Lieberman staffs up — with Schumer’s help?

August 18, 2006

Now that Joe Lieberman has lost much of his pre-primary staff — some were fired, some resigned — the candidate is filling critical campaign needs. TNR’s Jason Zengerle noted today that Lieberman has hired Josh Isay, who “has some Senate campaign experience with Chuck Schumer,” as his new media consultant.

There’s a bit more to this story. Considering the questions surrounding the party’s commitment to Ned Lamont, the details matter.

A source on the Hill informs me that Isay not only used to work for Schumer, but was also the senator’s chief of staff — and probably wouldn’t work for Lieberman without first talking to Schumer. Moreover, Isay is business partners with Bill Knapp, who has done media work for the DSCC.

There’s been a lingering concern for months about whether the party establishment, specifically the DSCC, would respect the Connecticut primary results. Schumer, in particular, hedged before Lamont’s victory about whether he and his campaign committee would support Lieberman, even if he abandoned the party to run against the Democratic nominee.

Schumer, to his credit, has endorsed Lamont, but questions remain as to whether the party is fully committed to a Lamont victory in November. Does Isay’s new role in the Lieberman campaign suggest Schumer is helping the former Dem behind the scenes?

Sure looks like Schumer is helping Lieberman with Isay’s employment. This could all be put to rest though, with 1 simple statement from Schumer expressing his displeasure with his former chief of staff working AGAINST his personally endorsed candidate.

Of course, don’t hold your breath until this statement comes.

This Lieberman thing is showing that their are politicians who put themselves before country, constituency or party. These whores are on both sides of the aisle, and ours will be showing their faces more and more through Liberman’s march to put himself above party.

  • Perhaps I’m getting jaded, but I kind of see a realpolitick advantage for these ratfink apparatchiks supporting Lieberman. I would almost be willing to keep quiet about the maneuvering by the Dem establishment in terms of this senate campaign. They want to keep in Joe’s good graces and maybe that’s okay if he is going to win anyway. Maybe I wouldn’t make too divisive a deal out of them doing so behind the scenes just to keep this particular disagreement low-key and a non-national issue.

    I’m afraid idealistic Dems could possibly, and rightly so, make this a big issue, but it would hurt the effort to take back the senate. We might snatch defeat out of victory once again.

    I’m not too comfortable feeling this way.

  • I’m afraid idealistic Dems could possibly, and rightly so, make this a big issue, but it would hurt the effort to take back the senate. We might snatch defeat out of victory once again.

    I’m not too comfortable feeling this way.

    There is always that push to do what is “good for the party,” but the question keeps coming up, “What does that mean if the party doesn’t represent anything?” There is no reason for any Democrat to support Lieberman’s bid. Anything support given to Lieberman is NOT good for the party. By letting things like this happen with no comment from in power Democrats just shows that it is not about what the party voters think, it is about what the Establishment thinks. Lieberman is abandoning the party. He can go ahead and run, but supporting him shows how un-unified the party is.

    If Democrats really wanted to show that they mean change, they would disavow Lieberman’s bid. As has been mentioned, this is all about the “Old Boy’s Club” the Senate is. Stand for the people, not for the power.

  • I may take some heat, but let’s see if we can’t figure out why these guys are so bent on thumbing their nose at the democratic process…

    Turns out Mr Isay used to be the spokesman for an Israeli PR shop*, which along with other right-wing Israeli bullshit provides a studio in Israel for scumbags like:

    Armstrong Williams
    G. Gordon Liddy
    Oliver North
    Glenn Beck

    They broadcast into the US to mold American opinions. They claim to be a 501C3 charity, even though they’re very political.

    America’s Voices in Israel is a recently established, US-based, not-for profit organization that brings American radio talk show hosts to Israel to broadcast their shows back home.

    America’s Voices was founded and is chaired by Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations…
    America’s Voices is working to enlist talk radio in the battle for Israel’s image.

    “It is by far the most effective and affordable vehicle in the American media arsenal,” Hoenlein says.

    http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/AmericasVoices/on_01.html

    Maybe I’ll be accused of being an antisemitic conspiracy buff, but IMO Mr Isay, Mr Lieberman, and probably Mr Schumer are all working harder for Israel than they are for the US. As we have seen countless times before, our democracy is not as important to some people as their status is with “The Lobby”.

