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Just when you think Joe Lieberman can no longer surprise you, he does something to prove you wrong.

BrandfordBoy at My Left Nutmeg has an interesting post that details the hypocrisy of President Bush's favorite Democrat. One thing that sounded off alarm bells in BrandfordBoy's head is the fact that Joe Lieberman is collecting money from the company that assisted in defeating him during the 2000 election. What little shred of respect I had for Lieberman quickly disappeared after reading this article.

Executives at ChoicePoint Inc. - which bought the company whose list Florida officials used to prevent thousands from voting in the 2000 presidential election - were among he biggest contributors to U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's re-election campaign from January to March, records show.

Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2000 who often quips that he actually was elected despite the bitterly disputed Florida results, reported to the Federal Election Commission that over a two-week period in March he collected a total of $11,700 from 14 ChoicePoint officials, only one of whom resides in Connecticut.
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At long last, Senator, have you left no sense of shame?

After reading his post and this article, I' think I can answer BranfordBoy's question with one word...NO.

Why would any honest Democratic in Connecticut continue to support this dishonest man?

Lieberman is the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

ChoicePoint is a giant data collection company that began by selling credit data to the insurance industry and now is among the private companies that "increasingly occupy a place in homeland security and crime-fighting efforts," according to the Washington Post.

The suburban Atlanta company in January agreed to pay a record $10 million fine and an additional $5 million to consumers to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations after a security breach of its computer databases led to at least 800 cases of identity theft.

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The FEC records reveal that similar but smaller "bundles" of campaign cash were delivered to Lieberman, a member of Senate's Armed Forces Committee, by groups of contributors associated with defense contractors, including General Dynamics Corp. and its Groton-based subsidiary, Electric Boat, and by Northrop Grumman, whose Norden Systems division is based in Groton. They show that 41 individuals who listed General Dynamics or Electric Boat as their employer gave the senator a total of $13,050, while 11 employed by Northrop Grumman gave a total of $3,500.

Lieberman, who also sits on the Environment and Public Works Committee, got more bundles from officials and employees at Dominion Resources Inc., the Virginia-based gas and electric utility holding company that owns the Millstone nuclear station in Waterford, and from Berlin-based Northeast Utilities and its Connecticut Light & Power division.

Lieberman collected a total of $13,600 from 23 contributors who said they work for Dominion, and a total of $8,100 from 13 who listed NU or CL&P as their employer.

Dominion's corporate political action committee, meanwhile, made the single-largest political action committee contribution to Lieberman in the first quarter - $9,000.

The senator also collected $1,000 from the Northeast Utilities PAC.

Lieberman's previous campaign finance reports showed that he collected $10,000 in contributions from four top executives and the corporate PAC at Southwest Airlines three months after he sponsored a bill to lift restrictions on the Texas airport where the company is based.

Last summer, the senator also reported a bundle of $51,000 in contributions from dozens of officials at Tennessee-based Guardsmark LLC, one of the nation's largest private security firms. He had co-sponsored a bill requiring the FBI to help companies like Guardsmark two years earlier.
Then, proving once again that his hypocrisy knows no bounds, comes this little tidbit:
In a "Dear Friend" e-mail sent to his supporters two weeks ago, the three-term incumbent, who faces a challenge for his party's nomination and had made a last-minute pitch to boost his campaign warchest before the FEC's March 31 reporting deadline, emphasized his support from individuals.

The senator skipped any mention of the companies that employ those individuals - the usual practice when politicians discuss contributions that are supposed to have been made independently.

"I'm grateful for this incredibly strong show of support at every level, especially from the many people who took the time to write the small checks," Lieberman wrote. "I'm humbled to know that hard-working men and women are making a real sacrifice for our campaign."

But the senator got plenty of big checks. His latest filing shows he collected 427 contributions of at least $1,000 - including 90 for $2,100 - which together added up to $589,420, or 80 percent of the total he reported from individuals.