Joseph Lieberman

It can often to seem to rank-and-file Democrats as if the Republicans are still in charge of Congress: Nearly a year after their party picked up 31 House and six Senate seats, the war in Iraq still rages, with tens of thousands of more troops deployed now than then. This failure to force even a beginning to the end of the war accounts for the painfully poor poll standing of the Democratic-led Congress, with the party faithful even more restless and frustrated than independent voters.  read more »

Where did it all go wrong with Joe Lieberman? Not so long ago, the then-Democratic senator seemed to represent the most mature and worldly strand of his party.  read more »

Maybe the 50 members of the Senate’s Democratic Caucus should just call the bluff of their 51st vote and tell Joe Lieberman to take a hike.  read more »

If Mr. Lieberman were to flip to the Senate G.O.P. now, he’d probably still be surrounded by colleagues intent on ending the war.  read more »

Senator Joseph Lieberman appeared on Face the Nation on Sunday, apparently with the primary purpose of rattling a saber in Iran’s direction.  read more »

Of the suggestion that Senator Joseph Lieberman will up and leave the Democratic Party for good, the  read more »

Joe Lieberman hints at switching parties over the Iraq War resolution.

Two more officials backing Hillary Clinton have financial ties to her campaign.

The groups fighting Eliot Spitzer's health care spending cuts are hiring.

They also have a new website.

GOP state Senator Serph Maltese said he was offered a job by Spitzer, but refused to take it.

NYS GOP Chairman said Vinny Ignizio's win on Staten Island Tuesday was "important first step for the Republican Party down the road back to victory in New York."

Dan Janison says that Mike Bloomberg's bullpen style of governing has not started a trend.

Aaron Naparstek has all you want to know about speed lumps.

The National Rifle Association will probably endorse a White House candidate after each party's conventions.

Rock Hackshaw congratulates the winner of the City Council race in Brooklyn whose "political knowledge seemed minimal at best."

More than 280 people have commented on the "find the illegal immigrant" game played by NYU College Republicans.

A Polish-name joke in the New Yorker has drawn criticism.

And above is a classic video of Rudy Giuliani circa 1996, courtesy of City Hall gadfly-cum-reporter Rafael Martinez Alequin.

-- Azi Paybarah

Will Tom DiNapoli join the Spitzer administration?

Click here for salary information.

Crobar, where Hillary Clinton and other people have held fund-raisers in the past, is re-opening.

Chris Dodd may not get much help from fellow CT lawmaker Joe Lieberman.

There may be a deal on judicial selection in New York.

Errol Louis reflects on MLK.

An anonymous commenter broke news on our site that an aide to Councilman Jim Gennaro, Dena Iverson, is leaving to take a job doing press for the new mayor of D.C. (She confirmed it.)

And pictured above are Craig Johnson, Eliot Spitzer, Tom DiNapoli and Tom Suozzi.

-- Azi Paybarah

Yes, Barack Obama is black, but he's really only half-black—"[my father] was black as pitch, my mother white as milk," he says in his autobiography. I think this may make him more acceptable as a presidential candidate. It's not strictly racism: Americans like to feel that someone is assimilating into mainstream culture before they award him with high office, they want to know that he truly cares about people other than his own tribe. Obama does not seem at all particularistic.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney is Mormon, which the Washington Monthly and New Republic say ought to disqualify him from the White House. "How Mormon are you?" a reporter once asked Romney. Maybe too Mormon, say the opinion journals. Point taken. John Kennedy needed to demonstrate that he was free of the Pope before he could be president. When Mario Cuomo was readying himself for a run, he went on and on about not cleaving to the Vatican on abortion.

And what about Jews? There's a theory that not only the Supreme Court cost Al Gore the 2000 election, so did Joe Lieberman's Jewishness. Gore couldn't win his home state, Tennessee. I'm sure some of this resistance was anti-Semitism; I heard some anti-Jewish comments about Gore's v.p. choice, Lieberman. But some of it was understandable: Lieberman is a nationalistic Jew; and I wonder "How Jewish" he is—that is to say, how he feels about his children marrying non-Jews, how important Israel would be in his foreign-policy considerations (high!). The first Jew in the White House is likely to be someone more assimilated than Lieberman, somebody intermarried, someone who makes a clear distinction between Israel's interests and ours.

