George Stephanopoulos: Can Karl help Joe?

Rove Offers Help to Lieberman

A “close Lieberman adviser” told George Stephanopoulos that Karl Rove “reached out to the Lieberman camp with a message straight from the Oval Office: ‘The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do.’” “The White House might help Lieberman by p…

At *All* Costs?

Karl Rove to get involved with Lieberman’s campaign? If this is true — and if Lieberman accepts help from the White House — then even more Connecticut voters will be pissed at Lieberman. I don’t know how many Nutmeggers can’t

Is this like a joke?

It makes sense for the Bush White House to throw their support behind Lieberman who has been such a strong supporter of Bush’s policy in Iraq and other issues. Better the devil you know, ya know? Any Republican candidate in the race would have an uphill battle to win and there is no guarantee that he or she would be as adamant a supporter of Bush as Lieberman has already shown himself to be putting himself in political peril for that support. Bush values loyalty above all else and Lieberman has been loyal to the president for the more than three years of this war. No Republican candidate the party in Connecticut could put forward could match that loyalty. Rove is a political genius and Lieberman’s campaign has been particularly lacking in any political genius so far despite his being a three term US Senator. Joe Lieberman could only gain from Rove’s help and as they say Democrats play to the left and Republicans to the right in the primaries but they need to play to center in the general elections. Gaining Bush’s and therefore GOP support and using his name recognition among Democratic voters is Lieberman’s only hope to winning in November. He’d be a fool to turn Bush and Rove down.

The Best Democrat

ABC’s world news blog, via Hotline:According to a close Lieberman adviser, the President’s political guru, Karl Rove, has reached out to the Lieberman camp with a message straight from the Oval Office: “The boss wants to help. Whatever we can…

Surprise, surprise.

“… without turning off the independents and moderate Democrats he needs to win.” How can Holy Joe possibly throw himself further into the arms of W without arousing the well-justified disgust of independents and moderate Democrats?
Joe and W need to get a room. The rest of us don’t want to watch.

I don’t believe Stephanopoulos for one second. If this story were true, that is, if a a close Lieberman adviser, told Stephanopoulos that, then Lieberman deserves to go down in flames. He shouldn’t be hiring someone so stupid as to tell Stephanopoulos that. The only person would benefit from Bush aiding Lieberman is Lamont.

The mask is finally coming off. Our government has been acting the way amateurs do, depending on spin rather than the facts, not knowing or understanding the impact of what it has been doing, and more people are recognizing it or acknowledging it, especially with Lamont’s win. From President Bush, who makes a joke of his ignorance, to stooges such as Rumsfeld and truly unfeeling fixed-idea men such as Cheney, we have suffered from inept and uninformed leadership. Iraq is just one example of such amateurness, with a war that had no plan for any follow-up. Iran is another. The way we’ve handled Afghanistan is still another. Our ignoring the essential conflict between Israel and the Palestine peoples, just hoping it will go away. Add them up and we can now see how inept this administration has been. Then look at the current economy, changed from a positive one in which our assets were growing to one in which almost everything except oil has been declining. Asking the military, who weren’t trained to build nations and who did their job heroically in the war, to sort out what needs to be done in Iraq or Afghanistan is truly amateurish; such work was never the military’s job. Not even having a full professional cadre of those who speak the language of our enemies, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Iran to Lebanon how could this administration even pretend to understand what forces it has unleashed? How could they even understand that a real possibility is the current civil war? The author of Fiasco, Tom Ricks, has said well probably have troops in Iraq for fifteen years because of how amateurishly things have been handled. He also has said that, as far as they’re concerned, the Bush Administration is leaving this mess for the next administration. I grieve for our sons and daughters and our grandchildren who will be forced to handle the mess that will be left behind by this administration.

Did Karl help Joe out with the last-minute “hack attack” on the campaign website? Shades of little bugs in offices.

