History Smiles On One Ned Lamont
A snippet from the Convention I never found the chance to write up: coming back from Denver, as I was boarding the plane, I saw Ned Lamont sitting in first class, staring a little soulfully out the window. Lamont, if you’ve forgotten, schooled Big Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Primary last time out, forcing Lieberman to form the hundreds-strong Connecticut for Lieberman Party.
Lamont, of course, ultimately lost that Senate seat to Big Joe, who was big with Republicans, and who was still openly dissembling about his intentions to end the War and work for a Democratic Presidential candidate in 2008.
Didn’t want to bother the guy, but as I came down the aisle, Lamont turned and I caught his eye, and he seemed approachable.
So I shook his hand and told him that I admired his campaign, and that if we lived in a better world he’d be stumping for Obama as the junior Senator from Connecticut. I told him that Lieberman’s appearance at the RNC would prove the truth of everything Lamont had told the voters of Connecticut in that race.
He seemed to appreciate the thought, and he gave a big smile.
Then, as I was struggling down the aisle, I heard the woman sitting next to him ask, “What did that guy say? What did he say?”
Lamont answered, with an audible touch of pride in his voice, “He said he wanted to shake my hand because I took on Joe Lieberman.”
And then he settled in with a magazine, and at least from the quick final glimpse I got as I hoisted my bag into the overhead bin, the guy seemed not entirely displeased with the world as it was.