In Esau's Tears, a study of antisemitism, UCal/Santa Barbara prof Albert Lindemann quotes Harvard scholar Ruth Wisse as saying that antisemitism functions "independent of its object." That is, it's a malady that has nothing to do with the reality of Jews. But then Lindemann notes that Wisse herself says that the "dynamism" of Jews in the 19th and 20th century has been "unparalleled." Wisse would know; she is a Harvard scholar whose son lately married Joe Lieberman's daughter, and her in-law is now one of 13 Jewish senators.

Thirteen Jewish senators. 13 percent, exactly ten times the actual JEwish population percentage, of 1.3 percent. Jews are an elite, no one can deny it, and the cool thing about America, if you believe in it, as I do, is that America doesn't mind that they are elite. America respects subcultures; it understands that Jewish achievement is a reflection of Jewish culture of learning. At a time when Ruth Wisse and Gabriel Schoenfeld and a host of others are wringing their hands about the new antisemitism, the number of Jews in the country's most exclusive club, the Senate, leaps by 30 percent.

The Associated Press has declared Joe Lieberman the winner in Connecticut, avenging his loss to Ned Lamont in this summer's Democratic primary.

Lamont lost the momentum in this race literally days after his stunning primary triumph-- when he took off for a vacation in Maine. His campaign manager's ugly verbal attack on the city of Waterbury -- a socially conervative Lieberman stronghold in the primary whose voters, late in turning against the war, could have been Lamont converts in the fall-- didn't help either.

-- Steve Kornacki

With word circulating that an exit poll has Ned Lamont leading Joe Lieberman, Dan Gerstein, Lieberman's campaign press secretary, says he's not surprised. "We expect this will be a two or three point race," he said shorty after 7:00. "It's going to be close." There is anecdotal evidence, Gerstein said, of higher-than-expected turnout -- "but not necessarily in places where Lamont is supposed to be strong and we're supposed to be weak."

For whatever that's worth.

-- Steve Kornacki

Running as an independent has offered Joe Lieberman the advantage of broad, bi-partisan voters. The downside, of course, is that his name doesn't appear until way down on the ballot.

Dan Gerstein, Lieberman's spokesman, says that 1,200 volunteers have been dispatched to outside polling stations to hand out information to inform voters know where to find the Senator.

He said that some anecdotal feedback he has heard suggests that voters already know where Lieberman's name appears.

"It looks like that message got through," he said.

He said that the campaign's latest internal polls show Lieberman ahead by about nine points. But, given the tempestuous nature of Connecticut politics, he conceded that anything could change.

"If certain things go Lamont's way," he said, "we could lose this race." --Jason Horowitz

Sincerest apologies for the absence of posts over the last couple of hours. We've been having some tech issues that are, for the moment, resolved.

And now, as we were saying...

If there was any doubt how Ned Lamont might try to revitalize his campaign, this ad should answer your question.

Here's what it says: A vote for Joe Lieberman means more war.

Back to basics.

-- Azi Paybarah

UPDATE: John DeSio, whose brother is in the military right now, has some strong opinions about the ad.

Quinnipiac throws a little bit of a wet blanket (a slightly dampened blanket?) on hopes of a suspenseful election tomorrow, releasing polls on three key races that show:

Alan Hevesi leading Chris Callaghan by 12 points; Bob Menendez leading Tom Kean, Jr. by 5; and Joe Lieberman leading Ned Lamont by 12.

-- Azi Paybarah

Less than a week from the elections, it’s getting increasingly easy to envision what for the R  read more »

Ned Lamont, Connecticut’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, crossed the rainy street alone.  read more »

Ned Lamont, Connecticut’s Democratic nominee for the U.S.  read more »

Today's Quinnipiac poll =out of Connecticut has Joe Lieberman leading Ned Lamont 49-37% among likely voters, with the Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger at 8%.

In the Oct. 20th Q poll, Lieberman led Lamont 52-35%.

