Ned Wins

by Chris Bowers, Tue Aug 08, 2006 at 07:52:57 PM EDT

Ned wins!

(This is Jerome on Chris' computer at the victory party. I drove down from NH and giving the Sierra Club some CTG love, to see Ned give his Democratic acceptance speech for the friggin' Democratic nomination for the US Senate in Connecticut. Winning feels good!)

Chris This is a very, very happy scene here. We need to make many Democrats, including the Clintons, make good on their promise now. Support the Democratic nominee. Just watching Lamont's victory speech reminded me of all the edreams I had about other leections that never came true. But this one did. We won. Be happy. Biggest. Upset. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Be happy. The deed is done. Admist record turnout, Ned Lamont won. And now it is time for Democrats to support him.

Tags: Ned Lamont (all tags)

Comments

45 Comments

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Ok then

Blood starting to come back into the knuckles ...

by MikeB 2006-08-08 08:02PM | 0 recs
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Josh@TPM

posted a teaser about an hour ago for some new dirt on the joe2006.com fiasco "shortly" -- as in tonight, I assume. Something to keep an eye on.

by catastrophile 2006-08-08 08:06PM | 0 recs
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Aaaaaaaand it's up,

at TPM Muckraker.

Quick and dirty: Hosting company employees say Joementum's account was good for over 400 gigs/month; server files are apparently being turned over to the FBI.

My gut is still telling me this was a stunt by some Lieberman backer, but Lord only knows how it's going to play out.

Anyway, yeah.

by catastrophile 2006-08-08 09:03PM | 0 recs
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Good Job!

Nice work Chris!  You and all the others deserve all the partying that you can muster.. but I bet you want to sleep.   :)

by kevin22262 2006-08-08 08:07PM | 0 recs
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Re: Good Job!

No sleeping until Novermber 8th!  There are worse DINOs than Lieberman out there still hording dark blue territory like they were born to rule over it.  We need to strengthen the Democratic Party by ensuring their defeat.  The Lawless campaign in Rhode Island is a great place to start.  She's running against Langevin, who's against a woman's right to chose, voted for Bush's tax cuts, for the Patriot Act, and who changed his mind about stem cell research after two years in office claiming that he voted against it because he didn't really understand the issue.  And this guy is controlling a congressional seat in the state with the lowest Bush approval rating in the country.  We need to get to work, pushing Langevin and every DINO like him out of the bluest seats in our country.  Now we know that it's possible!

by mpalevsky 2006-08-09 04:51AM | 0 recs
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Re: Good Job!

I've had a smile on my face ever since I woke up this morning!  Ned won!!!

And in some sense, I'm sure, there are worse DINOs than Lieberman.  But Holy Joe was the one who had pretty much an open invitation to go on Fox News, or on the Sunday morning talk shows, and bash his own party.  And he took advantage of that invitation, in spades.  

Moving the party forward was going to be difficult while dragging him along, so it was really necessary to delegitimize him as a Democrat.  Even if he should win in November, I think the primary had that effect.

by RT 2006-08-09 05:35AM | 0 recs
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Fight the repugs not the dems... for now.

We need to concentrate now on re electing dems and booting out repugs.  We can not spend all of or to much of our energy taking on other dems right now.  If we do that then we will loose.

I see kicking joe as a good thing but it was technically another dem.  We have not won against any repugs... yet!

by kevin22262 2006-08-09 06:08AM | 0 recs
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Re: Fight the repugs not the dems... for now.

Was the importance of this race lost on you?  Lamont will now be a leader for progressive democrats in the Senate.  For six years the Democratic Party has been eroded from within by DINOs like Lieberman.  Our greatest hope of creating a sustainable movement for a better future is to reinvigorate our party by firing politicians who fail to represent Democrats, while replacing them with strong progressive leaders.  I would rather focus on replacing Liebermans with Lamonts while there are still primaries to consider, rather than spending our energy replacing Chafees with a Liebermans.

by mpalevsky 2006-08-09 06:27AM | 0 recs
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Re: Fight the repugs not the dems... for now.

Was the importance of what I stated lost on you?

There are few primaries left.  Get a clue.  We have to focus on taking back congress.  The Lamont vote put some of the right leaning dems on notice and it will help.  I agree we have more to do but NOT at the expense of giving these rethugs two more years of power!

