The anti-war tycoon splits Democrats
The Sunday Times (London)
by Tony Allen-Mills, New York
July 30, 2006
He calls himself a “man of the people”, but Ned Lamont stands out from the crowd - and not just because a well-known New York radio host recently described him as a “bug-eyed, pencil-neck geek”.
The scion of a wealthy Connecticut banking family, Lamont inherited one fortune, made himself another and married a third. His decision to invest his millions in a long-shot campaign to become a US senator has shaken the Democratic party and turned a seemingly routine state election race into a tantalising preview of the forthcoming presidential battles over the war in Iraq.
To the dismay of the Democratic establishment, and to the delight of Republican strategists nervous about mid-term elections due later this year, Lamont has plunged his party into a potentially ruinous debate about its policy towards Iraq - or what critics decry as its lack of one.
In what amounts to the opening shot of the 2006 election season, Lamont is threatening to unseat one of his party's best-known leaders in a Democratic primary on August 8.
Senator Joe Lieberman, who was Al Gore's vice-presidential running mate in 2000, had looked certain to win a fourth term in Connecticut, despite his support for President George W Bush's conduct of the war.
Yet opinion polls show that Lamont, 52, is riding a wave of Democratic opposition to the war, magnified by resentment of Lieberman's cosy relations with Bush. A photograph of the Republican president and the Democratic senator hugging last year helped Lamont to a four-point lead in the most recent poll.
“We have crazies running this country,” said Charlotte Koskoff, a local Democratic activist. “And Joe Lieberman is carrying water for them.”
The battle has brought unexpected turmoil to one of America's most prosperous states. Along the wooded shores of Long Island Sound live thousands of multi-millionaires, many of whom commute to Wall Street by speedboat or helicopter. They have supported Lieberman unswervingly for most of the past 18 years.
Yet it was within these gilded ranks that concern about his relationship with Bush turned into public rebellion.
In 2003 Lamont, like many of his neighbours along the so-called gold coast in Greenwich, Connecticut, donated $1,000 to Lieberman's presidential bid. But as it became clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - and that US troops were becoming embroiled in a quagmire - Lamont accused Lieberman of turning his back on Democratic concerns to preserve his special relationship with Bush.
“The president rushed us into this war based on false assumptions . . . and Senator Lieberman has cheered him on all the way,” he said.
Lieberman has long had a reputation for political independence and was once touted as a possible member of Bush's cabinet. A devout Jew, he is liberal on social issues such as abortion and gay rights, but has always been a defence hawk.
The 64-year-old senator was initially dismissive of the neophyte challenger who has sunk $3m of his fortune into a “troops out” campaign. Lamont has been vague about how US troops should be withdrawn from Iraq, but he has said he favours setting a deadline.
Yet Lamont, whose wife is a high-flying investment banker, has struck a chord among disenchanted Connecticut Democrats who had begun to despair that their party would find leaders prepared to make a stand against the war.
“No one has been speaking for us,” said Marla Sperling, a Westport teacher who attended a Lamont meeting last week. “I always liked Joe, and I know he's a nice man, but I'm so sick of him making excuses for Bush.”
Lamont also became the darling of an influential army of liberal bloggers who focused national attention on the Democrats' unfolding difficulties in Connecticut. Lieberman has threatened to run as an independent if he loses the primary, a move Republicans would portray as evidence that their opponents are in disarray over Iraq.
Among those alarmed by the prospect of a Democratic implosion in Connecticut is Senator Hillary Clinton, who has tried to steer clear of controversy on Iraq, but who has also upset grassroots Democrats by her failure to call for the withdrawal of troops.
Former president Bill Clinton arrived in Connecticut to campaign for Lieberman last week in what was seen as a return of old political favours. But Democratic insiders believe Clinton warned Lieberman not to run as an independent if he loses the primary.
At one of Lamont's meetings last week, one Democrat carried a banner with the picture of Bush and Lieberman embracing and the slogan, “Joe, kiss my ass”. Lieberman supporters have attempted to portray Lamont's advance as the work of what one of them described as “the demonising, hating, virulent, character-assassinating left of the Democratic party”.
Lieberman's team has also characterised Lamont as a rich carpetbagger who is trying to buy himself a Senate seat and whose life is far removed from ordinary voters. Lamont, who earned $2.5m from his cable television and other businesses last year, resigned from his exclusive Greenwich country club after admitting that it was “too white and too rich” for a would-be Senate candidate.
Yet Lieberman has been left in little doubt that he may pay a stiff price for being “George Bush's favourite Democrat”, as critics have dubbed him. The senator acknowledged last week that he was in “the fight of my political life”.
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