Lieberman leads Lamont among likely Republican voters (73-6), Democratic voters (56-37) and among independent voters (51-36).

Q pollster Douglas Schwartz said Lamont's hopes of victory are, unfortunately, tied to Schlesinger.

"For Ned Lamont to catch Sen. Joseph Lieberman, he needs Alan Schlesinger to break out of single digits and take away Republican votes from Lieberman."

What are the odds of that?

-- Azi Paybarah

There's been no shortage of told-you-so criticism in recent days for Ned Lamont's Senate campaign, which, conventional wisdom now has it, has failed to define the candidate since his primary victory as anything other than a liberal insurgent backed by the blogosphere.

Commentators have seemed particularly put off by Lamont's television advertising. He never looked straight into the camera, they say, or told the general electorate who he was and what he was going to do.

Lamont himself doesn't entirely disagree. He admitted to me over the weekend that it might have benefited him to "get out there more," with messages that said, "This is Ned Lamont, this is who he is, this is what's it's about."

Well, the Lamont campaign just released another ad today, and it doesn't exactly do much in the way of defining Lamont. It does, however, suggest that Joe Lieberman is completely insane, portraying him crashing a black sedan, repeatedly, into a brick wall.

-- Jason Horowitz

As Ned Lamont's homepage makes a point of stressing, "It's all about the GOTV now." They're talking, ostensibly, about their own efforts, which are now focused on gathering as many names as possible to contact for help on Election Day.

But judging by conversations I've had with people within the Lamont camp, it's the Joe Lieberman GOTV effort that's on their minds. Specifically, they're obsessed -- perhaps with good cause -- with the matter of Lieberman's nearly $400,000 in unaccounted for petty cash expenses. Lamont's supporters aren't going to let the matter drop, and staffers, as well as unaffiliated Democratic consultants I've been speaking with, seem to find it genuinely extraordinary.

The Lamont campaign has a complaint into the FEC. It's safe to say they're hoping something big comes out of it. --Jason Horowitz

Out of debates and down in the polls, Ned Lamont is now accusing Joe Lieberman not only of enabling Bush on the war in Iraq but of creating a nearly $400,000 "slush fund" of petty cash expenditures. Lamont's campaign is filing a formal complaint with the FEC. (Complaint after the jump.)

"Only an 18 year career politician could dump almost $400,000 in cash into an election and try to call it petty cash," said Lamont's campaign manager, Tom Swan, in a statement.  read more »

Lamont has used a mere $500 of petty cash, according to the the campaign, although the candidate has pumped millions of his own money into the campaign. I'm waiting to hear from Lieberman's campaign, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that their response will include the word "desperation."

--Jason Horowitz

Calls for Alan Hevesi's resignation are coming in from other Democrats.

The Daily News asks if Hevesi is nuts, while The Post and The Times Herald-Record endorse Hevesi's opponent.

The "chauffeur" at the center of the Hevesi storm gets profiled.

Eliot Spitzer is poised to take back his endorsement of Hevesi, but not to ask him to resign, reports The Sun. Here is what Spitzer said yesterday.

The Times corrects a story from yesterday and reports that Joe Lieberman has in fact used the phrase "stay the course" in recent years.

Mike Bloomberg is raising money for Joe Lieberman at a Chicago fundraiser tonight, and is busy fund-raising for other candidates too.

Rudy Giuliani hired Margaret Hoover, a fund-raiser connected to Karl Rove.

Eliot Spitzer and John Faso agree on reforming member items in Albany.

And Rush Limbaugh goes after Michael J. Fox.

-- Azi Paybarah

Ned Lamont's campaign started off saying Joe Lieberman was too close to George Bush. Now they're trying to make the case that he really has much more in common with Richard Nixon.

In a new video, culled from last night's debate and stock footage, they have the Connecticut Senator morphing into Nixon and echoing his words on war.

"Lieberman is engaging in Nixonian deception when he says in 2006 that he wants to end the Iraq War, as he has opposed every single effort to end the war," says the Lamont Campaign.

