Ned Responds to Joe

By CHRISTINE STUART
www.ctnewsjunkie.com

As support against the war in Iraq mounted U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman’s comments about the war seemed to morph, anti-war candidate, Ned Lamont pointed out Monday in his closing argument.

Lamont’s comments were in response to Lieberman’s closing arguments given at his Hartford headquarters Sunday night.

“Make no mistake, no one wants to get our troops home faster than I do. The last thing I want is more war,” Lieberman said Sunday.

Lamont pointed out how Lieberman has opposed setting a schedule to bring the troops home “every step of the way.”

“This war is wrong. It’s hurting our country…and it’s time to bring our troops home,” Lamont told a group of labor supporters in Hartford.

Lamont pointed out how insincere it was for Lieberman to say he wants to bring the troops home, a day before the election when his 10-point plan calls for increases in military personnel.

Lieberman has said that he wanted to triple the number of U.S. soldiers embedded in Iraqi units and called on the U.S. to get tougher with Iraqi leadership. “Lamont’s plan is not a plan for changing course. It is a plan for giving up in Iraq,” Lieberman told a room of veterans in September.

“The Iraqis need to know that ours is not an open-ended commitment. The Iraqis need to take responsibility for their own future. They will not do so until we make it clear that their fate is in their hands, not ours. They must carry the responsibility of creating a workable political outcome, and they must own the outcome,” Lamont concluded in his September policy speech on the war.

As the campaigns come to a close, emotions on both sides have run high. Lamont said he was proud of the way his campaign supporters have handled themselves. He said as he tours college campuses young people come up to him to give him hi-fives and say “so do we,” a campaign slogan echoed in his television ads.

Lamont said the last thing this country needs is “career politicians like Joe Lieberman.” Lieberman has run negative campaigns based on Lamont’s experience as a businessman.

But Lamont has not backed down. He said if more people like him, someone outside the political mainstream, were elected “I think we’d make very different choices in Washington DC.”

Lieberman has trumpeted his ability to get things done in Washington DC based on his seniority as a three-term incumbent even though when he was first elected he promised not to hold office for more than three terms. He’s currently running for a fourth.

“If you want to send a real message of positive change to Washington DC, send me,“ Lieberman said Sunday. Lamont said he agreed with the first part of the sentence.

As for those pesky polls that have Lamont trailing Lieberman by about 12 points, “I just think the Q-Poll is dead wrong,” Lamont said Monday referring to the Quinnipiac University poll.