Janes says...

"Unlike Mark Davis, you can't fool me"

You see, it seems like Joe Lieberman is getting a free ride with his distortions about Ned Lamont so it's about time someone sets the record straight about the junior senator and his finances.

Let's hope the media gets the message and stop falling for these Rovian tricks from the Lieberman camp as we approach August 8th. It would be nice if the media would avoid these tricks and make these politicians address the issues that are on the minds of those people who are going to vote in the primary.

This week Lieberman seemed to think it was a Really Big Deal that Ned Lamont owned some Halliburton stock, that this was some sign of abject moral depravity as he defaulted to his usual finger-wagging scold mode (seen in YouTube above at 4:25) as local journalist Mark Davis tossed him a softball:

LIEBERMAN: From the limited disclosure he had under the 'Senate ethics' that he has stock in 'Halliburton,' and he has stock in, more stock in some of the big oil companies. That's something for everybody to judge.

MARK DAVIS: That would be a crime?

LIEBERMAN: Oh no, this is just public right to know. None of this is about illegality. I think when you get into public office you've got an obligation to disclose all your financial holdings.

Now it turns out that Lieberman was playing Mark Davis for a fool, and he himself holds Halliburton stock. It is the third largest holding, in fact, in his "Victory Fund" mutual fund (PDF of Lieberman's 2005 Personal Finance Disclosure Statement, p. 7, line 7).

If Lieberman really believed in the "public's right to know" as anything other than a campaign talking point, perhaps he would have mentioned his own Halliburton stock at the same time? After all, Joe Lieberman is a sitting US Senator whose pro-war votes have been so helpful to Halliburton's stock over the years. (Davis himself simply took Joe's word for it and wrote a follow-up piece without further investigation into Joe's own finances, helpfully repeating Lieberman's scripted anti-Lamont tirade without troubling himself to look any deeper. That was quite a miss.)

Wonder is Davis will do a follow up report on Lieberman's connection to Halliburton as it seems like he has no problem talking about Lamont's holdings. We'll keep an eye on Channel 8 and see if Davis will set the record straight.