Not so fast

One more battle, boys, one more

Jane Hamsher has this up

I was typing my little fingers to the bone telling people to come to Connecticut for the big GOTV push for Lamont when the Kevin Rennie piece came out, essentially saying "Lieberman’s throwing in the towel and trashing his field staff." The bullshit meters went off instantly. Shortly thereafter Dan Balz ran the same thing in the WaPo, and we all know their talent for right-wing stenography.

It felt like an extremely Rovian attempt to suppress and discourage the Lamont GOTV effort. If he’s going to win by a landslide anyway, and Lieberman isn’t putting up a fight any more, why bother, right?

Except according to people on the street, that isn’t what’s happening. Rather than take dictation from Marion Slimefels, we contacted folks who actually took the time to check out the claim. Maura visited the Stamford office for Lieberman this morning, and has this to say:

I drove by the LieberOffice in Stamford and even pulled into the parking lot to get a look at what’s going on, and it’s PACKED with LieberShirted people. Just as much or more activity than usual. I also passed two LieberShirted people on a sidewalk in another neighborhood when I was driving to the dentist this morning, so I assume they’re still out strong canvassing.

It could be he’s considering Stamford the Last Stand for Lieberman, but it seems unlikely that he’d still have so much activity here and none anywhere else.

And in Hartford, TrueBlueCT says:

I went to the New Haven office this morning and I spied Rosa DeLauro’s campaign manager — she loaned out her field people to Joe for the race. And they know New Haven better than anyone. The Lieberman kids were running in and out, "give me new lists" — they give them a street at a time. They go, they do the street, they come back, thumbs up, they go do another street. I saw 50, 60, 70 people coming and going. They’re not rolling over.

This thing is not over, not by a longshot. The internal polling of both candidates says that the race is much closer than the Q-Poll indicates, and it’s all down to the ground game now. Lieberman is trying to de-incentivize the Lamont GOTV effort with disinformation. If you care about a victory on Tuesday, get yourself to Connecticut.

Besides, it is one big fat fucking PARTY here. Starting tomorrow night we’re going to be meeting up every evening for drinks in in New Haven, and we’re having the kind of fun people have when they come together to do something vital for a really good cause.

It’s historic, it’s important, and it’s something you’ll always remember. Join us and kick some NeoCon ass. Watch the wingnuts scream in the wake of grassroots activists pounding the pavement.

Twenty years from now, you’ll want to be able to say you did this.

Except I don't think this is what is happening. You have two public polls showing a massive Lamont lead, so maybe Lieberman tried a Jedi mind trick, but I think someone got in his ear, one of his kids, his wife, and he unleashed the hounds. I fully believe that Lieberman's team wanted to save the money for an "indy" run. Or to get paid.

And it's not like Lamont is gonna release his poll numbers anyway, but it doesn't matter. When I played football, and we had a lead, we always said it was zero-zero. If my candidate was up by 13 points, I'd say that was bullshit, regardless of what my numbers said.

Joe got a bug up his ass and said spend the money.

Now, this wasn't going to affect the Lamont campaign because they aren't stupid, but Rennie was right about something else, this isn't going to be fought in New Haven and Stamford, but the small towns Lieberman has ignored. They're the ones who got the ball rolling on Lamont, and that's who will make the difference. Because it's the towns where there will be turnout.

Now some people are assuming that independents who registered as Dems are mostly Lamont supporters, that may be, but some are coming to save Lieberman.

I don't know how many people have worked campaigns, but kids running around with voter lists is not the way to do it, especially if the kids are white and the neighbors not. All they're doing is what ACT did in Ohio, pester people who have already committed their vote. Someone said about that, people would say they agreed with you, but they had already told the person at the church they would vote their way.

They may get a nice reception at the door, but Lieberman probably lost their votes a while back.

Sure, shitty campaigns can win, but the ground game can't be a weekend of face saving. It has to be in play for a month or so. Lieberman's events are a joke, he's got mostly young kids who don't know the areas they're working in doing his canvassing. Lamont has neighbors canvassing neighbors and that's what Bush did in Ohio.

I know Tim, Jane and Maura were freaked when they heard that Lieberman was tossing money and bodies at Lamont. I've been there. But truth be told, if you have to wait until election weekend to get people out, you have to hire them, you're in trouble. If he had said 50 churches were going to canvass for him, you'd have a real problem, because that's playing into authority and family and friendship. But white kids from Jersey? Kids? Not having any clue on how to approach black people? It may cost him votes.

Let me explain.

One of the great taboos in dealing with black people is petting kids on the head. You NEVER pet a black male child on the head if you are a white stranger, it is a gross insult. You don't call elderly black people by their first name. Little things, but things, the Lamont volunteers, since they are volunteers and from the area, know and the strangers Lieberman hired don't.

Oddly, it seems that Lieberman is recreating the Kerry strategy in Ohio, flooding areas with volunteers long after people had promised their votes.

This doesn't mean Lieberman is going to lose, he may win, there may be a hidden reserve of respect for him or a lack of trust for Lamont. But I have to say, the smartest move of the campaign was campaigning with Sharpton, Jackson and Waters. Too many dems run from black pols, but Lieberman was nice enough to narrow the race to black urban voters.

If you have a free weekend and feel the need, go help Lamont in Connecticut. I'll be manning the base here because it's gonna be fast moving. But understand that Lieberman is in real trouble and you're tossing him an anvil.