Speech to Class on the Upcoming Primary

According to the US Department of Defense, the number of US casualties in the Iraq war is 2558, as of today. The number of Iraqi civilian casualties is estimated to be about 40,000. Regardless of these numbers, Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman continues to support this immoral war, and continues to support an immoral President. As political coordinator of my Teamsters local, and a chapter co-chair of CT working Families, I’ve been well tuned in to the political landscape of CT. During the last couple of months I’ve been a volunteer on the Ned Lamont campaign making phone calls, writing letters to the editor, showing up at events, blogging, and anything else that’s necessary. I’ve come to learn a lot about Ned Lamont, and also Joe Lieberman, and I’ll share that information with you and hopefully convince you why Ned Lamont should be our next US Senator.

First let’s talk a bit about Senator Joe Lieberman. Lieberman has been our Senator for 18 years. He is considered a man of integrity and principles, and I agree. In 2000 he ran with Al Gore as vice-president and Ct was proud of him. Personally, I think it was after that that he began to lose touch with his constituents, the people who elected him. I believe he started to think about himself as a national figure and he was. But he also was elected to represent the State of Connecticut, not the USA.

In a recent debate, Joe claims he voted 90% of the time with his fellow Democrats. Now at first that sounds like he’s a true supporter, but the values in the quality, not the quantity of these votes. Let’s talk about that 10% where he didn’t support his party.

Regarding Free Trade:

Recently Lieberman voted for the Oman Free Trade Act. Oman is a small country with an autocratic government and a poor record on human rights. Among the opposition to this bill were Senator Chris Dodd, CT Democratic Representatives John Larson and Rosa DeLauro, CT Republican Representative Rob Simmons, along with 416 US organizations including the AFL-CIO. As a union member who fights for working people I’m against Free trade acts that don’t include human rights provisions or labor standards. Those types of corporate written agreements hurt workers worldwide, and cost American jobs.

On a Woman’s Right to Choose:

This issue isn’t about whether your for abortion or not, but a woman’s right to choose. During the confirmation hearings for Justice Alito, Joe Lieberman refused to support the Democratic attempt to filibuster the proceedings and thus put off Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Now that Justice Alito is confirmed many women’s groups are concerned the court will overturn Roe vs. Wade, and remove the right for women to choose.

On Social Security & Health Care

At one time Joe suggested privatizing social security. Only one group wins by privatizing Social Security, Wall St. Brokers. Now he says he’s against privatization, can we really trust him to protect it? And it’s the same with universal health care. In the past he voted against universal health care, specifically in 1994 when President Clinton had an ambitious plan to give health care to every American. Now Lieberman’s website says quote” Fighting for Universal health care”. Can we believe him?

I gave you 4 instances of Lieberman not supporting his party, and I didn’t even mention the war in Iraq, which 70% of the people of CT are against. What really upsets me about Joe Lieberman’s support for this war is that he came out and scolded us who are against it, reminding me of Nixon back in the days of Vietnam.

Now a word about Ned, Ned’s is a successful businessman from Greenwich who started his own cable company which continues to prosper. Even though he was financially well off, he chose to give back to the community not by making a cash donation but by volunteering to teach in a public school. You’re probably thinking he volunteered to teach in a nice comfortable community like Greenwich, or Darien, but no. He chose to teach at Bridgeport high, which I guess could be a bit challenging. I think that says a lot about the man Ned is.

On the issues Ned would be considered a progressive Democrat.

He believes in universal health care, concerned that we’re spending $250 million dollars a day in Iraq but we can’t make health care affordable and available to all Americans.

He believes that health care is a right and not a privilege, as some in this country feel.

He believes in free trade, but only strictly-enforced fair trade policies which level the playing field, and include strong labor, human rights, and environmental standards.

He believes in a woman’s right to choose, and says he would have supported the filibuster to block Judge Alito’s appointment to the Supreme Court.

He believes it’s time to get our soldiers out of harm’s way and bring our men and women home from this ill conceived war in Iraq.

Recently I had the opportunity to meet Ned Lamont. Working Families shares office space in Hartford with ACORN, which is a community group. Ned was coming to ACORN to interview for the endorsement and ACORN invited us to sit in. Now it’s been my experience that whenever I meet a politician, especially one I support and put on a pedestal that I walk away less than impressed a disappointed. It wasn’t the case with Ned. I found him to be down to earth, thoughtful, and truly interested in ACORN’s issues. I was actually pleasantly surprised for a change.

Now you’ve heard a bit about Ned Lamont and I hope you will consider supporting him. If you’re a registered Democrat please vote for Ned Lamont on Aug. 8th. If you’re a registered independent you can change your affiliation to vote in the Democratic primary, then change back to independedent after August 8th. Now Jay Leno once said that if God wanted us to vote he would have given us candidates worth voting for. Well, at least in this case he did and his name is Ned Lamont.