| From my standpoint, I can't understand why we, as delegates to the state convention, should even be asked to consider a candidate who won't pledge to respect the results of the Democratic primary in August, and might try to screw us out of a seat. If he wants to run as an Independent, that's his prerogative, but he shouldn't be asking for our endorsement in Hartford next weekend. I've called and asked Reid to withhold any further support unless we get an unambiguous public pledge from Joe to not run as an independent. I've called Schumer and the DSCC and some others too.
But I haven't asked Joe or his campaign directly. So I decided to give it a whirl.
Called the Hartford and DC offices and left my questions about the NSA scandal and General Hayden. No word on the Senator's position. Big Surprise there. They gave me the number for the campaign office (860.244.2006).
When I called there, they connected me with a guy named Kenny. I shared my concerns about the threat of a spoiler run, and told him that as a delegate, I thought we should have that ruled out by all our candidates - Lieberman, Lamont, Destefano, Malloy, you name it.
Kenny told me that he had been present when Joe was asked that question and, "Joe has told us that he's going to die a Democrat."
I asked again, "That's not what I asked. Will he abide by the choice of the primary voters?"
Erm, huh, hah. Mumble mumble... "he's going to die a Democrat."
No doubt after some kind of deathbed conversion.
I asked again. He said it a third time. I asked if the Senator would make an unambiguous public statement that he won't run as a spoiler. Kenny got all mush-mouthed, closing with, "I'm not sure if an announcement is planned."
"OK, here's the deal," I said, "As a delegate, I'm not going to consider any candidate valid who doesn't pledge not to run as an independent if they don't get selected in the primary."
"OK..."
"How about the Senator make that pledge next Friday night? He can get up there and re-assure us all that he won't be running as a spoiler."
"That's a good idea..."
"But it has to be unambiguous. No weasel words."
"Uh, right. Sure."
So I guess we'll see what happens. In the meantime, all of you can make some calls too.
UPDATE [1952 EDT]: Just got off the phone with Kenny. He was concerned about misperceptions or misquoting. I offered to correct any misquotes, but he didn't have any specific corrections.
Kenny, I'm sorry if you felt like you were being "ambushed." That was not my intention at all. AFAIC, this is still an open question of great importance for CT Democrats. My question is now out there in the open, and the Senator's response will soon be too, I trust. But here in the blogosphere we do play hardball – or "ha'bahh" as Tweety says it.
But I will clarify this, since he brought it up. What I've written here is based on my recollection of the conversation, jotted down right after it happened. I did not have a recording, nor is this an exact transcript. Some portions are ellided or paraphrased, as you can see. He definitely did say "Joe Lieberman will die a Democrat" three times (at least). I invited him to register here and post his comments if he'd like to tell his side of the story. If he does so, please be civil.
Kenny did say this just now, which I repeated to make sure I got it verbatim: We are spending every single moment contacting Democratic delegates and Democratic voters. I pointed out that this doesn't quite answer my question. Kenny did say that he has no knowledge of any plans to do an independent run, and that to the best of his knowledge Senator Lieberman will bow out gracefully if he loses the primary in August.
That's very good to hear, and I will look forward to a public announcement of the same straight from the Senator's mouth.
D.
END UPDATE |
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