Joe Lieberman and Wal-Mart

Oh, this is rich!

I don't know where to begin. Let's see, allow me to take you on a little journey...

Ned Lamont is scheduled to participate in the Change Wal-Mart, Change America tour this week. From here on, this whopper of a post has two parts.

1. Dishonest media:

Now, here's the uneditied article about the event. Note the section in bold.

One of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s most vociferous union-funded critics is taking its campaign against the world's largest retailer on the road with a cross-country bus tour from New York to Seattle.

The tour begins Tuesday and will feature several Democratic politicians.

WakeUpWalMart.com, launched last year by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, will visit 35 cities in 19 states for 35 days of rallies, town hall meetings and state fair visits to back its calls on Wal-Mart for higher pay and better health insurance for workers.

[...]


WakeUpWalMart.com said Democratic politicians appearing at some of the stops will include Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards.

The group approached Republicans as well but got no response, said Chris Kofinis, a spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.

Okay, lets see how the Stamford Advocate ran the story (again, not the highlighted section as well as the editioral note).

Eds: SUBS 8th graf to delete extraneous first reference to Lamont.

One of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s most vociferous union-funded critics is taking its campaign against the world's largest retailer on the road with a cross-country bus tour from New York to Seattle with a stop in Connecticut.

The tour begins Tuesday and will feature several Democratic politicians.

WakeUpWalMart.com, launched last year by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, will visit 35 cities in 19 states for 35 days of rallies, town hall meetings and state fair visits to back its calls on Wal-Mart for higher pay and better health insurance for workers.

The tour plans to stop in Bridgeport on Wednesday with a rally on the steps of the City Hall annex. Among Connecticut Democratic politicians scheduled to appear are U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont, gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano and Diana Farrell, a candidate for Congress.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., dismissed the tour as a "political stunt" and said the group was attacking the wrong company.

"Wal-Mart offers associates $23 per month health plans, and in some places as low as $11 per month, creates tens of thousands of jobs per year and is selling more organic and environmentally friendly products," Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar said.

Unions should let working families decide for themselves where to shop, Tovar said.

WakeUpWalMart.com said Democratic politicians appearing at some of the stops will include Lamont, Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards.

The group approached Republicans as well but got no response, said Chris Kofinis, a spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.

Hmm, that's strange, I didn't see Joe Lieberman's name in any of the other newspapers that ran the AP piece? Why would the Stamford Advocate add Joe's name to the list? Because Joe Lieberman had no intention of participating in this event UNTIL Ned Lamont jumped on board. Team Joementum probably called the Advocate and gave them a press release alerting them about Joe throwing his hat into the event. The Advocate them chopped up the story to make it look like Joe signed on to the event from the get-go. If only I had a copy of the print version of the Advocate from yesterday but you get the picture.

2. Okay, onto the second (and most outrageous) part of this post.

Seems like Joe and hypocisy goes hand in hand. I'll let Maura give you the run-down sine she did such a great job exposing phony Joe.

Wake Up Wal Mart brings its Change Wal-Mart, Change America Tour to Bridgeport tomorrow.

Bridgeport City Hall Annex Steps
99 Broad Street
12:00 Noon



[...]

WalMart has a political action committee to further this right wing agenda.

Sounds good to get the word out to Americans about Wal-Mart's detrimental policies, right?

Both Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont are scheduled to appear at the Wake Up WalMart rally in Bridgeport.

But only one of these two candidates for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate has accepted campaign contributions from Wal-Mart's right wing PAC. Want to guess which one?

Bingo! Joe Lieberman. $1,000 from Wal-Mart's PAC just this February. When Lieberman ran for President, he also received maximum contributions from Wal-Mart family fortune heir John Walton and his wife Christy. (This is just an initial search - I may find even more.)

Once again Joe Lieberman tries to have it both ways - scold WalMart when he wants votes from people who care about good jobs and health care, but take campaign contributions to advance Wal-Mart's right wing agenda.

Phony Joe shows his true stripes again.

The screenshot tells the story.


Okay, lets recap what we learned so far:

1. Lieberman gladly accepted donations from Wal-Mart to his campaign as early as Feburary to the tune of 1,000.

2. He agreed to join the tour AFTER learning the Ned Lamont was going to be at the event with other politicians from Connecticut. Here's the list of the others who were on board. After reading the list, you'll see why Joe changed his tune.

-- Senate Candidate Ned Lamont

-- Rep. Rosa DeLauro

-- Gubernatorial Candidate John DeStefano

-- Gubernatorial Candidate Dan Malloy

-- Congressional Candidate Diane Farrell

-- State Party Chair Nancy DiNardo and Bridgeport Council President Andres Ayala
With a list like that, you can see why Lieberman jumped on board but now you see that Joe's participation is just full of crap.

I wonder if the media will jump on this story?

...and Maura is amazing, simply amazing!

Yet another example of "People-Powered Media" in action.