The person who gave grilled Lieberman today speaks

Oh, this is a good post. I recommend that everyone read the whole thing. Notice the BIG LIE Joe Lieberman told the people about why Joe Biden was unable to attend.

Gotta love those pesky Nutmeg posters.

When I initially heard that Joe Lieberman and Joe Biden would be appearing together in my hometown of Stamford, I had no interest in attending. A friend of mine tried to RSVP for the event, though, and was told that it was open only to "Stamford Irish Democrats".

Since I'm an Irish-American Democrat from Stamford and I'd never heard of this group, I decided to stop by the event to learn more about this organization. Given that Joe Biden is the only high-profile Senate Democrat to be willing to campaign with Joe, I thought it would be a bonus to see what he would say to reporters about Joe threatening to run as an independent if he loses the primary.

I planned just to be a fly on the wall at the event, figuring it would be a huge crowd. But when Joe Lieberman repeated the lie that Ned Lamont is running a "one issue" campaign and then said that Lamont lacked "courage and integrity", it really got my Irish up and I decided I wouldn't stay quiet. The fact that it was a very small crowd meant that, unexpectedly, my question got quite a bit of press attention.

I arrived about 15 minutes before the event was to start, and the place was virtually empty other than about 20 Lieberman staffers roaming around. I was only the second person to sign in. Although other people had been told that the event was closed to the public, I had no problem whatsoever getting in.

[...]

Soon after, Joe Lieberman himself arrived. He came through the back entrance followed by staffers holding signs. After shaking hands with a few people, he was introduced by Eileen Heaphy, who shared the background that her organization was founded to support President Clinton in his leadership in pursuing the Good Friday Agreement and that they were supporting Joe because of his longstanding support for the Good Friday Agreement and for illegal immigrants from Ireland.

Lieberman, wearing a tie featuring green shamrocks, joked that he was turning his "Cup of Joe" tour into a "Cup of Irish Joe" tour and made a few other predictable jokes about how much he enjoys being with Irish-Americans and people who wished they were Irish-American.

NOTE: here comes the BIG LIE from Joe Lieberman about Joe Biden's "no show"...

He mentioned that Joe Biden was not able to attend because he got back from Iraq very late last night and was not able to make the train this morning.

Hmm, if Joe Biden got back from Iraq late last night, how did he give these interviews to the press (here and here).

I'm sorry, how rude of me...please Maura, continue.

What really got me to change from "fly on the wall" to "gadfly" was when, in response to press questions, Joe Lieberman repeated the lie that Ned Lamont is running a "one issue campaign" and that Ned Lamont was running against George Bush rather than having the "courage and integrity" to run against him.

Hearing Lieberman impugn Ned Lamont's "courage and integrity" at the same time as Lieberman is repeating lies about Ned Lamont and threatening to ignore the Democratic primary results if he loses (hardly an example of courage and integrity) really got my Irish up.

So when the press questions were over and Joe started drinking Guinness and schmoozing with the crowd, I joined the people waiting to shake hands with him. When it was my turn, I shook his hand and introduced myself as a lifelong Democrat who also grew up in Stamford and went to Stamford High, like him. I said my dad had been a longtime customer of his dad's package store on Hamilton Avenue, and he said, "Really? What was your dad's name?"

I said, "Frank Keaney."

And said something like, "Frank Keaney? Oh, I think I know him well..." (which is not true, but Joe's definitely a masterful schmoozer)

So I told him that my dad passed away in March, and he said he was sorry and asked how old my dad was. I said he was 82 and that he voted for Democrats in every election after he became an American citizen, and then said I something like (paraphrase):

"My dad was a very loyal Democrat until he died. You mentioned how Irish American Democrats are great supporters because they're not fair-weather friends, and I totally agree. So why are you being a fair-weather Democrat, saying you'll only respect the results of the Democratic primary if you win?"

All of a sudden I found myself with a bunch of microphones in my face. Joe looked slightly stunned, and then started in on his usual talking points about how he wants even more Democrats to have a chance to vote for him in November and that not all Democrats know that they have to come out for a "hot day in August".

I said, "Don't you think Connecticut Democrats are smart enough to know on what day to vote?"

He said, "I hope so" and then started to wave me off.

I forget exactly what words I said after that (there is video and audio out there somewhere) but I said something like, "Look, if you win the Democratic primary, I'll be supporting you and I wish you would agree to support the winner, too" and he said, "Well, let's make sure I win in August, then!" and waved me away, after which I was mobbed by reporters asking how to spell my name.

I was really shocked at how much attention my comment got, since I didn't shout it out to get attention during Lieberman's talk, but rather approached him one-on-one. Apparently, some Lieberman staffers told reporters who were talking to me that I was a Lamont campaign plant, which is completely untrue.

Joe Lieberman needs to realize that ordinary Irish-American Democrats aren't just going to lap up his pandering without asking tough questions, and if he wants to talk about fair-weather friends, he should stop being a transparent "fair-weather friend" to the party.

Good going Maura and shame of the Liebertrolls who think everyone who challenges their man is a plant from the Lamont campaign. She was no plant but rather a concerned voter who wants some answers from Lieberman on a number of critical issues which he has failed to answer. I do not, nor do any of the other bloggers in CT, work for the Lamont campaign. We're ordinary citizens of Connecticut who aren't afraid to ask tough questions to politicians and unlike Sean Smith's "low informed" voters, we can read through the B.S.

The moral of this story is, never piss off an Irish woman!

Please go over to Maura's post on My Left Nutmeg and thank her for fighting the good fight (and catching Joe Lieberman in a BIG FAT LIE).

UPDATE: Whoa, her post moved to the front page of My Left Nutmeg. The links work now so please thank her for all she did today.