The strategy here is debatable. Lamont won the Democratic primary, and now, presumably, has to figure out a way to win over some of the independents and Republicans who've been telling pollsters that they plan to vote for Lieberman.

Maybe Lamont's advisors figured it would be more resonant with those voters to cast Lieberman as a dishonest dissembler (by using Nixon imagery) than an out-of-touch conservative (by using Bush). More likely, they're just casting around, at this point, for a message that works.

--Jason Horowitz

National Journal bumps up Tom Reynold's re-election race from the 17th most competitive to the 11th. Which is to say it's not good news for him.

Mike Bloomberg is going to fly to Chicago for Joe Lieberman.

The GOP candidate for Senate in Connecticut is talking tough about Joe Lieberman, which makes Ned Lamont happy.

The Brennan Center's blog asks, "Are you represented by a Senate Democrat or Assembly Republican? If so, the portion of your taxes that goes to run the Legislature is going into some other district's pocket."

The Colbert Report becomes 'Must Not Do TV.'

Andrew Cuomo gets an endorsement.

Jerry Skurnik looks at the primary election results, election district by election district.  read more »

And pictured above is the scariest mailing of the year.

-- Azi Paybarah

Joe Lieberman's decision to run as an Independent in the Connecticut Senate race has forced Democrats across the country to decide whether to endorse the Democratic nominee or Democratic incumbent.

But Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey found a simpler solution last night, according to this fun story in the Times. Endorse both of them.

"In a written question from an audience member, Mr. Menendez was asked why he supported Mr. Lamont. Mr. Menendez said that his support of Mr. Lamont was a "mischaracterization," adding that he supported Mr. Lieberman's run as an independent candidate. "I wish him well and hope he returns," he said.

The Senator's comments, published on the Empire Zone, were then posted on Joe Lieberman's blog . Menendez' press secretary then called the Times reporter, John Holl, and asked that the senator's comments to be changed, according to the article.

So all this begs the question, what happened between Menendez' comments and Miller's call? One immediately imagines Chuck Schumer getting on the horn and chewing Menendez out. The DSCC isn't helping Menendez out in New Jersey just so he can help the competition in Connecticut, after all. The DSCC had no comment. (Lieberman and Lamont blogs have been bickering about the ephemeral endorsement all day.)

Miller said the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding and that really, it was all Kean's fault.

"He kind of comes up with this silly stunt, but it's more a sign of a sinking campaign than anything else," Miller told me earlier.

Whatever happened, Kean is happy. His campaign just sent out the Times article, in full, as a press release.

--Jason Horowitz

The origins of Ned Lamont's opposition to the War in Iraq can be found in his Calvinist roots and family genes.

That's the case Jim Sleeper tries to make here and here.

He cites "Calvinist currents of public obligation and individual conscience" in Lamont country and finds a correlation in his opposition to the war in Iraq with his uncle Thomas W. Lamont II's support of American involvement in WWII. As a 17-year-old Exeter student, "Tommy" Lamont spoke out against European Fascism and argued that Americans had a responsibility to stamp it out. He saw WWII as a "Good Fight" (and he died fighting it.) According to Sleeper, the War in Iraq is no such thing.

"Had Tommy survived, he'd be 82 years old now, and had he opposed the Iraq war in any highly public way, conservative political operatives and their writerly fellow travelers and apologists would be sliming him as shamelessly as they did such veterans as John Kerry, Max Cleland, John Murtha, and even John McCain."

As for Tommy's nephew Ned:

"He has told anyone who'll listen that he became Lieberman's challenger because he couldn't convince anyone else to make the race. But his courage in doing that reminds me of the uncle he never knew: Both have risen to a civic-republican standard which too many others have forsaken."

Joe Lieberman, one would imagine, would argue that his support for the war would make him Thomas Lamont's true intellectual descendant. But there it is.

-- Jason Horowitz

First, Ned Lamont is falling behind Joe Lieberman in fund-raising. Lamont has $330,000 on hand, compared to Lieberman's $4.7 million.

And now, Arianna Huffington is writing a theoretical obituary for him, blaming the consultants Lamont brought on board for dulling down a once-exciting campaign.

