Speaker of the House James Amann refuses to respect the outcome of the primary
As Speaker of the House, this is clearly unacceptable behavior and in a slap in the face to the Democratic Party.Speaker of the House James A. Amann on Thursday said he is not prepared to support Democratic primary winner Ned Lamont over his old friend, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman.
Amann, D-Milford, who was conspicuously missing from a "unity" rally of major state Democrats on the morning after Tuesday's primary, said that Lieberman came through for him early in his political career and he will not forget it.
The speaker said he will announce either today or Monday whether he will withdraw his support of the three-term incumbent.
"I have not made a decision yet," Amann said. "I have not had a chance to sit down with Sen. Lieberman personally."
"Sen. Lieberman is a very old, dear friend of mine, someone that early in my career came out, took a personal flight to do a 30-second commercial in my first election that he never had to do and I won by 49 votes," Amann said. "I at least owe Joe Lieberman, as a friend - as many of his friends stood up with Lamont yesterday and they are friends and they have their positions - but for me personally, I need to talk with Joe one-on-one."
Although I respect his point, this decision should be a no-brainer given his important position in Connecticut. How can someone as important as the Speaker of the House be allowed to say something like this?
As Senator Chris Dodd and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro stated, the loyalty to the Democratic Party trumps everything else and if these two die-hard friends of Lieberman can back Lamont, so should Amann.
Again, HE'S THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE and he should do the right thing. Although Lamont beat Lieberman by about 10,000 votes, Amann had no problem picking up the phone and throw his support behind John DeStefano who barely beat Dan Malloy (by aprox. 4,000 votes). This clearly shows that Amann problem is personal and this has nothing to do with politics. This is as bad (if not worse) than Lieberman choosing not to respect the outcome of the primary because Amann has seemed to forgotten the politics is not personal.
Why is this a problem for the party brass to understand? The people have spoken and Amann can no longer call the primary a result of the far left "weirdos" since there was a record turnout of voters.
At this point, with three Congressional races on the line, EVERY Democrat in the state should be behind Ned Lamont no questions asked. A vote for Lieberman is a vote against the Democratic Party and if people like James Amann, Rep. Pat Dillon, and State Sen. Bill Finch can't over the fact that their man lost. They should respect the fact that the people have spoken and support the nominee.
This is no time for dissent. This is no time for personal feelings get in the way of what’s right for the The people have spoken and the voters should demand that their officials respect the outcome of the election.
Demand that your Democratic Party officials support the Democratic nominee and the will of the record amount of registered Democrats who voted in the primary.
(post updated 9:30 P.M.)
posted by ctblogger @ 11:08 AM
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