 YEAH.. we beat a DINO in a dem primary, we have not yet won the whole thing.

by kevin22262 2006-08-14 09:47PM | 0 recs
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no more war, but yes,
do show joe the door, permanently.
thanks all for getting the pride way up.
good covering. great pics.
keep on.
by greenbird 2006-08-08 08:08PM | 0 recs
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Congratulations to the good people

of CT. They turned out huge for a primary and no one can say that this was just a fluke. The people have spoken and that is the greatest thing of all.

CT is the winner this night.

by MNPundit 2006-08-08 08:12PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Love the banner.  I'm all the way down in Texas and this is so great to me.  I've been running up and down my stairs all night checking the returns on the internets.  

So, lemme just say, first, that winning does feel good, and don't anyone forget it--we have to keep winning.  And, second, this deed is done, but there's a long way to go to November.  

Go Ned!

Go MyDD!

Go Democrats!

by Reece 2006-08-08 08:15PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Great work to everyone at MyDD, I've really loved the round-the-clock posting the last few days, and congrats to EVERYONE IN CONNECTICUT.

I was so nervous about this. Now I can go back to normal. ;)

by forecaster15 2006-08-08 08:18PM | 0 recs
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Biggest upset ever...

...I still thinks it's Truman over Dewey.

Biggest upset in 50 years though ;)

by MNPundit 2006-08-08 08:23PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Congrats to Chris, Matt and the others at Lamont HQ.  The last time I remember a pol of this magnitude going down was when House Speaker Tom Foley lost his re-election in 1994.  This is really big.

I highly doubt that the Clintons or anyone else who pledged to support the Dem nominee, which is now Ned Lamont, is going to back on their word.  What's left of Lieberman's support will deflate like a slow leaking tire over the next few weeks.

There is nothing for Dems to gain by supporting Lieberman now and the Clintons are very smart.  It is one thing to support a colleague and old friend in a primary, another thing totally to go against the winner of a primary.  Plus, if Hillary wants to run in 2008 she has to support Lamont or be dead in the water before the primaries even start.

by John Mills 2006-08-08 08:25PM | 0 recs
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Hillary is Giving $$ to Lamont

From Dkos via C&L.  Hillary is putting her money where her mouth is.

"A check from Hillary Clinton's HILLPAC is being cut to Ned Lamont for five thousand dollars. She's the first one to be counted on and make good on her promise to support the winner of the Connecticut primary. We can only hope that the rest of the Democratic Party stands behind Ned in his bid to win the Senate seat."

by John Mills 2006-08-08 08:56PM | 0 recs
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No more weenies!

No more weenies!
No more weenies!
No more weenies!

(Cocktail, that is...)  ;-)

by palamedes 2006-08-08 08:44PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Chris, Matt, and the rest of the gang up there -- you guys absolutely rock. Great job! I enjoyed my three days up in Connecticut this weekend; wish I'd been there for the big finish, but duty called.

 I went off to a bar in downtown Frederick (MD) with a friend to catch the results. My guess is that the bar TV had never been set to C-Span before, as evidenced by the quizzical looks coming from the other patrons. We got prematurely giddy when we saw that 56-44 spread early on, then sweated it out as it narrowed to 52-48 by halftime. And then the drip, drip, drip of the results had us freaking out for the next hour and a half.

 Then, finally, at long last, we toasted Ned's victory with some brandy. Kickass speech, too! It washed away the offensiveness of Joementum's sore-loser whinefest.

 It feels SO good to win one! DC is quaking.

 

by Master Jack 2006-08-08 08:46PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

I think it's time to make a new icon for the top left of the main page. The progressive movement has a new hero.

by who threw da cat 2006-08-08 08:47PM | 0 recs
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Warner Wins, Feingold Wins, Dean Wins

Vichy Democrats now have real reason to fear. Hillary Inc. is painted into a corner. Mapchangers and Progressive Patriots unite to have a really great day tomorrow.

by risenmessiah 2006-08-08 09:31PM | 0 recs
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Joe Mama!

So, Lieberman loses the election but vows to fight on, selflessly refusing to allow the Democratic voters of the state of Connecticut to deprive our country, nay, the world of Joe Lieberman (and our our nearly only source of hoakey new words beginning with "j-o-e.")! Says Lieberman, "This will not stand."

What a putz.

by CalD 2006-08-08 09:43PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Just got back from Ned's acceptance speech. This makes up for the '04 Kerry defeat, which left me depressed for 3 months. Now I'm going to be high on life all the way to November. It's great to win one.

by johnalive 2006-08-08 09:45PM | 0 recs
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No Hillary; Edwards is first dem leader to call

NYTimes reports the following...

