See? A bit of media exposure can create a political star (and influence the conventional wisdom?). The New Haven Independent:
The ghost of Crazy Eddie was channeled Monday by a man who would be Connecticut’s next senator — and whose name is neither Lieberman or Lamont.
This candidate’s name is Alan Schlesinger. He is the official candidate nominated by the Republican Party to replace Joe Lieberman in the U.S. Senate. He trails both Lieberman — who’s now running as a “Connecticut for Lieberman” candidate — and Democrat Ned Lamont by far in this fall’s Senate race; Republicans are overwhelmingly backing Lieberman instead. Schlesinger has been drowned out by all the attention on the other two candidates.
So Schlesinger came out swinging — literally, with his hands at times — when he finally got to debate his two opponents in a televised debate. He injected a new factor into the race. Lieberman sought to focus attention, and criticism, on Lamont, his closest rival. But Schlesinger pounced on them both throughout the debate, and sought to establish himself as the conservative alternative to two “liberal Democrats.”
He made his pitch to conservative and moderate voters on issues ranging such as flag-burning (only he supports a constutional amendment against it). “Don’t listen to Joe’s rhetoric,” Schlesinger declared. “Watch his voting record.â€?
The questions: (1) Did the debate get extensive viewership? (2) Will this create some buzz among GOPers in Connecticut that perhaps it’s not such a nutty idea after all to vote for the actual GOP candidate? (3) Will this influence the way Lieberman and Lamont conduct their campaigns…and the final vote?
Boisterous crowds greeted the candidates at the hotel’s entrance, as did the infamous Bush-Lieberman “Kiss” float.
Schlesinger came pumped. He raised his voice, cracked up the audience with exhortations like, “Look out Ned and Joe, here I come baby!”
Schlesinger set himself apart from both Lieberman and Lamont on issues like immigration. “Joe favors amnesty… Ned Lamont he actually wants to give them scholarships,” Schlesinger said. “Alan Schlesinger is the only one on this stage who has a tough policy. I want to build the walls. I want to make sure there is no road to residency. I am the son of a legal immigrant. There are people today who attempted to come here as legal immigrants and died. Now we’ve got people flooding into this nation for no other reason than they want a better life for themselves. … We have to secure the borders… “We have to use drones. “
Similarly, while Lamont and Lieberman bickered about whether Lieberman is weak on preventing privatization of social security, Schlesinger called for investing some of the social security trust fund in home mortgages.
“Both of these gentlemen stand for social security and medicare bankruptcy,” Schlesinger said. “I call the United States Senate the ostrich club… It [social security] is the greatest iceberg this nation is facing. Social security is so underfunded they make the national debt look like a little walk in the park.â€?
“We can remain in the ostrich clubâ€? the way Lieberman has for 18 years, Schlesinger said. “You’d never get away with this at Enron, by the way…â€? Schlesinger’s voice rose as the crowd laughed. “Joe, this is why I ran against you. I got to be honest with you. In 2000 you got up there with Al Gore. You stood up and said we ought to put social security in a lockbox…
You’re gonna put an IOU from Joe Lieberman in a lock box? I don’t want an IOU for Joe Lieberman, even if he’s a nice guy! I’d rather have cash.â€? Proposed investing social security trust fund in mortgages for Americans….”
The Independent thinks this could create trouble for Lieberman:
Schlesinger’s emergence would work in Lamont’s favor. If he can rise to 15 percent of the vote from his current 4 percent standing in the polls, he’d probably swing the election to Lamont. Even if his performance Monday was a bit over the top to make him a serious contender to win the race, it still worked to Lamont’s benefit in two ways.
One way: It enabled Lamont to have someone else take the harshest shots at Lieberman while allowing Lamont to look more restrained and senatorial……A second way: Schlesinger’s performance presented Schlesinger as a sincerely conservative alternative to Republican voters who may have been leaning toward Lieberman but would prefer someone they consider a “true” Republican to pull the lever for.
That dynamic was clear in the closing statements. Lieberman continued to ignore Schlesinger and seek to put the focus on Lamont, attacking him for promoting partisan attack politics. And Lamont actually offered his Republican opponent encouragement. He spoke of how he, too, was once discounted by pundits, early in the Democratic primary camaign, then emerged victorious. “
One certainty: it’s going to be a frenzied last few weeks in Connecticut since a new dynamic (whether it changes things or not) has been added to one of the country’s most fascinating races.
MORE PERSPECTIVES:
—Lamont Blog
—Matt Stoller
—Firedoglake
—Daily Kos
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.