For two entire months last spring, Joe Lieberman was my life. Five days a week, nine hours a day, I wrote letters on behalf of Joe Lieberman, answered countless phone calls “Senator Lieberman’s office,” and even wore a little badge that declared me to be the property of his office. In short, Joe Lieberman was as big a part of my life as a Senator could have been without pulling a Foley.
That’s why it was as big a surprise to me as anyone when, three months later, I found myself voting not for Lieberman, but for Ned Lamont, a wealthy Greenwich selectman, in the Connecticut primary. But I wasn’t the only one in for a surprise that day; Lieberman, an 18-year senator, must have been fazed when Lamont defeated him by four points to become Connecticut’s Democratic nominee for the US Senate.
Nothing Lieberman did during my internship really impressed me at all. Admittedly, he towed the party line as well as the next Democrat, however, while Ted Kennedy was out on the Senate floor doing battle with the G.O.P. nearly ever day, I saw Lieberman speak all of twice on the floor. Even then, it was in the slow, self-important manner of someone who has become too comfortable in their senatorial digs.
So as I went into that cramped booth to cast my vote, the tiny, horned Lieberman sitting on my right shoulder appealed not to my political views but to my sense of loyalty. “Two months,” he said, jowls flapping. “We spent two months together. Why change now for someone you hardly know?”
On my other shoulder, angelic mini-Lamont was clearly agitated. “The war!” he squeaked. “The war, the war, the war!”
The voters of Connecticut heard much the same arguments from both candidates and the majority made the same decision as I did. While there is virtue in shunning partisan politics in order to really get things done, as Lieberman repeatedly pointed out, there is none in stubbornly supporting the bungled fiasco that is the war in Iraq.
After the primary, Lieberman formed an independent party, Connecticut for Lieberman, and it became a three-horse race—Lamont, Lieberman, and some crazy Republican named Alan Schlesinger. Little needs to be said about Schlesinger, unless you need a good laugh. He receives anywhere from three to five percent of the vote in polls, depending on what day of the week it is, is hardly supported by his own party, and was once caught gambling in Connecticut casinos under an assumed name.
As Election Day comes closer and closer, the Senate race in Connecticut is becoming less and less important by the day. Foley’s crazy shenanigans and the Republican leadership’s negligence might just have handed the Democrats the House and have definitely put the Senate on the line. After twelve years of being in the minority, there’s a bit more at stake in this election for the Democrats than a little feud in the nutmeg state.
As for me, the last time I felt a real connection to the race was the day I moved into my dorm at Georgetown. As I was walking towards the registration tent on Copley lawn that day, I was shocked to see a familiar figure walking down the path towards me, flanked by two of his aides. “How the hell have you been, Senator Lieberman?” I wanted to ask. “Shouldn’t you be in Connecticut, I don’t know, not losing?” I would joke. But as I raised my hand to wave, he looked right past me and kept walking, deep in conversation with his companions.
Fair enough, I thought. Time to move on. Joementum may ebb and flow and political newcomers will rise and fall However, I’ve got my freshman year of college ahead of me, and the Democratic party has the best shot at taking Congress back its had in twelve years and we’ve both got bigger fish to fry.