"The addition to the Lamont campaign after the primary of Democratic insiders Howard Wolfson, Doug Schoen, and Stephanie Cutter has been part of the problem. According to their poll-driven culture, one must move to the center and appeal to those in the middle. And, as a result, once-promising politicians are insidiously encouraged to lose their moral bearing -- and the authenticity that made them so compelling in the first place."

I'm not sure Arianna Huffington defines "compelling" in the same way as the average Connecticut general election voter. But still, it's surely not good news for such a prominent Lamont sympathizer to be engaging in recrminations -- even hypothetical ones -- three weeks before the election.

-- Azi Paybarah

The star of Ned Lamont's new television ad is none other than Joe Lieberman.

It is Lieberman's voice, back in 1988 when he debated incumbent Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr., that narrates the ad. "After 18 years, it's time for somebody new," he says."In this campaign I promise you I will not miss more than 300 votes."

On the screen it says "The Fact: Joe Lieberman has skipped more than 418 votes."

The Lamont campaign says that it is putting the finishing touches on the ad but it should be up at around 3pm.

According to the Lamont campaign, Lieberman skipped half of all votes on the Iraq War, missed votes on Medicare to attend fundraisers in California, and failed to vote once to fund the inaugural budget of the Department of Homeland Security.

We're waiting to hear back from the Lieberman campaign for a response.

--Jason Horowitz

Tom Reynolds cancels an appearance at a Pennsylvania fundraiser.

Alan Hevesi's spokesman can't say why his candidate isn't debating Chris Callaghan. "If Mr. Hevesi needs a ride, we'd be happy to pick him up so he won't have to use a state worker to chauffeur him to the debate," Callaghan said.

Hillary Clinton,who opposes same-sex marriage, quietly supports a bill to give insurance benefits to same-sex couples.

Mentioning the wiretapping scandal in Jeanine Pirro's own ad is "a way to become better known, and to play the victim, in hopes of drawing sympathy," says Patrick Healy. But the blockbuster claim that there was no wiretapping is "not yet supported" by the US attorney's office.

The Wall Street Journal says John Faso did a public service by getting Eliot Spitzer to make a no-new-taxes pledge.

Ned Lamont uses an old Joe Lieberman ad to make his case in a new ad airing today.

"After 18 years, it's time for somebody new," Lieberman says in the Lamont ad. "It's time for a change."

-- Azi Paybarah

A number of friends passed on the article in yesterday's Times where Joe Lieberman said that Ned Lamont was not committed to Israel, during a trip by the Senator to New York to raise money in Jewish circles. The challenger of course denied it.

This is good news: the issue is getting into the Times, and on front pages elsewhere.

The credit all goes to Walt and Mearsheimer. A few weeks back, the New Republic sniggered at the authors of the LRB paper on the Israel lobby, making it out to be a flash in the pan. Oh they got their little moment in the leftwing sun, how quickly they evaporated, was Marty Peretz's tone. Well he's wrong. This was a real bombshell that is reverberating. As I first reported last Sunday, and then as Gabriel Sanders reported in this week's Forward, FSG has given the authors a book contract (at last); and meanwhile the front page of the influential New York Sun has run an attack on Tony Judt, who had lately argued on behalf of Walt and Mearsheimer's views. These ideas are not going away.

I sense that we're approaching a real political moment; and good for Lieberman for putting the issue on the agenda. Let's have it out. Before long, who knows, maybe Chris Matthews will describe the settlements in the West Bank as what they are, religious apartheid, and Senator Hagel, or Senator Lamont, will ask, What effect these violations of the Geneva Conventions that we support are having on Arab hearts and minds... Am I dreamin'?

Today's Quinnipiac poll from Connecticut shows Joe Lieberman sitting on a comfortable 10-point lead over Ned Lamont heading into the last few weeks of the campaign.

Among likely general election voters, Lieberman has a "51 - 24 percent favorability rating, with 22 percent mixed."

Here's the catchy prescription from poll director Douglas Schwartz for Lamont: "He's going to have to do something different in the next six weeks or Sen. Joseph Lieberman stays in for another six years."