    * http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0135,solomon1,27664,5.html

  • If Democrats really wanted to show that they mean change, they would disavow Lieberman’s bid. As has been mentioned, this is all about the “Old Boy’s Club” the Senate is. Stand for the people, not for the power.

    You’re right about Schumer working to maintain the “Old Boy’s Club.” He pressured Paul Hackett to drop out of the Ohio Senate Race because he favored the less confrontational Rep. Sherrod Brown. Brown equivocated a long time about running against Sen. Mike Dewine — he was going to run, then he wasn’t, and then when he saw the seat was winnable so he jumped in again. The Lamont/Lieberman race is the second time he’s backed an establishment candidate over someone from the grassroots.

    I’ve said this before: Schumer is proving to have terrible political instincts. Lieberman may win and prove to be reliable Democratic votes. But I think his de facto support of Lieberman is going to alienate the Democratic base.

  • At what point do we just throw up our arms and say “f*ck it.” There is a part of me that is about there now, but for a little voice inside of me that tells me that to walk away from the Democratic Party would be akin to turning my back on the American people and my ancestors who founded this country. I never thought I would be calling for a progressive third party, especially since I am fairly moderate in my thinking. But I think the day is approaching when those of us of the netroots will have to decide whether retaking the Democratic Party is a productive use of our time.

    The entrenched interests in DC and the media appear to be vulnerable to a challenge (a la Lamont), but I am not convinced that perception is reality. They (the interests) have plenty of power to exert in an effort to cling to their stranglehold on Party apparatus. Maybe we should just let them have their decrepit relic and start anew.

  • Triangulation is alive and well. Question to Shumer: If you aid and abet a Joe victory and all of us out here say “screw the party” by ceasing to send dollars, did you really win anything or have you lost something greater. … It’s not nice to fool with the rank and file of the party.

  • Here’s one scary thing. If Joe wins and stays with the Dems he’ll be the head of the committee that investigates the administration. If he wins and the Dems piss him off, the Republicans are likely to give him the same chairmanship. I don’t want kissin’ Joe Lieberman covering up for this administration.

    Joe is going to do damage whether the Dems support him or not.

  • It is a rather pathetic act, on the part of “professionals” within the Democratic Party, to promote the subtleties of supporting Lieberman over Lamont—when the one truth that lies beyond any means or measures of debate is that the Party exists only at the whims of the rank-and-file, and not—as they would have the People believe—the other way around.

    Now granted, I may live in Ohio, and the Lamont/Lieberman flap is “way over there” in a place called Connecticut—but I find myself contemplating the look on the Party hierarchy’s collective faces, were I to divert all of my financial contributions from the Democratic side of the Brown/DeWine issue—and start sending checks to Mr. Lamont’s campaign instead.

    The issue of Connecticut is no longer “just about” Connecticut; it is, instead, about what the Democratic Party is supposed to be about—serving as the representative voice of those who align themselves with the ideals and beliefs of that Party.

    For myself? It’s about 115 flag-draped coffins in Ohio, to-date, as the result of Herr Bush’s—and Herr Lieberman’s—untenable folly into Iraq. As I see this issue, the continuation of Joe Lieberman’s membership in the Senate of these United States is not only the greater danger—but also the greater insult to the honor and memory of those 115 Ohioans who “came home the hard way.”

    If people like Schumer want my money going into Brown’s campaign coffers, then they need to resolve the Lieberman issue NOW—once and for all—or else my money goes to Connecticut, and I’ll do my level best to get other Ohioans to mail their money to Lamont, as well….

  • If Sen. Schumer doesn’t get Bob Casey Jr. elected senator over Rick Santorum, then Schumer is “dead meat.” With Santorum improving in recent polls, Chuck Schumer has his hands full.

  • One thing missed by a lot of liberal blogs is the anger from the rank and file Republicans across the country w/r/t supporting Lieberman. Grassroot republicans are hopping mad that the GOP is supporting a pro choice liberal with an F rating from the NRA. LOL!

  • It looks very much as if Lieberman is getting ready to play the race (i.e., religion) card.

    I fear it could get quite ugly. As a party, this is the last thing we need.

    Lieberman should bow out before he takes this disgraceful and irrevocable step.

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