The U.S. Senate campaign exploded today into a demand for an apology and back-peddling between Senator Joe Lieberman's campaign and Ned Lamont. The flap is over an endorsement Lamont got yesterday that seems to have blown up in his face. The late afternoon flap that started yesterday gave the Lieberman campaign apparatus a reason to pounce today. The Senate campaign dust-up following a Ned Lamont news conference yesterday continued to follow him today with the Lieberman campaign demanding an apology.| “When Lamont got the endorsement of the Connecticut Federation of Black Democratic Clubs, former state treasurer Hank Parker of New Haven implied that Lieberman's background and support of the civil rights movement was phony -- an allegation strongly denied and proven wrong by Lieberman later in the day.” |
Caller: "Your campaign has got to come forward with more than just a press release, you've got to hammer that home that you disassociate yourself with that."
Lamont: "Well look, I, I take Joe Lieberman at his word regarding his service back in the 1960's, I disassociate myself from any of the comments at that press conference yesterday."
Did Lamont give the apology the Lieberman campaign asked for? Lamont says, "Look, I think I have. I was happy to get the endorsement of a leading civil rights organization here in Connecticut. There were some comments that came up at that meeting by some of the endorsers one of the endorsers that took me by surprise."
"Don't put this on Hank Parker, uh, this is an open letter to me, um, at a press conference for Ned Lamont," says Lieberman.
Parker issued a statement through the Lamont campaign saying "It is true that he marched with Dr. King, but I believe Dr. King would be disappointed in his record as a senator over the past 18 years." The Lieberman campaign also says that a brochure saying Lieberman is the point-man for the president's plan to privatize social security is twisting the facts.