CT's Largest Paper Says Lieberman "Plays Loose With the Facts"

Yesterday, Joe Lieberman's campaign launched a despicable ad that not only lied about Ned Lamont, but actually lied about what the New York Times actually reported. Now, today, Connecticut's largest paper, the Hartford Courant, comes out swinging.

The paper reviewed the ads charges and the facts, and here's what it found:

"The Lieberman campaign, meanwhile, plays loose with the facts in a commercial attacking Lamont's business ethics. The ad says Lamont laid off 68 percent of the employees at his cable-television company, Lamont Digital Systems, then paid himself a salary of $546,000...The ad cited an Aug. 3 story in The New York Times. The Times never reported that Lamont laid off so many employees, though it did report "some layoffs" and that Lamont downsized from 125 to 40 after selling off a subsidiary...Less than one-third lost their jobs to layoffs, and many others moved to other companies that bought the residential business, the campaign said."

Lots of charges fly on a campaign - it's true. But there's a difference between Ned and Joe's paid media: all of Ned Lamont's paid media has been entirely, 100 percent factually accurate. We research everything, and have backup for everything. It's why you see Lieberman throwing a temper tantrum about our devastating ad showing Lieberman breaking his promise to Connecticut - because he can't disupte the facts.

But instead of Lieberman explaining why he so clearly lied to Connecticut voters in 1988, Lieberman has sunk to the worst kind of politics: fabricating out of whole cloth newspaper stories that don't exist. It's the sign not just of your typical desperate politician - but of a man who has developed a wild-eyed obsession with preserving his status as a career politician. He is so driven to hold onto power, his lying has become pathological. That is, he can't help himself from lying anymore because it's become so innate. Thankfully, Connecticut's largest paper nailed him on it today - let's hope the voters are paying attention.

For those few Democrats who keep telling themselves Lieberman is really just another Democrat, and that thus this election isn't important - I urge you to read this new editorial in Connecticut's Journal Inquirer. I'm not going to excerpt it here - just go read it, and then ask yourself if you still feel the same way.

(DISCLOSURE: I have long been a volunteer supporter of Ned Lamont's candidacy and written extensively about the race. As of Labor Day, I am officially working with the Lamont for Senate campaign on research. The writing on this blog is my own, and not the official work I do for the Lamont campaign.)