Saving Ned Lamont

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6811719312494990925.post-51472928893744192262006-10-17T13:32:00.000-07:002006-10-17T20:01:58.600-07:00Saving Ned Lamont <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/5709/831508705138548/1600/lieberman.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/5709/831508705138548/400/lieberman.png" border="0" alt="" /></a> So, despite the fact that the above picture says all you need to know about Lieberman, Lamont is apparently chunking it. Arianna Huffington has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/help-save-ned-lamont-wri_b_31755.html">a suggestion</a>: Write his concession speech now, so he can feel like he's already lost, and therefore will no longer be beholden to his craven campaign staff. She has invited suggestions in the comments section, to which I encourage you to contribute. My contribution wasn't a "concession," but rather an announcement:<blockquote>Ned Lamont says: Ladies and Gentlemen, today I have fired my entire campaign staff. Under their cautious, focus-group driven strategy, I've watched our numbers dwindle, when all indicators show that the majority of Connecticut's voters, like a majority of Americans, believe what I believe, and reject what my opponent believes. I ran because I believe the war in Iraq constitutes an ongoing criminal enterprise, sold to the American people under false pretenses, and prosecuted at an unacceptable and ghastly cost in human lives and American dollars; because I believe the Bush administration, facilitated by my opponent, has, in the name of this criminal enterprise, driven legistlation through the congress that is antithetical to everything we stand for as Americans. As citizens of Connecticut, one of the states that founded this union, you and I must now categorically reject the policies for which Joe Lieberman and George Bush now stand: the illegal prosecution of an illegal war; the illegal warrantless wiretapping of American citizens; the illegal indefinite detention of citizens and foreigners, without a right to a fair trial, without the right to challenge their detention. For five years, Bush and Lieberman have tried to turn this country into something we hardly recognize -- a country that engages in unprovoked elective warfare; a country that proves its corruption and incompetence on the world stage, as evidenced by Bush's failure to secure or rebuild the country he decided to destroy in our names and with our tax dollars; a country that demonstrates contempt for the rule of law, contempt for the principles espoused by the founding fathers, and contempt for the basic moral principles we all, as citizens of Connecticut and the United States hold dear -- not just as talking points, but as central aspects of our identity. From here on in, we will not be conducting any focus groups; we will not spend our nights poring over statistics, polls, and analysis; because we know full well, as we demonstrated together in the primary, that what the citizens of Connecticut want is a change -- we want an end to Lieberman's madness. My campaign staff, as you know, felt "madness," as a polemical term, was a "non-starter." Thus, from now on, in the interests of what Emerson dared to call the truth, we entrust all speech-writing and public relations duties to the staff of <a href="http://www.tragos.org">Tragos</a>. With their help, and, most of all, with your help, together we'll build a new platform from the resources of that which we all share, the limitless potential of the immeasurable mind.</blockquote>JLBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10987058554014193721noreply@blogger.com