"The Kiss" trumps "The Hug"

by: Matt Browner Hamlin

Sat Jul 29, 2006 at 10:23:11 AM EDT

From the Hartford Courant:

Lamont sympathizers had posted Lieberman's schedule on Internet blogs, so Lieberman was trailed throughout the day by a pickup truck bearing two larger-than-life, papier-mache caricatures of him and President Bush re-enacting "The Kiss."

Also depicted on buttons distributed by anti-Lieberman bloggers, "The Kiss" is the infamous buss that the president planted on Lieberman after the State of the Union address.

The Lieberman campaign counterattacked Friday with new buttons picturing Clinton embracing Lieberman at the rally. They were labeled "The Hug."

At some stops, Lieberman volunteers handed out buttons that read "The Hug" and featured a picture of Clinton and Lieberman with their arms around each other.

The buttons mock what has been dubbed "The Kiss," in which President Bush hugged Lieberman and appeared to have kissed his right cheek after the State of the Union address in February 2005.

Lamont backers seized on that moment to illustrate their contention that Lieberman is too closely tied with Bush and Republicans.

And after weeks of being dogged by a papier-mâché float and buttons depicting President Bush planting a kiss on the senator, the campaign responded with its own image of affection: buttons featuring Mr. Clinton embracing Mr. Lieberman.

Also Ned Lamont will be at the New Haven Green with the Temptations tonight at 7pm. So will Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman, 64, a three-term incumbent, tried to set a new tone for the campaign's final 12 days. (His 10-day tour will suspend today and next Saturday in observance of the Jewish Sabbath, though he intends to campaign after sundown tonight at a Temptations concert on the New Haven Green.)