Video: Ned Lamont - Remarks Part 1 (5:45)
Let me just tell you a little bit about my race and why I'm supporting Chris Dodd and then I'd like to hear what's on your mind.
It was a couple of years ago and I was just a business person... It was really just a couple of issues that got me energized... The Terry Schiavo case with Bush flying back [to Washington] in the middle of the night... It was that Bridge to Nowhere as part of the omnibus transportation bill and everyone supported this...
And finally it was Jack Murtha standing up...
And it was then that Joe Lieberman said, "these critics of the war are underming the credibility of our president." And I said, "look we got into this mess not because we asked too many questions but because we asked too few."
Lamont tells us how he didn't get a lot of (any) traction at first in his discussions with party people in Connecticut about a run against Lieberman.
But then the Daily Kos which is a blog said, "hey there's this centrist guy from Greenwich thinking about challenging Lieberman," and all of a sudden all the main stream media came into my little office one day and they did that one day article that they do and it was, you know, "Ned Lamont mid-life crisis." Then they all left. Then a couple of days later the Hartford Courant ran a cartoon with a guy with eyes like a saucer and a big grin wearing a button that said "Ned WHO?" So I told my wife Annie, "this could get really embarrassing- we better get going."
So I went and got myself the most politically correct car in America: a Ford Escape hybrid. And my neighbor had a young nephew who was looking for a job, so I had my first handler. And we started driving the state.
We couldn't have gone anywhere without the blogs early on. It was Connecticut Bob and Connecticut Blog and My Left Nutmeg dot com, look I was 53 and I didn't know that much about blogs but they said, "look I don't know much about Ned Lamont but I know a lot about Joe Lieberman so why don't you show up at the Silver Star diner or Naples Pizza and hear what he has to say."
As Ned talked about the lack of institutional support he had in the early days, he likened his experience to that of Howard Dean in the early days of his campaign for president and Ned said that DFA is really the first entity that reached out to him. He said that at his first Jefferson Jackson Bailey Dinner Jim Dean sat with them and they "had a great table, right between the men's room and the kitchen." They had an uphill battle but they worked their hearts out and the rest is history. "Thanks to just grassroots support, no institutional support at all, thanks to MoveOn, thanks to DFA, thanks to the blogs and thanks to being clear on some big issues starting with the war we were able to carry that through right through to the primary."
Video: Ned Lamont - Remarks Part 2 (4:50)
That was an exciting day for us [the primary] and the very next day, I got a call from Chris Dodd. And he said, "look you won fair and square, I'm on board with ya'. I don't care what they say in Washington, DC, you know, what can I do to help?" Well introduce me around.
He said, "why don't you come to the Democratic picnic?" And you've got to remember that to the Democrats I was like Krytonite. But now they were all my new best friends.
So I said let's go down there, Chris, that's going to be wonderful. And I showed up in my Ford Escape hybrid and a minute later along comes Chris Dodd in his Ford Escape hybrid. And I really felt like I was part of the team.
I'll tell you a couple of things about Chris Dodd. He's been in Connecticut politics his whole life. I'm a guy who said that we need new energy, but Dodd is a guy that has gotten better in Washington DC. He's gotten better and you hear that where ever you go around the state of Connecticut. He's just beloved.
[The college Dems in Manchester said to me], "Well you're from Connecticut, he's from Connecticut - you're just cheering for your guy." Well I don't know if that's true, I've been doing some teaching at Harvard and if you talk to the cabbies in Boston ... about Governor Mitt Romney... my God they break into an expletive tirade that you couldn't put on the Imus Show. So not everybody is beloved in their home state. And the same is true about Rudy Giuliani.
Chris Dodd though, everybody has a story about Chris Dodd. That's what I found out as I went around. It's generally a small act of tenderness or a way he's helped someone out. Or just a funny story about Chris.
And now for a funny story about Chris Dodd. While campaigning for a state Senate candidate Dodd shows up in the official car with US - Senate 2 license plates. Dodd sits in the front seat to get some work done en route to the event and lets the candidate get in the back seat.
This guy [the candidate] was having the time of his life... Pretty soon this young guy says, "you know everyone thinks that I'm the senator, Senator [Dodd] because they're all driving by and waving at me and I'm waving back." Dodd says, "that's great, that's great," and gets back to his work. Then the candidate says "maybe I shouldn't have given that lady that obscene gesture when she drove by." The car schreeches to a halt, Dodd jumps into the seat next to him and says, "Let me show you how to wave." What I love about Chris Dodd is that's the type of story he tells about himself.
This is a guy that did not go to Washington and get more brittle or ideological and more arrogant or more distant from the people that he's representing. He's a guy that has stayed close to people and he listens.
Ned mentions the famous story about a very distraught mourner watching the FDR funeral train. When asked by a reporter if the man knew the president he replies, "No but FDR knew me." Ned continues, "and that's the way the people of Connecticut feel about Chris Dodd."