“The safest course may be a polite ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the White House offer.”
Really? Ya think, George?
For god’s sake, man, there are g.d. GOPers running from W., but you just think it “may be (the safest course)” for Joe to say no thanks?
Personally, I hope he accepts the help, then we get a two-fer out of the CT race to see exactly how 1) dems are responding to Iraq and the politicians that support it and how 2) the president’s assistance affects the outcome of an election in November. We already know the answer to 1, and I’m pretty sure about the answer to 2.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful and critical analysis.

Maybe Joe’s trying to influence the next round of three-way polls and draw more GOP votes away from Schlesinger (who, btw, does not appear at all likely to drop out at the end).

This is unbelievable! Why would the prez send Karl to help Joe? Why would Joe make the message public unless he really wants to ***BE*** the Republican candidate from CT.
I actually think it’s a good idea. Someone tell Karl to ask the real Republican candidate to step out. Karl can arrange that. Then set-up a press conference with the president at the ranch. Fly Joe down there and dress him down to a t-shirt and jeans. Have the First Lady arrange a BIG POOL PARTY for all HIGH DONOR REPUBLICANS and put Joe on TV with the president.
I can see it now. Tony Snow is there and he does his Fox News stuff: former Democaratic Senator changing parties so he can work with the president’s war on terror without having to play it safe. He can support the use of the brutal force policy of killing innocents in the Middle East, and so he can consumate *The Kiss.*
That way, he is an offical Republican and he can run a real race as a Republican against an elected Democrat.
If you’d like, the progressives from CT might be willing to bring *The Kiss* float down for the press conference. Karl, you’ll need to ask the president to arrange for a plane to pick it (and some drivers) up for the BIG EVENT!
This sounds like one exciting story! Hey George, please make sure this message gets to Karl.
*The Ongoing Saga of **The Kiss** Between Joe and George*

Mr. Lamont said today that Mr. Lieberman’s continued campaign would end up splitting the Republican vote. “He gets a lot more support from Republicans than he does from Democrats,” Mr. Lamont said.
Nearly half the Democrats *and* he he gets a lot more support from Republicans than Democrats?
Should Lamont really be saying publicly that Lieberman is unbeatable?

Any Democrats who are on a friendly “Buddy” basis with the likes of Karl Rove I sure want to know about. Do we know any others? They surely are DINO’s like Lieberman – or as we now know him -LOSERMAN.
Here is Karl’s DEM Buddy list so far:
Lieberman
Any Others to add?

And we believe Gerstein because?????

Let’s get this straight. Lieberman spokesman admits Rove called, but offered no help. (Just called to chat, I suppose.) Even better is this one: “A senior White House official also says that the account is “not accurate.” ” Which can mean only one thing: it IS accurate. These guys were made for each other.

Rove is no “political genius”. The man may have had a Midas-Touch at one point, but as was the case with Midas, now he’s left with nothing. He has no power to stop the public’s disgust with Cheney (or, if you want to be technical about who is the “real” President, Bush).

Joe you were beat, fair and square the people decided, you’re just showing your greed and lust for power, you were judged on your record and it was rejected, period.

I can’t believe what an ass Joe is. Why can’t he just bow out gracefully. The Republican candidate is salivating at the thought of winning. I hate politics

The offer makes perfect sense, but only if it had not become public.
Rove & Co, secretly throw money and influence the Lieberman campaign, NOT so that he can run as a Republican, but so that, as an independent, he can split the Democratic vote by the same percentage: 52-48. Result…Schlesinger wins.
The publication of it however, weakens the plot immensely.

