U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont got a boost ahead of next week's Democratic primary in Connecticut against Sen. Joseph Lieberman with an endorsement in Sunday’s New York Times.
Some reasons the Times (and left-wing bloggers) dislike Sen. Lieberman:
“He has shown no interest in prodding his Republican friends into investigating how the administration misled the nation about Iraq’s weapons….If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the lead in saying that there were some places a president had no right to take his country even during a time of war, neither he nor this page would be where we are today. But by suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support.”
The Times claims the anti-war, liberal-beloved Lamont is a moderate:
“Mr. Lamont, a wealthy businessman from Greenwich, seems smart and moderate, and he showed spine in challenging the senator while other Democrats groused privately. He does not have his opponent’s grasp of policy yet. But this primary is not about Mr. Lieberman’s legislative record. Instead it has become a referendum on his warped version of bipartisanship, in which the never-ending war on terror becomes an excuse for silence and inaction.”
Hmm. Perhaps this endorsement explains why the Times' Patrick Healy (as Tom Maguire found) didn’t exactly press Lamont on his membership in an “exclusive” country club in a story several days ago.
“For years the Lamonts were members of the Round Hill country club in Greenwich, but Mr. Lamont said he resigned his membership because he did not want it to become a distraction in his campaign. Mr. Lamont said the club excluded people because it was so expensive, and also said he was ‘a little bit’ concerned that many of its members were white.
“‘It’s not as diverse as it should be,’ Mr. Lamont said. ‘I didn’t pay as much attention to that before the race began, to tell you the truth.
“‘They don’t have any discriminatory policies,’ he added.”
And the Times let the matter drop -- a far cry from its concern for discriminatory policies at golf clubs during the Howell Raines’ era.
To show how liberal the Times position is, another prominent liberal paper, The Washington Post , endorsed Lieberman on Sunday with these words:
“But it seems that Mr. Lieberman is also being pummeled for his ability to work with Republicans and get things done in Washington -- also rare traits -- and that's a criticism that strikes us as shortsighted even from a partisan Democratic point of view.”
For more New York Times bias, visit TimesWatch.
