Lieberman - "Fighter Of 'Big-oil Republicans.'"

Senator Lieberman, fending off a challenge from anti-war Greenwich millionaire Ned Lamont, has begun airing a radio commercial to firm up the Senator's environmental credentials.

The ad casts Senator Lieberman as a fighter of "big-oil Republicans." According to the Hartford Courant, in the ad, Patty Pendergast, an environmentalist, highlights Lieberman's opposition to drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

"The Republicans, all they want to do is drill oil and they don't see the ecosystem consequences," Pendergast said. "Joe Lieberman had no problem standing up to the big-oil Republicans. He was the leader on the arctic refuge."

The ad also notes Senator Lieberman's concern for Long Island Sound:

"He knows that Long Island Sound is Connecticut's national treasure and he has always worked to keep it a treasure," Pendergast says. "Sen. Joe Lieberman's Long Island Sound Stewardship Act will protect Long Island Sound for generations to come."

Meanwhile, the Lamont campaign is sounding desperate already. Lamont's campaign manager, Tom Swann went negative by calling Lieberman's for the Energy Policy Act of 2005 a "vote in favor of Dick Cheney's energy bill."

Lieberman was one of 74 senators who voted in July for the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The Sierra Club's Votewatch records Senator Lieberman as voting pro-environment 52 times and anti-environment only 5 times in the last five years.

In an interview with the Journal Inquirer Friday, Lamont said he already was weary of being described simply as a "Greenwich millionaire" or single-issue candidate concerned only with opposing the war in Iraq.

Lamont better get used to it. That's about all he will hear between now and the expected August primary.

Lamont, whose grandfather was chairman of the J.P. Morgan investment bank, Lamont says he is prepared to spend some of his own fortune on the campaign, but won't say how much:

"I'm no Jon Corzine," Lamont said, referring to the New Jersey governor and former U.S. senator who spent millions of dollars he earned as chairman of the Goldman Sachs investment firm on his and other political campaigns.

That's right, "no Jon Corzine," just an anti-war millionaire from Greenwich.

Comments

[Christopher Walker]

I have no idea whether the slogan "standing up to the big-oil Republicans" is going to help Senator Lieberman either in his struggle to retain the nomination or in November, though he's wise to do anything he can to remind people who've voted for him in the past that they may want to consider issues other than foreign policy when they decide which lever to pull.

I would think the slogan might see more useful play in the Congressional races in CT-2 and CT-5, currently held by GOP incumbents who've taken large donations from Exxon/Mobil. Democrat voters may think first of Congressional delegates from Texas or Oklahoma when they hear the expression "big-oil Republicans", but "big-oil Republicans" are prominent in the GOP delegations sent from non-oil-producing states, as well.

[Matt]

I'm sorry, but I have trouble taking any ad seriously that claims the sewage dump otherwise known as Long Island Sound is "Connecticut's national treasure."

It has a wealth of wildlife, and its oysters help Norwalk's economy, but until it gets even more cleaned up than recent efforts have accomplished, I can't call it a national--or natural--treasure.