Lieberman, Sanders, Ned Lamont Cheney, and Kinky Sex

OK, OK.. there really isn't any kinky sex involved in this posting but it got your attention. Right? (And I'm sure the Bush-style Republicans would surely find a way to link kinky sex to both terrorism AND how poorly Democrats can prevent you from nasties like nipple clamps, whips, leather, and edible panties, all of which I think appear in at least one of Lynne Cheney's throbbing works of fiction.)

Anyway, I'll let the razor-sharp Philip Baruth tell you this as posted on his Vermont Daily Briefing:

Clearly Dan Gerstein — a faithful Lieberman retainer suddenly made Communications Director in the purge following Big Joe’s loss to Ned Lamont — believes that the Senator’s operation spent too much time on the defensive in the run-up to the August ballot.

And it’s a fine point: having your candidate yelling “I am not George W. Bush!” at rallies would seem to verge on the defensive, even the tetchy. But how to get on the offensive?

The attempts to echo Dick Cheney have proven a double-edged sword. Yes, they allow Lieberman to argue that a vote for Ned Lamont is like offering cappucino and biscotti to Al-Qaeda, but only at the cost of openly parroting the lines of a man less than half as popular as George W. Bush.

A man now best known for starring in the popular but short-lived reality series, “Who Wants A Massive Load of Buckshot in Their Face and Heart?”

Gerstein’s answer? Find someone more popular to echo. Someone like Dick Nixon. That’s right, add the Communist specter to the terrorist threat as a sort of boffo Vegas-style alarmist two-fer.

But of course, if you have in mind some serious red-baiting, you need to find yourself a Red. And with Fidel Castro laid up, that’s easier said than done.

Where in these United states of America can Gerstein lay his hands on a nice convenient Commie?

From the Connecticut Journal Inquirer:

“Dan Gerstein, a longtime Lieberman aide whom the senator named as his new communications director after losing the Democratic primary to Lamont last week, took aim at Lamont’s appearance Sunday on Fox News, calling it ‘a tad hypocritical’ after having attacked Lieberman for appearing on the same network.

“But then Gerstein posed ‘a question’ for Lamont.

“How could he expect to convince ‘moderate Democrats, Republicans, and most importantly, unaffiliated voters’ that he ‘would be anything other than a rigid partisan rubber stamp in the Senate,’ the Lieberman spokesman asked, ‘when the only proof of his independence he can show is that he is slightly to the right of socialist Bernie Sanders on fiscal policy?’”

Ah, there it is: Ned Lamont is slightly to the right of Bernie Sanders. Brilliant.

Forget that only three weeks ago, Lieberman was desperately trying to portray Lamont as a lock-step Republican. Forget that Lamont, with the exception of his stance on the Iraq War, remains a fairly centrist Democrat. For the moment, it serves Lieberman’s interest to portray Lamont as a fellow-traveler, and Bernie Sanders as the crazy-haired icon of creeping Democratic Socialism.

Make no mistake: we will see more of this, a great deal more.