Conn. Job

Here's an interesting look at what's going on in the Lieberman v. Lamont race. From MyDD:

This Lieberman-Lamont race is becoming exceptionally important, because it's the most high-profile of a series of clashes between two different ways of doing politics. The bear ad, and the ad man named Carter Eskew who is the consultant behind it, unwittingly reveals a lot about what's going on in both DC and in Connecticut.

Which brings me to Carter Eskew's bear ad (at the link - G). The ad is a judgment failure on Eskew's part. The ad works on one level - it would convince Joe Lieberman to vote for Joe Lieberman, for instance. But for normal non-machine people who don't see Lowell Weicker's 1988 loss through the same earth-shattering lens, it doesn't make any sense.

For Lieberman, however, and Carter Eskew, Weicker is the opponent. Lieberman is a machine politician, and Carter Eskew is a DC machine lobbyist. Their memory is long, sharp, and out of sync. Lieberman's last real Senate race was in 1988, but that's how he won it, so that's how he'll win this one. Now, I'm not from Connecticut, so I can't pretend to know a great deal about lingering feelings about Lowell Weicker and whether the ad stings in some non-obvious Connecticut-specific way. My guess is that it doesn't, because people don't really care that much about someone who hasn't been in office for many years. Political machines, though, have long memories, and are always fighting the last war.

These K-Street Democrats have a lot of power, and they are angry at the Lamont challenge because it's a direct threat to their revenue stream. And in Carter Eskew, you can see how tied together these machine people and lobbyists really are. I know it's hip to say that Lamont is not a single-issue candidate, but it's true in a deeply fundamental way. The Lamont challenge is a direct attack on how DC does business.

Also, I think the Democratic Party doesn't want to give up Holy Joe's 'time in grade', so to speak. On one level this deal is about putting a village elder on an ice floe before he and his henchmen, who depend on him for whale meat and young girls, think it's time to go.

In MyDD's post, there's mention of former California congressman, and a corrupt Dem if there ever was one, Tony Coelho (a good California Portagee name, by the way). Playing the Kevin Bacon game, I can link to him in one move: we both attended Loyola University of Los Angeles at the same time and I met him several times. He was a BMOC senior and I was a freshman with a hazing target orientation beanie, but there you go.

It's a good post and you should go read if you're interested in the CT Senate race, and I know you are.