Dear Senator Lieberman,

After the shock of defeat wears off you need to grasp and understand that you are out of touch with your voters. After working the polls in East Hartford, I noticed much of your support came from voters blindly supporting John Larson, where he is an icon, not you. Also, you had the support of seniors, but some were not afraid of change. Young people almost knocked me down to get in to vote. Many young were turned away from the polls because of unaffiliation, but they'll return more eager another day. Don't allow your career to crash and burn in humiliation and defeat. By running as an independent you'll be fulfilling one of my poll standing chants, Joe cares about Joe, not about you. As energized as I and other volunteers were yesterday, in a week we will be refreshed and the fight will begin. My goal will be to organize the young and motivate them to vote, and they will not vote for you, regardless of how many paid staffers you employ. Someone with your experience should know that paid staffers cannot compete with dedicated and committed volunteers.

A voter on Election Day approached me at the poll. She was almost in tears because she wasn't allowed to vote. I assumed she was an unaffiliated voter but she said she was a Republican. I was amazed and it's something you should think about. Yes, the Democratic machine did its job in East Hartford, but don’t expect it to happen again.

As a union man I was proud to persuade my local to endorse Ned Lamont. As far as I'm concerned, John Olsen and the AFL-CIO are as out of touch with their rank and file membership as you are with the voters. I'm willing to bet Ned got a pretty good share of rank and file labor, and as a Teamster I'm looking forward to working with the Machinists again, and the rest of labor who will jump on board. Sorry, Joe, but I didn’t see many labor people out working for you.

Over the next few days you’ll have the opportunity to hear from people like Chris Dodd, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and others who will try to convince you to do the right thing for the Democratic Party. I know those words won’t reach you because you do not have a history of Party loyalty, which you prove when you support George Bush’s Iraq War agenda, or when you threatened Roe vs. Wade with your non-support of the Alito filibuster, and when you’re continually supporting Bush’s policies on free trade and other right wing positions. Also, you demonstrated when you ran for Vice-President and kept your Senate seat that you did not care if that seat went to a Republican, and now you’re proving it again with you’re threatened independent run.

So I’m appealing to you to do what’s best for Joe. Take a few days off and reflect, then consider what’s best not for the Democratic Party, not for Connecticut, not for the United States of America, but what’s best for Senator Joseph Lieberman and his family.