Ned On Joe

Ned Lamont, who upset Sen. Joseph I, Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary, only to lose in the general, sat down with The Crypt in Denver during the Democratic National Convention and shared his thoughts on the ongoing journey of his political rival. On Wednesday night, Lieberman’s journey brought him before thousands of cheering Republicans in St. Paul.

“I’d like to think we’ll get a few more Democratic senators elected, so nobody’s sitting there in the cat-bird seat,” he said. “And then I hope that gives our Democratic leadership the opportunity to do the right thing.”

Lamont, who said he’s considering another run for the Senate, is in position to be on the receiving end of much anti-Lieberman carping and he said that in Denver a“fair number of [senators] have come up to me and hit me on the back and said, ‘I wasn’t there with you during the election, but boy do I know why you did what you did.’”

Democratic senators were especially disappointed, Lamont said, because “all of them” supported Lieberman “during the primary when he was primary Joe, and most of them [did so] quietly during the general election.” Lamont said that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) was one of the only Democrats to back him.

Lamont noted with irony that “during the primary he’s the one who said, ‘I’m the real Democrat and Lamont is Republican-lite.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that Lieberman has retained his chairmanship of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee because on votes other than the war, he’s been a reliable Democrat. Lamont disagrees. “He’s with us except on the war; just on Iran; just on the Supreme Court; tax policy. You go over to the McCain campaign on a lot more than the war,” he said. “The man who said I’m not a Democrat; I’m not a Republican; I’m going to be post-partisan, has now become one of the lead attackers of Obama and Democrats in general.”