Look we've got extraordinary candidates running for President of the Untied States. No one is going to call these people the seven dwarves. I look at them on health care, I look at them on the war, I look at them on the environment and energy and I think they're all going to take this country out of the ditch and get us all going in the right direction, but I want someone who can connect with the American people... We've had some great guys run for president the last couple of cycles, I thought they were right on the issues I supported them... but they didn't quite connect.
I think one of the things that Chris Dodd is going to do is connect. And I see that in the streets of Connecticut.
Video: Ned Lamont - Remarks Part 3 (3:42)
Ned talks about how Chris's father was a prosecutor at Nuremburg and how this family experience has served Dodd in his life and informed his public service to the country. Many of our allies wanted summary executions of the Germans after the war. Diarist's note: Churchill is famous for demanding of FDR that the "Germans pay for the war." And not just the leaders, the German people themselves. This was before anything was known about Nazi atrocities.
And it was Truman and the wise men and folks like Tom Dodd that said, "No that's not what America is all about. We're going to have the strongest economy and the strongest military, but we're also going to be the best country. And we're going to be a country that has moral authority and respect and credibility throughout the world. And that involves staying true to ourselves and our institutions.
That's why those Nuremberg trials were so important and it's been a long way... to Guantanamo and Haditha and the illegal wiretaps and tearing up the Kyoto accords... And I think that Chris Dodd, whether you go for him or not, he deserves your attention... We look to you NH. We'll hear the sound bites. We'll read the position papers. We'll see them on the debates, but we won't get a sense of the candidates as men and women. That's why this primary process is so important. I encourage you to give all these candidates including Chris a fair shot.
Questions and answers. Questions are bold, Lamont's responses are in quotes.
Video: Q & A Part 1 (5:29)
Voting Reform
I know that Senator Dodd is one of the three key people that came up with the HAVA Act - Help America Vote Act. The attendee feels that this legislation has created an unverifiable and discredited voting system in this country by launching a "stampede" towards the purchase of touch screen machines.
Does the Senator have a position on how to correct this? Or how to ensure the integrity of the vote?
Lamont does not have a specific answer to this question. Lamont acknowledges that the voting problems in this country are wide-spread and pervasive over and above the ability to provide credibility in the election outcomes and speaking for himself he favors public financing of elections and reducing any barriers to registration.
Iraq
We have gotten the people of Iraq in trouble. What is the plan that we have for pulling out those troops from Iraq which does not harm the people that we supposedly have gone in to rescue from a dictator?
The attendee, a long time NH-ite who told me before Lamont got there that he's "seen them all" and is concerned about the media's portrayal of the Democratic candidates on the question of withdrawal from Iraq. He mentions this concern to the group in the Q & A. When we discussed the whole idea of the NH primary before the event started in earnest the attendee reminded me that independents and regular voters that are not like us (political junkies and committed Democrats) will decide the election and that since the NH Democratic primary is open to independents it represents the first measure of how the winning message plays to these voters.
Lamont, "I think the Democrats are being pretty responsible on this. First of all I think the invasion of Iraq was ill conceived, poorly executed and one of the greatest foreign policy blunders in this country. But that was four and a half years ago. What do we do going forward? In my race I heard two things over and over again. Let's have a bi-partisan solution and look to both sides of the aisle. We've got one. The Iraq Study Group came forward with a very responsible plan. That plan called to redeploy all the combat troops off the front lines... over a period of six months... but give the Iraqis the incentive to lead on this themselves... Chris Dodd has been a leader on this and most of the Democrats are coming around on this."
Video: Q & A Part 2 (6:55)
Iraq
Pardon me - I forget, how did Chris Dodd vote on the Iraq War Authorization back in 2002-2003?
"He supported it."
He like so many others didn't investigate all the shaky, fraudulent information that was given to Congress.
Lamont doesn't mince words here, but discusses that the media and the Democrats "let us down" in the run-up to the war. The attendee points out that it's not incumbent upon the media to inform policy makers in our system of government and that several of the candidates had the good judgment to reject the Bush rationale for war. This goes back and forth here and it's a good exchange. Kucinich and Richardson are singled out in the Q & A as having made the right decision. Some attendees mention that Richardson did not have to vote and I mention that Obama did call it a "dumb war" at the time, but again there are three candidates (Gravel?) running now that don't have to defend a war vote.
Back to the question of voting
The discussion gets some context with the difference between a receipt and a "paper trail." They are different and the attendee that raises the issue in the first clip mentions the Webb-Allen race as having receipts that were useless to audit and verify the election in VA. The attendee thinks that this should be a major political issue. I agree. He mentions that this has to be a reform taken up by the parties at the national, state and county levels. Gives new meaning to "machine politics."
Lamont returns to the war question and addresses the fact that a lot of people in public service that got it right were the Generals. "We did not listen to our military." Lamont talks about how today military leaders are against the surge and instead of taking the ISG recommendations to redeploy the troops Bush has decided to "redeploy the generals."
Health Care
Can you tell us something about Chris Dodd's plan for health care?
