Joe Lieberman's 2006 primary campaign manager, Sean Smith, who accused Ned Lamont of hacking their website the day of the Connecticut primary in 2006, has been selected to be the new Administration's spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security.
If there's any federal department that needs truth-talking more than DoJ, it's likely DHS. Its serial errors throughout the Bush Administration are an embarrassment: color-coded politically motivated terror alerts; the utter failure to prepare for and respond to the devastation of the Gulf Coast by Katrina; its continued lunacy about airline passengers, liquids and shoe-removal; its managers' racial insensitivity; its politically timed and motivated leak about the Democratic presidential candidate's far-flung family; Secretary Michael Chertoff using undocumented workers to clean his own home; cruel immigration raids across the country targetted at employees but not employers.
- Sean Smith, Obama's Pennsylvania communications director for the general-election campaign and campaign manager on Sen. Joseph Lieberman's 2006 reelection, will be the chief communicator at Homeland Security.
Howard Wolfson is also mentioned at State.
So whomever thought this was a good idea, he'll now be serving under Janet Napolitano and presumably have some contact with Joe Lieberman. How charming.
The evil bloggers story. Chris Matthews talks to Smith like he's a retard (not a stretch by any means if this were the metric used) yet Tweety keeps talking to him. Later in the day even Matthews got tired of this dog & pony show.
From August 8, 2006. The Connecticut primary day. Clip is about 10 minutes long.
Will Yoon and other media outlets that reported on the "hacking" now update their stories? Don't hold your breaths.
If there's one rule of media and politics -- and this is what's truly Rovian -- is that the steno press (with a few exceptions) will uncritically parrot your talking points, smear attacks, and accusations, without you suffering the indignities of having that bullshit exposed for being the bullshit it is.
I remember taking breaks from pollstanding on primary day and the hacking story JUST WOULD NOT STOP. This crap is too easy for the MSM to pull, and it's too easy for politicians like LIEberman to get away with it. I just wish we'd hear about it on the news a little bit more. So far, no story on the courant.com website...
Smith, a campaign strategist who came from out of state to lead Lieberman's team, will teach the political science seminar "Modern Political Campaigns." Following the August loss, Lieberman fired his campaign staff, replacing Smith with Sherry Brown, who had run some of his previous campaigns. Smith, whose wife is Susan Hyde, an assistant professor of political science, is now senior vice president at a New York political and communications consulting firm.
Following Smith's departure from the campaign, rumors circulated among students that Smith had decided not to teach the class. The rumors started after some students noticed he was not listed as the course's instructor on the University's Online Course Information Web site, though he was listed in the print edition of the Blue Book. But political science professor David Cameron, the department's director of undergraduate studies, said the omission of Smith's name from OCI is due to bureaucracy: His name cannot be listed until his appointment becomes official, and his appointment will not begin until the spring semester.
Other students, mostly Democrats, questioned the value of a campaign strategy class taught by someone whose choice of strategy ultimately proved unsuccessful.
"It's kind of like if after David fought Goliath, Goliath went on to teach a class about how to use a slingshot," said Brendan Gants '08, president of the Yale College Democrats, who have endorsed Lamont.
From: Sean Smith, Campaign Manager
Subj: Final Push to Victory!
With less than a month until Primary Day, our offices around the state are buzzing with energy. Friends like you have turned out to volunteer on weekends, after work—even during your lunch break! Thanks so much for all you do.
Senator Lieberman is a national figure, and our fight for Connecticut's future has taken on national importance. Volunteers are signing up from around the country to help re-elect Joe, and most of these folks will be driving up and flying in the weekend before August 8th. Can you help these hard workers by giving them a place to stay?
Let us know if you can contribute supporter housing for a volunteer!
These volunteers are giving up vacations and weekends to fight for the future of Connecticut. Please welcome them while they're here.
Let us know if you can contribute supporter housing for a volunteer!
Your contributions of time, hard work, and financial support keep us going every day. Thanks again, and I hope to see you on the campaign trail.
Erik Campano, who interviewed me and Neal Fink a while back, is turning his rapier-edged talking points on Lieberman campaign manager Sean Smith this weekend on his radio show. Air times are:
95.9 FM The Fox: 7:30 AM Sunday
96.7 FM The Coast: 7:00 AM Sunday
1400 AM WSTC / 1350 AM WNLK: 7:00 PM Saturday, 1:30 PM Sunday
The studio's in Norwalk and the AM stations don't have huge reach. 95.9 "The Fox" streams live on the 'Net however. For those who'd prefer not to be up at 7:30 Sunday morning (a number which, I dare say, includes the entire civilized world), there is a shareware program for recording Internet feeds. Here's a link:
Grasping at straws yet again, Sean Smith is trying to make something of the fact that Ned Lamont made supportive remarks about one of two Democratic proposals on Iraq.
There's been a fair amount of speculation about the identity and background of Sean Smith, Joe Lieberman's singularly inept and message-challenged campaign manager. Turns out Sean is -- or at least fancies himself to be -- a master at political communication.
Sean has pioneered a communications technique known as “impression management.” Based on the premise that it is the low-information, episodic voter that swings elections—and that those voters only make broad impressions of candidates—Sean has developed an innovative approach to political communications. He has successfully applied these principles to issue campaigns and general communications campaigns.
Ah, it's the old "treat the voters like brain-dead sheep" ploy. Works every time.
Also of note, while Joe's Smith-managed campaign is telling Connecticut Dems that a primary would be bad, bad, bad for the party and the state, Smith is also advising Chicago alderman Edwin Eisendrath on his primary challenge to Dem Governor Rod Blagojevich in Illinois.
Which all goes to prove, it takes a hypocrite to manage the campaign of a hypocrite.
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