John Edwards was first to call & congratulate:

"Mr. Lamont said that former Senator John Edwards, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2004, was the first Democratic leader to call him last night."

Clintons are basically mute:

"A spokeswoman for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, restated Mrs. Clinton's announced intentions to support the Democratic nominee in Connecticut -- now Mr. Lamont. A spokesman for former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for Mr. Lieberman last month, did not return a phone message late last night."

Reed and Schumer are on the right page:

"The Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, and Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who is leading the effort to elect more Democrats in November, planned to announce this morning that they were supporting Mr. Lamont and that the party should unite around the nominee, according to Democrats close to both men."

Dodd is embracing Lamont, but won't discourage Lieberman's eccentric independent run:

"Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, Mr. Lieberman's Democratic ally, privately congratulated Mr. Lamont last night and was expected to appear at a "unity press conference" with Mr. Lamont and other candidates at state party headquarters this morning. Two Lamont advisers said that they expected Mr. Dodd to help smooth Mr. Lieberman's exit from the race; a spokeswoman for Mr. Dodd, however, said he would not play a go-between role to broker the senator's exit."

It is great that Hillary is going to support him, but with what face? Should the support of the second biggest democratic hawk in the senate (first being lieberman) even count?

Hillary Clinton is a worried old politician tonight.  She must be figuring out how to triangulate her way out of this situation (the growing disapproval of the war by Americans) if she is to have any clout in 2008.  Good Luck, Senator.

It was a historic night, indeed.

by zeitgeistrover 2006-08-08 10:07PM | 0 recs
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Hillary supporting Lamont =

Hillary not supporting Lieberman.

Considering that the polling for the general indicated that Lieberman would win in a three-way, keeping the "centrists" from backing Joe is essential to finishing what was started tonight.

Granted, that polling was done before Joe lost the primary, but it's still going to be an uphill climb for Lamont.

by catastrophile 2006-08-08 10:18PM | 0 recs
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Re: Hillary supporting Lamont =

I agree that Lamont has a huge task in front of him.

Yet, I don't think that Hillary Clinton's endorsement of Lamont makes or breaks anything.  I appreciate, however, her support.

My point though was about Mrs. Clinton herself: Where does this leave her? She is the only national figure I can think of who still has not apologized for her negligence in voting for this war.  

Don't you think there would be something just a little odd about having Lamont (a guy who won solely (arguably) by championing a withdrawl from Iraq) campaign with Hillary Clinton (a national democrat from a deep blue state who still can't say the words "I was wrong." ) ??

I am all for Hillary's support of Lamont, yet, I don't think Hillary can get off the hook by just scolding Rummy and putting her money with the Lamont campaign.

This was a very symbolic election.  Hillary can't revel in the symbolism until she actually comes over to the sane side (where most democrats, republicans, and independents stand today) and apologizes for her vote, as others have done.

And, I bet that the Clintons, master politicians that they are, are probably thinking about how to get Hillary on the other side of this debate (where Lamont is)....

My post was more about the national implications of the election.  This race is obviously bigger than CT and in some ways, it captures the overall struggle within the democratic party.

The positions of the folks in the NYTimes article sound all good to me.  In some ways, this is just the start...

by zeitgeistrover 2006-08-08 10:32PM | 0 recs
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Meh.

I think people are coming to recognize that Hillary's a crass opportunist but a bloody effective scrapper. I was heartened by the rumor that Reid offered to annoint her as the Senate Dem leader in 2008 if she'd not run for President.

The important thing is that she doesn't play into the Reep narrative of Dem division that will inevitably emerge if establishment Dems start backing Lieberman over Lamont now that the primary's over. She may not help much, but at least she's not hurting. Sometimes that's the best you can hope for.

by catastrophile 2006-08-08 11:56PM | 0 recs
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Huh.

"She may not help much, but at least she's not hurting."

For someone who is hailed as a democratic leader, and in some circles even as the party's standard-bearer, that is not good enough.  

If that's what we expect from prominent dems, then I guess the bar is even lower for the low-profile office holders.  

btw. The establishment is not going to support Lieberman.  They might be sanctimonious, but they are not entirely stupid.

by zeitgeistrover 2006-08-09 02:25AM | 0 recs
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Hehe . . .

