New Haven Independent

Lamont, the Democratic candidate for Lieberman’s Senate seat, called the press conference to note that Lieberman missed two votes on Iraq on Sept. 6 and 7. The Iraq war was a central issue in Lamont’s defeat of Lieberman in an Aug. 8 Democratic Party primary. It remains a central issue in the general-election campaign, in which Lieberman is running as a third-party candidate supported by leading Republicans. Lamont opposes the decision to go to war in Iraq and has called for a gradual pullout of American troops. Lieberman has been one of the war’s foremost defenders, although he has sought to convince war opponents that he, too, wants to bring home the troops, under the right conditions.

“The votes he missed last week were important,” said Lamont. “You’re not weighing in, you’re not doing your job, unless you’re there to cast your vote.”

The Lieberman camp dismissed Lamont’s attack as harping on inconsequential “procedural” votes.

Lamont’s campaign issued a list of 16 Senate votes related to Iraq which it said Lieberman has “skipped” since 2003. Click here to read the full campaign “fact sheet” on the issue.

The criticism carried a whiff of irony because in 1988, when Joe Lieberman was the challenger seeking to an incumbent U.S. senator, he made a similar charge. Lieberman ran a now-infamous cartoon TV commercial portraying the incumbent, Lowell Weicker, as a fat, lazy, sleeping bear who skipped too many Senate votes. That commecial was credited with helping Lieberman upset Weicker in the election and with ushering in a new level of vicious personal attack ads in Connecticut’s previously tame campaign environment. This year Lieberman tried to reprise the cartoon bear to attack Lamont as a whiny baby “cub” of Weicker’s (pictured). But the cartoon this time worked against Lieberman. (Click here and here for that story.)

The Sept. 6 vote in the U.S. Senate concerned a proposal calling on the Pentagon to report on the likelihood of civil war in Iraq. The Sept. 7 vote concerned a proposal calling on the Bush administration to stop funding efforts to plant one-sided articles in the Iraqi media.

Lieberman missed the first vote because he was at the Kennedy Center receiving an award for his criticism of violence in the media, according to his campaign spokeswoman, Tammy Sun. She said Lieberman would have voted with the Democrats against a motion to table the proposal. The motion to table passed 54-44; with Lieberman’s vote it would have still passed, 54-45, she said.

Similarly, if Lieberman had been present for the Sept. 7 vote (he was back home in Connecticut), he would have voted with the Democrats to against a motion to table the proposal in question, according to Sun. Then the motion to table would have passed 51-45 instead of 51-44, she said.

In other words, it wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome.

“How can you hold the president accountable if you’re not there for the votes that count?” Lamont asked at his press event Tuesday. “When it comes to life and death… as these gentlemen know, these votes are important.”

By “these gentlemen,” Lamont, who faces the challenges of appealing to more centrist voters in the general election than in the Democratic primary, meant the vets arrayed behind him.

Lamont argued that the question of civil war in Iraq is central to whether enough legislators from both parties can be convinced to vote against the further use of force in Iraq.

Lamont was asked whether, if elected, he promises never to miss a vote.

He said he couldn’t make that “blanket” promise. He did say, “Unless I have to be in Connecticut for a family emergency… I’m not going to be missing votes for other reasons. I’m not going to be in New Hampshire for six months, for instance.” That last bit was a reference to Lieberman’s failed bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, during which he racked up a poor attendance record in the Senate.

About That Patch…

Lamont was introduced at Tuesday’s press event by John Kelley (pictured), a New Haven lawyer who spent five months in Iraq. Kelley, who’s 45, is a major in the Army reserves. He said he served as one of four military lawyers compiling evidence to be used against Saddam Hussein at trial, from October 2004 through February 2005.

Kelley recalled, while serving in Iraq, watching Lieberman on Fox TV defending the Bush administration’s conduct of the war. “It was certainly not the Iraq I saw from Humvees. It was certainly not the Iraq I saw from a Blackhawk.,” he said. “We want a senator who will not skip important votes on Iraq,” but who “will hold this imperial presidency accountable.”

Kelley presented Lamont with a patch his unit received for its service. It showed the Statue of Liberty.