FULL DISCLOSURE: Lanny Davis and I lit farts discussed the great philosophers together when we were at Yale and I hold a warm and fuzzy place for him in my heart.
Lanny Davis, by and large, did a nice lawyerly job standing in for his old friend (and current client?) Joe Lieberman. Like the accomplished lawyer that he is, he placed great importance on "facts" and semantic nuance. ("You claim my client was sh*t-faced drunk and yet you admit you never actually observed sh*t on his face!")
Lanny's unfamiliarity with the ins and outs of the race showed, as when he insisted that Joe had never said that he hadn't given the congressional races much thought, when everyone in the room knew that the remark had been widely reported and not challenged by the Lieberman camp.
More tellingly, he did such a good job of defending Joe from the charge that he is George Bush's butt boy, that those lucky enough to be in the room got a whole litany of reasons why Republicans, conservatives, and a wide swath of independents shouldn't vote for Joe.
Still, it was a pleasure to have that whiny drone replaced by the Ciceronean exactitude of a practiced advocate. (Lanny Davis, you will remember, was the guy trotted out to speak in Bill Clinton's defense when he was thigh-deep in the Lewinsky embroglio and he acquitted himself admirably. Whatever it was they paid him for that gig, it wasn't enough. I trust he's now getting his fair share of Joe's slush fund although, knowing Lanny, he just might be doing it for auld lang syne.)
Irv Stolberg, standing in for Ned Lamont, was far and away the most passionate of the three. In fact, he brought to the proceedings some of the fire in the belly that a few folks wish they saw more of in Ned. Stolberg, who had a 22 year history in the Connecticut House and who now works with the United Nations Association, is a long-time friend of Joe's and so made a good choice as Ned's surrogate. There was something delicious about the way he prefaced some of his sharpest stiletto stabs with fulsome praise of the "dear friend" he has known all these years. Marc Antony couldn't have done it better, and Antony had a great ghost writer
His enthusiasm got the best of him at times, as when he suggested that Dick Cheney should go to prison -- a consummation devoutly to be wished to be sure, but one which Lamont has said he wouldn't seek. But most of the time he was dead on the money. One of his best moments came when a fresh-faced Lieberman campaign worker (whose secret identity was revealed by the debate moderators) asked what he thought was a great a gotcha question about Ned's contradictory (to this nitwit, at least) championing of union workers and global trade. Stolberg gave a ringing response that Lieberman surrogate Davis wholeheartedly agreed with, chapter and verse. Score another one for Team Lamont.
He returned again and again to the war and the criminality of so much of what the Bush administration has been doing to the country. But whatever the topic he spoke with the kind of fervor that bubbles up from righteous anger. Hey, when's he running for something again?
Once again, I am somewhat abashed to report, Alan Schlesinger stole the show. He wasn't as flamboyant this time out (maybe sitting calms him), but he had some of the best lines and he has this disarming ability to speak as if what's coming out of his mouth (odd as some of it may be) exists somewhere in his brain as opposed to on those three by five cards your high school debate coach told you the always have at hand.
There seemed to be a cadre of Young Republicans in the audience and they heartily approved of his defense of the Bush tax cuts. On the other hand, the Lamont supporters ate up his characterization of Joe Lieberman as a shifty politician who says one thing and votes another.
Afterwards, he claimed his internal campaign polls show his numbers at 25% and trending up, taking votes from both Lamont and Lieberman.
Kudos to the News PU for pulling off a debate with at least twice the content of the televised ones. It's amazing how much policy can be discussed when you don't have blow-dried twits like Mark Davis asking the questions.
When I left, Ctkeith was talking to Lanny Davis. God, I hope Lanny survived. |
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