2006 CT Senate Debate: on Principles & Values

Joseph Lieberman: I’m not George Bush, but Lamont is running against him

I have done so not for partisan reasons, but because I believe he was wrong. I’m a Democrat with a 35-year record of fighting for progressive causes, for the middle class, for civil rights, for women’s rights, for human rights and a lot more. I voted with my Senate Democratic colleagues 90% of the time. And when I have disagreed, I have had the courage of my convictions to say so. That’s who I am. That’s who I have been. And that’s what I offer Connecticut voters for the next six years -- experience, principles and results.

Joseph Lieberman: Would run Independent due to Lamont’s single-issue candidacy

A: What a Democrat means to me is what it meant in 1960 when President Kennedy summoned my generation into public service. In our time, the Democratic Party has been the great hope of people rising in our country, and it remains that way.

[My opponent] is running a single issue campaign. He is a single issue candidate who is applying a litmus test to me. It’s not good enough to be 90% voting with my colleagues in the Senate Democratic Caucus. He wants 100%. And when a party does that, it’s the beginning of the defeat of that party. I want Democrats to be back in the majority in Washington and elect a Democratic president in 2008. This man and his supporters will frustrate and defeat our hopes of doing that.

Ned Lamont: I say what I mean, and I mean what I say

Ned Lamont: If Lieberman won’t take on George Bush, I will

Look at the record. Gas prices have doubled. Skyrocketing health care costs are bankrupting families and small businesses alike. Connecticut families are working harder and harder and earning less and less. We’re more dependent upon foreign oil. We’re more dependent upon foreign capital, and we have 135,000 of our bravest troops stuck in the middle of a bloody civil war. And I say that those who got us into this mess should be held accountable.

Ned Lamont: My support is grassroots -- stand up and be clear

A: In terms of support for the Ned Lamont campaign, it’s grassroots support. We have got tens of thousands of people across the state of Connecticut and beyond who want the Democrats to stand up and be counted, be clear about where we stand, think boldly, talk boldly about what we want to do, offer real, constructive alternatives to the Bush agenda.

Right now we have got 63 lobbyists for every Congressman in Washington DC. You have got the best Congress that money can buy. But when it comes to the Democrats, I think it’s important we go down to Washington DC, and start talking about the common good. I think that’s where we make a difference as Democrats, and I think that’s when we start winning again.

Ned Lamont: Democrats should present constructive alternatives to Bush

LIEBERMAN: On Social Security privatization--I looked at it in the late 90s. I decided it was a bad idea. I opposed it in 2000. I voted for resolutions against it. On the day that Pres. Bush started his campaign to privatize Social Security in 2005, I was one of 41 Democratic senators to say explicitly that I think it’s a bad idea, it would hurt Social Security. So why don’t you stop spreading that kind of untruth?