-- Josh Benson

Ned Lamont is finding out that sometimes it pays to be the establishment candidate. In response to more attacks from Joe Lieberman's campaign depicting him as a "waffler" on Iraq, John Kerry weighed in to defend Lamont and take a shot at Lieberman.

"No matter how much Senator Lieberman pretends otherwise, as we were debating a Senate resolution to change course on Iraq, our intelligence agencies were telling this Administration that America is less safe and more endangered by terrorists because of the failed stay-the-course policies in Iraq. There's just no excuse for continuing the old line that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror when in fact we know Iraq is a recruiting poster for terrorists while the real war on terror in Afghanistan spirals downwards," Kerry said in the statement. (Full text after the jump.)

Lieberman's campaign has been staying on the offensive over Ned Lamont's Iraq proposals in hopes of neutralizing the issue that the Connecticut millionaire rode to victory in last month's primary. Earlier, the Lieberman campaign ridiculed Lamont, saying he had taken "four positions in one day on the one issue of his one-issue campaign."  read more »

According to the Lieberman campaign, Lamont said that he still backed the Kerry-Feingold plan which calls for a comprehensive exit from Iraq nine-months from now, but also said he supported a timeline of 12 months, 18 months, or the time period that the military's generals suggest. This sort of attack wouldn't hurt Lamont, of course, if this were the primary and he were only appealing to voters who wanted out of Iraq. But Lamont also needs to chase Independent voters in the general, and Lieberman is betting that they just might be uncomfortable enough with him simply to "go with who you know."

--Jason Horowitz

A video of Bill Clinton's appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart is here. In discussing Hillary, Bill said, "If she ran and won, it'd be good for America."

The Working Families Party sent word that "Like Jonathan Tasini, the Working Families Party opposes the war in Iraq...[but] The WFP also enthusiastically supports Hillary Clinton for U.S. Senate."

Liz Benjamin interviewed Jonathan Tasini, who said he is not endorsing the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate.

Martin Sheen, the television president, will raise money for Eliot Spitzer.

Jeanine Pirro had a press conference today on, what else?, sex offenders.

Tom Robbins writes the obituary of Mark Green's career. "Of all the offices Mark Green sought during his political career, the one he lost last week was probably the one he was born to hold."

Jerry Skurnik digs up results in below-the-radar primary races.

Joe Lieberman leads Ned Lamont 45% to 43%, according to a new poll, thanks in part to a 47% to 34% edge Lieberman has with unaffiliated voters.

The Hotline notes John McCain and Mitt Romney are going after each other with less subtlety than they used to.

In the New York Times's new weekly political column, Political Action, Adam Nagourney says there's an upside to the Republican infighting over how to interrogate terrorism suspects.

It has knocked Iraq out of the news and kept the campaign story line precisely where President Bush and Karl Rove want it.

Rupert Murdoch will launch a Christian film production company called FoxFaith.

TNR covered "the first-ever press conference of the super-low-key commission on what to do in Iraq, chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton." News: Baker said the panel will likely meet with "a representative at a high level of the Iranian government" during this week's big UN meeting.

Panelists Errol Louis, Chris Owens, and others discussed corporate welfare at a forum hosted by the Drum Major Institute. One novel idea already underway in Minnesota is a new law that says "business that receives state or local government assistance for economic development or job growth purposes must create a net increase in jobs in Minnesota within two years..."  read more »

And pictured above is part of the New York Times 24-page supplement about their reporters.

-- Azi Paybarah

Before Jonathan Tasini announced his decision today to endorse the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate over Hillary Clinton, there was a lively debate on his campaign blog about what he should do.

Of the 75 commenters, most agreed with "Benno," who said that "Hillary has demonstrated that she DOES NOT WANT OUR SUPPORT!"

But another commenter, John Halle, warned Tasini risked looking like Joe Lieberman if he stayed in the Democratic Party while opposing the Democratic candidate.

Jonathan is required, technically, to support his party's nominee. It would be hypocritical for those of us who are criticizing Lieberman for abandoning the Dems when the vote goes against him [to tell] Jonathan to do the same. If Jonathan stays in the party but does not support the nominee, he will be permanently tainted, as Lieberman should be, by his sabotage of the campaign. Given this predicament, Jonathan should use this opportunity to withdraw from the Dems...

