Lamont does PoliticsTV

Ned Lamont did an interview from PoliticsTV (formerly names DemsTV) and it's worth watching.

Here are some highlights (major hit tip to LamontBlog, I encourage everyone to go and check that site out):

On why he's running: "We ought to give voters a choice. For too long, they haven't had a choice.... There's some real issues out there that Joe and I don't necessarily agree on and I think people deserve a robust discussion of where we ought to be going as a country and where we should stand on those issues and where Democrats should stand on those issues.... We have a government that's not dealing with the big issues of the day. We need a more entrepreneurial approach to government."

On the culture of corruption in Washington: "I see some of these lobbying reforms that are being proposed - you can't use the Senate gym for two years after leaving office - it seems like something being written for a Saturday Night Live sketch. It doesn't seem like you're really getting to the core of the issue."

Why challenge a sitting senator when your party is in the minority? (same clip as above): "I was talking to a fellow the other day and he said, Ned, your best response is, 'You're not gonna lose a seat, you're gonna gain a Democrat.' One of the issues that I've got with Senator Lieberman is that it's not that he cheerled us into the war in Iraq, which is a terrible foreign policy blunder for this country. It's not that he doesn't necessarily challenge the president as aggressively as he should on Sam Alito and the environment and energy independence and civil liberties and torture. But he also undercuts Democrats by not standing up and not speaking with a clear voice on these issues. And it makes it tougher for the Democrats to rally and speak with a unified voice, which we've gotta do if we're going to challenge these bad policies."

On Iraq: "We did not ask the right questions going in.... I wish Senator Lieberman instead of cheerleading the president, had been there asking the tough questions so we went in there with our eyes open."

On healthcare: "There's nothing more vital... It's a system that's badly, badly broken.... It's of interest to me as a small buisnessman as well because look at how much we're paying for healthcare and when we lose bids, we lose bids to fly-by-night companies that don't even provide health insurance for their folks."

What's the biggest problem in Washington? "Lifelong career politicians.... that leads to a certain cronyism down there. That's not what the founding fathers had in mind when they talked about a citizen legislature."

On checking Presidential power run amok: "You need congressional oversight, you need checks and balances to protect us from a tyranny.... One of the things that really got me involved in this race [was] the Terri Schiavo case... it's an intensely personal decision and it's the last place you want the Federal government intruding. And the Right-To-Life movement got involved, and George Bush flew back from Crawford, TX, and Tom DeLay said the federal government's got to intervene, and Joe Lieberman backed them up on that."

On his Political Heroes: "Bill Clinton, I thought did a wonderful service... I worked hard on the Bill Bradley campaign. I love Bill Bradley cause he was an entrepreneurial politician, he was an idea politician."

On the War in Afghanistan: "One of my strong objections to the invasion of Iraq is that it has distracted us from the rest of the War on Terror."

On Labor Unions: "We have to defend the middle class in this country.... The union movement is very important to that. It's very important that the people we trade with have some labor rights just like we have in this country. The same way that the multinationals are going offshore, I think it's very important that the union movement think broadly as well."