Not impressed with Ned

I watched Lamont's hyped TV 'interview' with Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report. As glad as I am that he listened to Al Franken's advice to not try to be funny (every politican should follow that advise for all talk shows), I don't think Ned helped himself all that much.

A vote for Lamont in my mind is still an anti-Lieberman vote rather than a pro-Lamont vote. He forcefully answered most questions, but Colbert served him up a softball, and he wiffed it. Specifically, Colbert asked Lamont what other issues he cares about, how he differs from Lieberman on anything besides the war. Instead, Lamont answered with a MoveOn.org ad from 2004. That is, we could have spent more on education, health care, etc. were it not for the money going to fight the Iraq war. As true as this is, this could have been the time Ned talked about Joe's "short ride" comment on rape victims and Catholic hospitals, or Joe's vote for cloture on the terrible Bankrupcy Bill, or vote for cloture on Alito, or his vote for Condi, his Michael Brown confirmation hearings, or his lack of oversight as Government Reform Chairman in 2001-02.

Still, I would like to get rid of Lieberman because of his piss poor political calculus. Every decision he makes poltically is a disaster. And now that he is personally in charge of his reelection campaign, you can see how bad it has been. Creating a third party, making buttons without a union bug, failing to knock down rumors that he would accept the Republican nomination for several hours, screaming at local media, having no public events, tacitly accepting support from College Republicans, etc. I still think Ned will win the primary, but I am a bit sad that all he will be is a Democratic Rubber Stamp.