Any group that advocates for any issue? Would that include individuals? I wouldn't be surprised if it did. Yes, it has to be stopped. Maybe it's time for Lieberman to go. I've been thinking his primary challenger didn't have a chance, now I'm not so sure.
Lieberman Joust Fuels Bloggers, Spurs Donations To Foe
By MARK PAZNIOKAS
Courant Staff Writer
March 24 2006
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman dropped his usual air of imperturbability during a drive-time radio appearance Wednesday, snapping at the host over a column criticizing the senator and backing his challenger, Ned Lamont.
Six years ago, when Lieberman last ran for re-election, his comments would have had the shelf life of an ice-cream cone. But on Thursday, they only grew louder, amplified by Internet bloggers.
"Wow," said one hostile review on a widely read liberal site, The Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com). "Two weeks into his contested primary, and Joe `How Dare Anyone Challenge Me' Lieberman literally lost it on the air."
Whether the avuncular senator truly "lost it" is debatable, but Lieberman's jousting with radio host and columnist Colin McEnroe undeniably was high-test fuel for the blogs - and, apparently, money in the bank for Lamont.
The Internet has been largely a bust as a communication and fundraising tool for local and statewide candidates, most of whom have been unable to re-create the online fundraising and organizing success of Howard Dean's campaign for president.
But Lamont's anti-war challenge of Lieberman for the Democratic nomination is a notable exception, drawing attention from a national audience dissatisfied with President Bush and his conduct of the war in Iraq.
Online buzz about Lamont, who has been an official candidate for less than two weeks, already has helped generate $132,255 in credit-card donations to Lamont through a Democratic fundraising site, ActBlue.Com. About $10,000 came in Thursday.
"From time to time, there are events and we'll see little blips," said Tom Swan, manager of the Lamont campaign. "Sometimes it's from a series of postings on the Web, like this."
The ActBlue donations are almost entirely the result of bloggers, Swan said. Lamont hasn't even begun to aggressively raise money online.
The average online donation to Lamont has been $58.
"What's important out of that is not the dollar amount, but the number of donors," Swan said. "These are people who like to be part of the campaign and will give regularly and over installments."
The blogging flap Thursday had its roots in old media: a newspaper column, then a radio show.
Lieberman called in to McEnroe's afternoon program on WTIC-AM to take issue with a column by McEnroe published Sunday in The Courant.
"I'm a registered Democrat and, like a lot of my species here in Connecticut, I don't know whom I'm going to vote for in August," McEnroe wrote. "If I had to vote tomorrow, I'd vote for Ned Lamont, but I'd leave the polling place shaking my head, wondering what the hell happened to Joe Lieberman."
As have others, McEnroe criticized Lieberman for a speech in December in which the senator appeared to discourage dissent.
"It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war we undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril," Lieberman said in a speech that can be found on his official website, www.Lieberman.senate.gov.
McEnroe's take Sunday was that Lieberman was saying "that those who do not parrot his support are unpatriotic." The interview Wednesday began with McEnroe restating the gist of his column, which provoked Lieberman.
"I think that your statement just then is as ridiculous and unfair as your column was. I was really upset by it," Lieberman said.
Lieberman then accused McEnroe of taking "totally out of context" his line about undermining the president.
"It's outrageous," Lieberman said. "It's an insult to me."
Later Wednesday, McEnroe described the exchange on his blog at courant.com. By Thursday morning, local and national blogs published links to McEnroe's blog and to WTIC.com, where the entire 13-minute interview could be downloaded and replayed.
McEnroe said the episode was a "bloggable moment" for several reasons, including Lieberman's insult of bloggers during the interview, his special status as an online target of liberals, and his unusually blunt language, which the bloggers interpreted as fear.
"This little moment on our show, it wasn't a gigantic moment," McEnroe said. "It was a kind of moment [the bloggers] were looking for. They were kind of looking for a moment when Lieberman's famous composure broke a little bit."
Roy Occhiogrosso, a consultant advising the Lieberman campaign, said the blogs mischaracterized Lieberman's performance, saying the senator never once raised his voice.
"I think he was clear and concise and passionate," Occhiogrosso said. "And I think that's all good."
But Occhiogrosso and Swan agreed on one point: With the right issue and right candidate, the Internet can rewrite the rules.
"We're in a whole different world," Occhiogrosso said.
Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant
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