2010 Elections
The return of Ned Lamont
As the revolt in the GOP base gets all the attention, a reminder of when it was the Democrats fighting
Right now, all the buzz about intra-party warfare is focusing on the GOP. But just a few years ago, it was the Democrats who were fighting over the direction of their party, and now a guy who knows a little something about those days is considering a return to the fray, albeit in a different sort of way.
Businessman Ned Lamont, who challenged Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and beat him in the 2006 Democratic primary before taking him on again in the general election and losing, may be returning to Connecticut politics. In a statement released Wednesday, Lamont said he’s forming an exploratory committee as he decides whether to run for statewide office.
For any of you out there hoping for a Lamont-Lieberman rematch, don’t get your hopes up yet. Based on his statement, it appears that Lamont’s looking to take on Gov. Jodi Rell, a Republican, next year.
Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.
Is Nikki Haley’s book full of lies?
Supposed Romney running mate front-runner under fire for memoir distortions
Nikki Haley (Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer) Hm. As Mitt Romney begins to seriously consider running mates, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley again finds herself under fire. This time, the State newspaper has taken her to task for twisting the truth in her memoir, “Can’t Is Not an Option.” (That is for real the title of her memoir.)
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Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.
Voting, not OWS, will change America
A low progressive turnout in 2010 got us into this mess. We can't let that happen again
An Occupy Wall Street protester at a demonstration at Times Square on Oct. 15. (Credit: Reuters/Allison Joyce) Take a close and objective look at the angry demonstrators now gathered on Wall Street, and at similar protest encampments burgeoning from San Francisco to Madrid. What you see is not simply a vast expression of rage at the crisis enveloping the world of democracy.
The demonstrations also frame a fundamental contradiction – a profound source of strength that has been transformed into a disabling weakness.
They deserve enormous credit for drawing a global spotlight to the perpetrators of that crisis: a sinister cabal of financial scamsters and right-wing politicians, backed by the dubiously “grass-roots” electorate of the Tea Party. What almost no one, on the right or left alike, wants to talk about is that the cabal was empowered by the very people who are now denouncing it.
Continue Reading CloseKarl Rove begins general election campaign without pesky candidate
The GOP's most famous strategist doesn't need to wait for an actual nominee to begin the anonymously funded attack
(Credit: iStockphoto/Andrewyuu/AP/Salon) From the publisher who hates dealing with flaky authors to the football coach who dreams of his brilliant plays being run without unreliable players, high-powered professionals everywhere wish they could stop the fallible human element from interfering with their genius. Karl Rove, campaign strategist extraordinaire, is no different. How much easier it is to manage a campaign without a stupid candidate ruining everything by having an long-buried arrest record or saying something obscene into an open microphone! Thanks to Citizens United, Rove’s dream has come true: The candidate-less presidential campaign has begun.
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Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.
Blanche Lincoln joins conservative lobby in fight against EPA
After the party and the White House failed to save her Senate seat, the ostensible Democrat aids polluters
In this photo taken May 25, 2010, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., is interviewed at her campaign headquarters in Little Rock, Ark. In the home state of former President Bill Clinton, and elsewhere, party leaders and structures are being bypassed _ undermined, in some cases _ by free-agent candidates who declare their independence from the political establishment while aligning themselves with special interests. "This is an election like no other," says Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, a union-backed candidate who has forced Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a June 8 runoff. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)(Credit: AP) Last year, then-Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Walmart) was facing a tough primary fight from a more liberal Democrat. With labor and progressive groups aligned against her, the White House and the Democratic Party jumped in to defend Lincoln. Bill Clinton himself campaigned for Lincoln, and the effort paid off: She lost to a Republican in the general election. And then she joined a right-wing interest group. And now she’s fighting the EPA’s plan to regulate greenhouse gases.
The National Federation of Independent Business is generally treated in the press as the official practically apolitical voice of American small business (and the press treats the word of “small business” with almost as much reverence as that of military generals) but it is, in fact, a conservative lobbying organization that has spent decades fighting for anti-labor, anti-environmental and anti-consumer policies, all in the name of protecting our cherished “independent businesses.”
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Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.
Christine O’Donnell just walked off CNN because she was running late
Plus, the book-promoting election loser calls the president "a strapping young man"
Piers Morgan and Christine O'Donnell It seems pretty obvious that Christine O’Donnell “walking off” that CNN show hosted by the oleaginous talent show judge and former phone-hacker was a put-on, right? Not like it was “scripted,” per se, but it certainly wasn’t a spontaneous decision inspired by a particularly outrageous line of questioning. Anyone can come up with something anodyne and vague to say about gay marriage — the president does it all the time! — if one doesn’t feel like offering a decisive opinion. So Christine O’Donnell obviously left for other reasons. Publicity for her book? In part, probably. But was she also just … late for another appointment?
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Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.
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