dan gerstein is a joke. he’s been disinforming from day one in this campaign, and he’s been discredited for almost as long.
dc insiders need to take a warning from this result – incumbents are endangered.
and fletcher, if you think the dem vote is going to split 52-48 in the general election, you’re sadly mistaken. exit polls showed connecticut dems won’t support a lieberman independent run by at least 61-39, a gap that is likely to widen as lamont gets the full weight of democratic support behind him.
the ‘lamont’s trying to buy the election’ line won’t work — lieberman’s rich also, and he outspent lamont 2-1 in the primary.
the ‘far left wing’ line won’t work, because the more voters get to know lamont, they’ll see that aside from his anti-war stance, he’s nothing of the sort.
no, this is simply a nightmare for republicans. a little-known, political neophyte taking down an 18-year senator with almost universal name recognition in his own state. this has change vote written all over it, and the republicans are running scared.
of course, with all the fear-mongering they do, it’s no wonder. they’ve bought into their own ‘stay the course’ propraganda, and now they can’t see that the public is sick and tired of the course.
the joke is on them. lieberman could’ve won if he’d simply said, “i was wrong”. there’s no point in being bipartisan with republicans now — most of them are looking for any chance to stick a knife in the democrats’ backs any chance they get. and the dems that compromise are just being useful idiots.

What? You want another kiss Joe?
Hey Joe. This is what you get for going along with a president bound and determined to wreck our country, and make $$$$$$ for his buddies along the way.
Supporting Bush after all the truth has come out about the lies he, and his staff told before the war amounts to treason.

Of course Rove and the Bush administration want Lieberman to win. Ken Mehlman on Hardball refused to endorse the Republican candidate.
The choice Connecticutt voters will face this Fall is very simple: If you’re for Bush vote for Lieberman. If you’re against Bush vote for Lamont.

Please remember that all (yes, all) of the donations came from Republicans to support getting the Green Party on the ballot. What does that tell you?

There is a primary god!! If we ever get rid of Jerk Lieberman, maybe the dems will get the house back and do what needs to be done…CLEAN HOUSE!!

In other news, the Star reported today that Oprah has said Brad will definitely not be coming on her show ever again. “Clearly Oprah is Team Aniston and always will be,” said a source close to Oprah.

Sore Loserman Redux, Kinda Sorta

This may be the first time in American political history when a bumpersticker taunt–Sore Loserman–gets recycled by the party it initially derided. Six years after refusing to accept defeat as Al Gore’s runningmate, Joe Lieberman refuses to accept def…

What else did he offer? A fixed election?

Perhaps Karl can get Osama to release a new video three days before the election?

This mob in the White House is so corrupt and dismissive of the law that Rove probably suggested a hit on Lamont. Time and again however, the Bush gang has always slipped up and got caught by a press that always finds out. Don’t be surprised if some major underhanded and Byzantian scheme on behalf of Lieberman becomes public before the election, making him more than just a figure of public dissappointment and ridicule but a major loser as well.

you people will all be sorry when he wins. Just like good old GEORGE!!! what a great guy. I know that just eats you morons up!!!!

So if he runs as an independent/third party candidate and wins or loses it won’t be fair and square or legal?
Exactly how, pray tell?

George, Your program this morning in which Donald Powell appeared was enough to make even the most staunch Republican lose his breakfast. Every other word was “this president”. Instead of answering questions truthfully and giving us some indication of the good and bad of Katrina he chose to buffer each reply with a report on how the president is such a wonderful leader and etc. If that is the case, then why are we still in such a mess in the gulf states? How about the corruption, shoddy work being done and the ever present unqualified contractors? Doesn’t sound like a very good leader to most of us. We think a case of Preparation H might be in order for Mr. Powell, both for his lips that are swollen from too much kissing and for the part of his body that rides on the fence. How stupid do you think the public is? You can do better than this, George.

Well we are sick of the lieing and the stealing that you have laid on us for the past 8 years and we’re not going to take it anymore. Ron Paul IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT THAT HAS ANY INTEGRITY AND HONESTY. He is winning the polls and will win the nomination. He is the only candidate that can beat out this sorry group of democrats (excluding Mr Gravel)

why isn’t anyone talking about Colin Powell as Obama’s running mate ?
obviously complimentary for military and leadership experience
plus, shared the anti Iraq war view
being black and sharing the same foreign policy – might that convince Powell to run with a Democrat ?
Tom
Florida now
Pennsylvania always