Lieberman staff gets clobbered in Windsor

Oh man, it has to be harsh getting taken to the woodshed by a 17 year-old kid.

The Windsor Democratic Town Committee grilled U.S. Senate challenger Ned Lamont during an informal interview Thursday night on civil liberties, immigration policy, and healthcare issues. But the committee will have to wait a few days to question Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the incumbent Democrat, on similar issues.

Ken Dagliere, Lieberman’s political director, attended Thursday's event, following Lamont and providing some answers to the committee's inquiries. But he deferred other questions to Lieberman himself, who is scheduled to be in Windsor on Sunday at 11:30 a.m., also at Town Hall.

[...]

Dagliere said he knows there’s a perception that Lieberman is “like a Republican.” But he said that Lieberman has “an outstanding progressive record despite that perception.”

After all, Dagliere said, Connecticut overwhelmingly supported Lieberman in 2000 as Al Gore’s running mate against Bush and Dick Cheney.

The campaign literature Dagliere distributed included several interest groups' ratings of Lieberman on their issues. The pamphlet said the AFL-CIO gave Lieberman an 84 percent rating; NARAL Pro-Choice America gave him 95 percent; and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights gave him 85 percent. The Alliance for Retired Americans gave Lieberman a 100 percent rating, according to the literature.

But 17-year-old Ian Crone looked at the glossy pamphlet and said this is great, “but where’s the section on foreign policy?”

Dagliere said he had only brought the single pamphlet, and that he would send Crone, who said he'll be 18 in November, information on Lieberman’s foreign policy.

A friend of Crone's allegedly responded to the CTNewsJunkie story and wondered how Dagliere will get Crone the information when he apparently didn't get the kid's address.

I'm Ian Crone's friend, I was there yesterday, and Dagliere's response is lacking in context. For one, he never made any effort of taking down Ian's address. He never even asked his name. Secondly, I would highly doubt he ever intended to - Ian asked a very pointed question, and Dagliere's feathers were clearly ruffled. His words were perfectly reasonable, but his tone was pure anger. He was visibly shook up, and took a very combative tone to my friend, who asked a very reasonable question.

If Dagliere can't handle a smart 17 year old, can he handle Ned Lamont?

Ouch. Someone ring the bell, school is in session.