And in true Joe Lieberman fashion, Tasini's website now appears to be down.

Conspiracy anyone?

-- Azi Paybarah

Joseph Lieberman's campaign is having some fun with the fact that Ned Lamont accepted $100 from a socialist group, and then decided to return it because they don't accept all PAC money.

"What are they trying to do, avoid losing the support of the Karl Marx Fan Club of America?...On several occasions, Team Lamont have denounced PACs and the corrupting influence of the lobbyists who are often behind them, which is why he says he won't take their contributions. But he makes an exception to his principled rule for PACs run by politicians...So under Ned's dubious rules, it's unethical to take lobbyist's support, unless it's funneled through John Kerry.

Team Lamont, meanwhile, just released this ad featuring people wearing their coats inside out, a symbol of how Lieberman has become a turncoat to the Democratic Party by running as an independent.

-- Azi Paybarah

MoveOn.org hasn't been friendly territory to Joe Lieberman for some time, but some of the criticism of the hawkish "independent" Senator on its website has now drawn the attention of the Anti-Defamation League.

Lieberman's spokesman Dan Gerstein forwards this letter from the ADL, denouncing the tone of some of the comments on MoveOn's message board.

"Specifically, we would urge you to exercise your own First Amendment rights and issue a statement making it clear that your organization finds such message abhorrent."

-- Azi Paybarah

The New York Times endorsed Hillary Clinton for re-election, highlighting how she differed from Sen. Joe Lieberman after they both voted for the Iraq War. Lieberman stood with the administration; Hillary didn't. (Gloria Steinem, though, is not impressed.)

"All that said, she has hardly been a profile in courage...Mrs. Clinton's biggest flaw is her unwillingness to risk political capital for principle. That is not to say that she lacks principles, but whenever her moral convictions become politically inexpedient, she will struggle to find a way to cloak them in vague rhetoric or deflect attention with a compromise that makes the danger go away."

Chuck Schumer didn't give campaign money directly to Joe Lieberman, and didn't want too much attention for the help he did give Lieberman during his primary against Ned Lamont.

Political analyst Charles Cook said, "If nothing changes, I think the House will turn. The key is, if nothing changes."

Mark Green said he'll campaign on Sept. 11. And Yvette Clarke didn't report her entire salary from the City Council on her taxes.

-- Azi Paybarah

Using a third party line to get into the general election after losing a primary may be effective, but it does annoy party activists (as Joe Lieberman can tell you).

How would voters in Brooklyn's 11th congressional district react? We may soon find out.

At the CBS debate this morning (airing in a few weeks), Yvette Clarke said she would run in the general election on another party's line if she lost the four-way Democratic Primary.

A spokeswoman for Carl Andrews, who missed the debate, said they're focusing on the primary, but left open the possibility.

Chris Owens, through his spokeswoman, said if offered another party's line, he would consider it.

The only candidate to rule it out was David Yassky.

One line that could open up is the Working Families Party. They endorsed their own candidate in the race, but as the mayor's race proved, WFP candidates have a knack for leaving the line at convenient times.

-- Azi Paybarah

Yesterday, after the Joe Lieberman campaign mounted accusation of a partisan purge by Ned Lamont supporters, Lamont's campaign manager Tom Swan said he suspected that the person behind the effort to strip Lieberman of his registration as a Democrat was a peace activist named Henry Lowendorf.

This morning, Lowendorf confirmed in a phone interview that he is indeed leading the charge to kick Lieberman out of the party, and added that although he has volunteered for Lamont in the past "we did not seek their permission or tell them," he said. "There is a report in the newspaper that the Lamont campaign opposes what we are doing," he said. "Well that's up to them."

Lowendorf's beef with Lieberman is that he is "splitting the Democratic party. He is attacking and has attacked people who support Lamont."

