,
And not a man of them that we shall take
Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so.

Has it really come to this, Senator?
by: Maura
Fri Aug 04, 2006 at 21:06:27 PM EDT

I just got home a little while ago from Ned Lamont's great rally in Greenwich, and I've struggled with how to write what I'm going to write. It comes down to this, I think:

Senator Lieberman and his campaign have become an embarrassment to themselves.

Somewhere close to 100 LieberKidz showed up in Greenwich to disrupt the Lamont campaign rally. Everyone's favorite LieberThug Lobbyist was also on hand to lend his loud belligerence to the festivities.

Most of what the LieberKidz did was just generally obnoxious elbowing, jostling, and positioning to get themselves toward the front of the crowd with their signs, rudely stepping in front and blocking the views of people who were actually there to see Ned Lamont speak live for the first time and pay attention to all of the speeches. A few of the kids were openly hostile, talking loudly during speeches, but most spent their time moving around trying to block Lamont signs and didn't shout or try to drown out the speeches.

There was no large scale chanting or coordinated interruption from the LieberKidz, just the overall disruption that comes from having 100 Lieberman staffers talking to each other, distributing plastic golf toys to each other, and talking back to the incredulous Lamont supporters who'd ask them why they were there or ask them to move aside or stop blocking their view. The LieberKidz waited until the rally actually started to push themselves through the crowd that had already assembled in anticipation of the speeches, a strategy that of course caused maximum disturbance and annoyance to the patient and polite crowd already assembled.

I didn't witness any major clashes, just a lot of really defensive Lieberman staffers who pretended not to understand why so many people who had come to hear speeches were annoyed and disgusted by their behavior.

I personally found it abhorrent that the Lieberman campaign has been reduced to paying minority kids to show up and hold up signs saying things like, "Why don't you let me play at your club?" Is that the Lieberman campaign's idea of minority outreach - paying kids to be your protest props?


What? Didn't Lieberman call Sharpton
"My Brother" in 2004?

For most of these kids, the nice ones that I've talked to at least, this is their first experience ever working for a campaign. It's sad that their first experience has to be such a negative and divisive one.

I had a few positive interactions with some of the Lieberman staffers, including the same really decent young man who offered me water this afternoon at LiebermanHQ in Stamford. The kids who have come (twice) to my door to canvass have been really sweet. They're good kids and they're working hard. I've thanked them and told them to keep up the good work when they canvassed - that kind of positive door-to-door campaigning is a good thing for the party and for our democracy. This kind of purposefully disruptive staffer behavior is not.

Senator Lieberman is essentially the leader of this group of young people, and I'm disgusted that this is how he leads. This is not how you inspire young people to careers in public service. This is not how you motivate young people to play positive roles in our political system.

I'm sad that his 18 year career in the Senate has been reduced to this kind of campaigning.

I'm going to work really hard tomorrow.

This is a show, according to the Times. Lieberman is going to TV to save his image, but by pulling the massive GOTV he had planned, he's conceding the election.

Now, people on the ground in Connecticut are seeing lots of activity, but only in the big cities. The problem for Lieberman is in the towns, and they're likely to come out in force to send him packing.

What angers and disgusts me is that Lieberman took those black kids and used them as a prop in his election. Their parents wouldn't want their kids involved such scummy behavior. Mostly, I've been disgusted by the Lieberman campaign, but this pisses me off. This is why they wanted to hire kids, to disrupt the Lamont events. Digusting.

Yeah, he marched with King, but seems to have learned from Bull Connor. Using children to push his agenda

I think when this is over, Lieberman is going to be embarassed as how he let people do things in his name. He has falsely accused Lamont of racism, refused to discuss the war, and has a faltering campaign. It has been a shameful, disgusting exercise in desperation. Having children jostle and harass a candidate, and then claiming "it's the bloggers which pushed me to it" is cowardice.

So which is it Joe? Are you Sharpton's brother or not?

There was always the wiff of a coward about the man, a whiff of self-interest. He was always one to play patriot at the expense of others.

But sending children to fight his battles, to disrupt a speech, what a cowardly, loathesome thing to do. The Lieberman campaign pushed hard to knock down the idea that they had brought in the College Reactionaries, but who knows? They are certainly running a Republican campaign.