My experience thus far indicates that it's never safe to assume that the Dems "aren't stupid enough" to do something. But in his case, you certainly seem to be right.

by catastrophile 2006-08-09 01:37PM | 0 recs
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How Much $$ Is Edwards Giving???

Hello - Hillary is giving Lamont $5K.  I'd say that is support and thensome.  How much is Edwards giving?

Like the media, I think many here are misreading the Lamont victory.  Iraq was a key and galvanizing issue but a major reason that Lieberman was defeated is he lost touch with his constituents by being in DC, serving as a Bush puppet and not wanting to talk with them about his positions on a host of issues.  DemFromCT had a great piece on this on DKos yesterday.  Matt has also done a fine job outlining this.  Voters will generally forgive differing opinions, they will not forgive being ignored and condescended to which Lieberman did in spades the past 6 years.

As NY resident, I am not happy with Hillary's stance on Iraq and defense policy generally but the woman has not lost touch with her constituents.  She is around constantly, is willing to talk with them at town meetings about her positions and fights tirelessly for the state.  She has also opposed Bush on a host of non-Iraq issues from the Roberts-Alito to bankruptcy to Bush tax cuts.  She is not perfect but she is not Joe Lieberman.

I will not support Hillary for President but I plan to vote for her both in the primary and general election this year.  

by John Mills 2006-08-09 05:56AM | 0 recs
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Had to mention my prediction

Lamont 51.75%

Actual vote:

Lamont 51.78%

by Winston Smith 2006-08-08 10:08PM | 0 recs
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Re: Had to mention my prediction

Wow!  If anyone can beat that, I want to go to Vegas with them.  

by Neil the Ethical Werewolf 2006-08-08 10:53PM | 0 recs
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Re: Had to mention my prediction

I know, I was off, but I think that after the absentee ballots are counted, the result will be closer to my my prediction.

by Winston Smith 2006-08-08 11:03PM | 0 recs
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Re: Had to mention my prediction

Nice!  I went back to the prediction thread, too, and saw you were soooooo close.  I was "way off" at 51.2%, but lots of others were closer at 52%.

It's kinda like a sports game, except there's not much betting.

by aip 2006-08-08 11:17PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

What is this....strange....sensation????

VICTORY!!!!

by Nezua Limon Xoloquinta Jonez 2006-08-08 10:11PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Congratulations to MyDD and the rest of the netroots. This will be one for the history books!

by nstrauss 2006-08-08 10:29PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Winston,

Good call.  Now let's start predicting how long it will take Lieberman to announce that he's pulling out.   He's such a prick that I don't think it will happen overnight, but my guess is 2-3 weeks and he is history.

by global yokel 2006-08-08 11:11PM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Congratulations to the MyDDers and everyone else who brought this watershed win to fruition.

by Sitkah 2006-08-09 12:04AM | 0 recs
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YEAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's finish what has been started.

by Pravin 2006-08-09 01:21AM | 0 recs
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Re: YEAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Couldn't have said it any better!  Here in Mass we are doing everything we can to make sure that Deval Patrick is the first Dem governor since Dukakis.  We have had 16 sad years.

by Andy 2006-08-09 05:03AM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Can someone tell the DSCC?

by pipe 2006-08-09 05:18AM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

haha, now you get the good, accurate articles:

http://connpost.com/news/ci_4154899

what, they couldn't print that before the primary?!?

by island empire 2006-08-09 05:27AM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Lamont-Lieberman has necessarily sucked all the oxygen out of the other CT races.  If it is allowed to continue, it will continue to suck oxygen away from Diane Farrell, Joe Courtney, et.al., and endanger the Democrats' chance to take back Congress.  Joe must get out now!

by Bob H 2006-08-09 05:31AM | 0 recs
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DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?

With Lamont's victory, I am so reminded of Al Michael's famous cry when the clock ran out of the USA's great hockey upset of the USSR in the 1980 Winter Olympics.  Actually, there is a nice duality to the two: heavily favored, "machine" oriented goliaths versus a more nimble, quick witted and honorable foe.  Yes, the good do really win some.

by Andy Katz 2006-08-09 06:17AM | 0 recs
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from turnerBroadcasting and heyAnita


Thanks for all that you do.

:-)

by heyAnita 2006-08-09 06:36AM | 0 recs
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Re: Ned Wins

Chris and Matt - great to meet you last night - great job!

by Karatist Preacher 2006-08-09 06:43AM | 0 recs

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