Lamont can't give us specifics to a Dodd plan, that hasn't been released yet, but Lamont does say that it will be a plan for universal coverage with an ability to buy into a public plan. Lamont then discusses that Dodd has been "very aggresive advocating for family and kids," all throughout his career. Dodd was a "Head Start Senator of the year."
Why doesn't anyone talk about the Canadian Model? They all talk about vagueries and buy-ins and private insurance.
Lamont acknowledges that the Canadians have better outcomes for half the price. And addresses the attendee's concern on vaguerie-isms by stating that at the end of the day you have to get something done. "There is some pragmatism to the Edwards plan, the Dodd plan and making Medicare an option for everybody. Some of us think that the efficiencies of the public system will soon outweigh the private system."
Video: Q & A Part 3 (7:01)
This segues into a discussion about the systemic rot in the government today vis a vis money and lobbyists.
One of the problems has been the influence that Corporate America has with Congress. How do we overcome the HMOs and the pharmaceutical industries in reforming our health care system?
Ned agrees with the attendee and uses the example of Billy Tauzin, a former Congressman, who was instrumental in the Medicare Part D legislation and who is now head of Pharma. "That was a transition that took place within a matter of months. And I worry about the Democrats, this is just me talking. Now that we're the party in power, you know, we're not outlawing earmarks, we're not doing serious lobbying reform, we're acting like incumbents and feathering our nests like the Republicans did before. I think it does co-opt the system... It's all trading campaign contributions for earmarks or tax-credits. We have to keep fighting." Diarist's note: 1 Billion dollars (estimated) will be spent in the next election cycle.
Gun Control
Now that we've had the Virginia Tech incident are we going to get to a place where we have gun control in this country and what is Senator Dodd's position on that?
"I think that Senator Dodd is a strong proponent of gun control. I think Democrats ought to frame gun control as a national security issue. This me talking again." Ned points out that when he ran and discussed this issue with law enforcement pros around CT that they always pointed out to him that legal guns are about 20% of the problem. An attendee points out that the guns used at VT were legal and another attendee asks:
Is Chris Dodd doing anything about making a national background check registry so that all the information for instance the information about his mental health was not available to the gun seller. One more question I had is about the ethics reform seems to be bogged down in the Senate where they have not endorsed an outside independent commission to investigate... Has Chris Dodd taken a position on that?
Dodd supports an independent commission.
Economics
In the New York Times today, a hedge fund manager is reported to have earned 1.7 Billion dollars this year. It just seems to me that the gap between income and wealth of the top ten percent in this country is widening year after year. There are no political initiatives on the horizon to somehow reverse this. Does Dodd have any strongly held views on this?
"I know that Chris wants to roll back the Bush tax-cuts for those earning over 250,000 a year and put that money into health care. Just as importantly Chris is a strong believer in investment in public infrastructure." Lamont gives some very interesting remarks on hedge funds, "I'm from Greenwich and I know something about hedge funds," and how the funds employ tax avoidance schemes for the richest among us to avoid paying their fair share. Diarist's note: at the Edwards Town Hall in Durham at the beginning of the month Edwards said that the top 300,000 income earners now make as much as the bottom 150 million earners in this country.
Video: Q & A Part 4 (4:24)
Iraq
Reid - Feingold, Dodd supports it and Lamont tells us that Dodd has been a leader on that bill. But Lamont starts to speak for himself in this clip and it's a very good riff. "You have to put pressure on this President. This President's legacy is the war in Iraq and I think the more pressure you put on hime the better." Lamont directly refutes the claim that Pelosi, Reid, Dodd or any of the Democrats in this country are undermining the President's foreign policy. "That is just bunk." He argues that based on conversations he's had with generals today through his work at Harvard, the diplomatic efforts on the ground in Iraq today can be enhanced by pressure to set a timetable for withdrawal. It can be used as a tool to motivate the Maliki government to act and start getting some real results.
I point out that the Congress currently does not have the votes to over ride the president's promised veto on the Iraq Supplemental Spending bill that was passed last week. Lamont tells us that as a practical matter the time is coming for Pelosi and Reid to peel enough support away from Bush's party to arrive at the votes necessary to end the war in Iraq. He acknowledges, at my behest, that the time is not here. It's coming but the Congress must continue to pressure Bush on the spending issue.
What would it take to have Senator Lieberman change his position?
An appointment to the Supreme Court?
"Well I worked pretty hard on that. I'll tell ya' and by the end of the campaign he said, 'no one wants to bring the troops home faster than I do and I support troop reductions by the end of the year.' So briefly I thought we had made a small difference, but I was mistaken." And might I add so were the voters of Connecticut that returned escalation Joe to the Senate.
There's one more question here about energy and conservation. Bryan Deangelis from the campaign wanted me to let you know that Dodd has rolled out his strategy on energy this week and you can read about it at the Dodd campaign website.
I'm not affiliated with any campaign in any way, shape or form. I support Edwards for the nomination. I do all my projects as an ordinary person who blogs occasionally about things I feel are important. I'm not paid. I use free tools available on the web, a cheap mini-DV and Windows Movie Maker to create the clips.
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