Lowendorf argues that Lieberman is in clear violation of section 9-61 of the Connecticut electoral statutes: "Prima facie evidence supporting discretionary erasure or exclusion."  read more »

(The statute in question is after the jump. Decide for yourselves)

--Jason Horowitz

Joe Lieberman's website is "pretty much down -- minus (ironically) a YouTube video..."

Andrew Cuomo pretty much up. Up in the polls and uptown in Harlem, where he got a group endorsement from politicians there, including Charlie Rangel.

Ned Lamont could be up a bit if he gets an endorsement tomorrow from the United Auto Workers. Greg Sargent says that "could give Lamont an organizational and political boost at a time when Lieberman is leading in polls..."

Rudy Giuliani, who is high in the polls, raised $2 million. He also campaigned upstate for Rep. John Sweeney, or as Liz Benjamin calls him, "Congressman Kick Ass."

And going up at a press conference tomorrow are sexy vodka ads that were banned by MTA buses. They're now going up on taxis.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

The Ned Lamont campaign says that the accusations from the Joe Lieberman camp -- charging Lamont supporters with trying to strip the Senator of his Democratic registration -- sound a lot like the never-proven claims during primary night that Lamont supporters were responsible for the collapse of their overburdened campaign website.

"The Lieberman campaign should get some grip on reality before they start making baseless charges against our campaign," said Lamont campaign manager Tom Swan. "We had nothing to do with this. We don't condone it or encourage it. We saw this with the hacking accusations -- they continue to make baseless charges."

Swan added that the only name he had heard in relation to the effort to strip Lieberman of his Democratic registration was Henry Lowendorf, a member of the New Haven Peace Council who he says is unaffiliated with the campaign.

We asked Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein if he knows anything more than that. We are waiting for his reply.

--Jason Horowitz UPDATE: Dan Gerstein sends along Exhibit A about the Lamont supporters they're accusing of trying to kick Lieberman out of the party, with the following explanatory note:

Tom Swan asked for evidence that Lamont supporters were behind today's effort to purge Joe Lieberman from the New Haven Democratic Party rolls. Here is one cite we found from an online radio interview with Henry Lowendorf of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, which we are told was responsible for the complaint to the New Haven registrar. We will send others as we find them.

FURTHER UPDATE: More from Gerstein:

According to a report from the New Haven Independent:

Other activists signing Lowendorf's letter to Ferrucci included veteran activists Paul Hodel and Tom Holahan, a former Democratic alderman.

According to this posting on myleftnutmeg.com, Hodel was campaigning on behalf of Lamont in New Haven in July.

Joe Lieberman's campaign could hardly have scripted this better:

They now say that peace activists sympathetic to Ned Lamont are trying to revoke the senator's registration as a Democrat in his hometown of New Haven. The argument is that he stopped being a Democrat when he started running as an Independent petitioning candidate.

"This gives the lie to the idea that this is not an effort to purge different ideas from the party," said Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein, who referred to the activists as Lamont surrogates.

Lamont, obviously, can't be responsible for the actions of all of his supporters. But talk about off-message...

We're still waiting for a comment from his campaign.

-- Jason Horowitz

UPDATE: The Lieberman campaign has just released a statement on this (after the jump), while Lamontblog has a rebuttal, aimed primarily at Gerstein.  read more »

Jonathan Hicks introduces readers to the battle for the 57th assembly district in Brooklyn.

Joe Lieberman calls for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld on Face the Nation, saying: "With all respect to Don Rumsfeld, who has done a grueling job for six years, we would benefit from new leadership to work with our military in Iraq." John Faso tells the New York Sun the state Republican Party is "suffering from a leadership void."

A Sun editorial says Hillary Clinton has "has the luxury of being against 'luxury housing'" when it comes to her opposition to a plan for Brooklyn Bridge Park.

George Pataki goes on the attack telling New Hampshire's Concord Monitor Hillary Clinton is a polarizing personality, and "I fear that Sen. Clinton has focused more on the negative and on attacking, as opposed to coming up with any positive solutions."

Anthony Weiner attacks insurance companies holding back payments related to 9/11, which are "between $188 million and $390 million, should be seized by the state and turned over to the World Trade Center Memorial Fund."

—Nicole Brydson