Lamont Lies About Association With Hamsher, Huffington A-OK With Blackface Picture

Ned Lamont is facing the blackface controversy (covered in all the major media outlets, thank you very much, Jane!) in the tried-and-true fashion of a scoundrel: by lying through his teeth.

Ned Lamont may make a great politico after all, since he seems to have already mastered a key part of the job - when in trouble, lie. Here he is in the WaPo ducking the Lieberman-blackface debacle caused by blogger Jane Hamsher:

Lamont brushed past reporters Wednesday night in Bridgeport, saying: “I don’t know anything about the blogs. I’m not responsible for those. I have no comment on them.”

Michelle Malkin hangs a No Sale on this - here is a Hartford Courant story about Jane and Ned’s excellent adventure with the Steve Colbert show:

Lamont arrived with an entourage: His wife, Annie; their campaign driver, Marc Bradley; a blogger, Jane Hamsher; and Bill Hillsman, the creator of his offbeat ads, one of which was played weeks earlier on `The Colbert Report.’

Not a large entourage at all - one might think Ned would have had a chance to chat with Jane on the ride to the studio and learn about blogs. Or perhaps, since Ms. Hamsher is a Hollywood producer, he was getting the benefit of her media experience.

If you would prefer something visual that is not too abysmal, here is Jane putting those Hollywood skills to work by directing Ned in a commercial. Gee, did she introduce herself and mention what she was doing for the campaign, or just start ordering him around?

In an open letter to Arianna Huffington that has gone unanswered (but see below), I suggested she sever her tries with Hamsher. Joe Lieberman is demanding the same of Ned Lamont:

The bitter Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut erupted in fresh controversy Wednesday over a doctored photo of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) in blackface that was posted by a blogger who has been an influential promoter of challenger Ned Lamont.

Lieberman angrily demanded that Lamont denounce the action and sever all ties with Jane Hamsher, the founder of the Web log Firedoglake, who posted the photo on another blog, HuffingtonPost.com. She travels with the campaign along with other bloggers. She is not on the campaign staff but has actively promoted Lamont’s candidacy and helped raise money for him through her blog.

While Lamont and his staff lied through their teeth, the Lieberman campaign kept the heat on:

Lieberman called on Lamont to ban Hamsher from traveling with the campaign, refuse to take any money raised by Hamsher and remove any links to her postings on his Web site.

Lamont brushed past reporters Wednesday night in Bridgeport, saying: “I don’t know anything about the blogs. I’m not responsible for those. I have no comment on them.”

Lamont spokeswoman Liz Dupont-Diehl tried to distance the campaign from the photo and said campaign manager Tom Swan had called Hamsher and asked that the picture be taken off the blog. “This was not the campaign’s doing,” she said. “We find it offensive and inappropriate. We asked that it be taken down, and it was.”

But Dupont-Diehl said the campaign will not bow to the Lieberman campaign’s demand that Lamont cut any ties with Hamsher. “She’s not part of the campaign staff,” Dupont-Diehl said. “She’s an independent blogger covering the race.”

She called it “an isolated, nonrepresentative incident” and added: “Ned has been committed to affirmative action and equality. He’s been more active in achieving those goals than many people.”

Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein scoffed at the Lamont campaign’s effort to separate the candidate from Hamsher and her posting.

While noting that Hamsher is not a paid staffer, Gerstein argued that she has been an integral part of the Lamont operation. “She’s been an active part of their campaign,” he said. “She travels with him, she’s raised money for them and has become the primary mouthpiece for him in the blogosphere.”

Hamsher did not return a message left on her cellphone.

Meanwhile, Arianna Huffington, whose blog contained the offensive picture, sees it as just jolly fun:

Arianna Huffington, the founder of HuffingtonPost.com, said that no one from the Web site has asked for the photo to be removed. “We did not ask her, nor would we have asked her,” she said. “It was a satirical point she made in the picture, and there was nothing in the text that was racist, and there is nothing about Jane that is racist.”

I’ll bet some of her best friends are Jews - er, I mean black…

5 Responses to “Lamont Lies About Association With Hamsher, Huffington A-OK With Blackface Picture”

1. 1 Sister Toldjah Says:
   August 3rd, 2006 at 11:30 am

   Ned Lamont’s Stroker Ace moment

   Ever seen the movie Stroker Ace? Ok, probably not unless you’re from North Carolina (it was filmed right here in Charlotte at Charlotte Motor Speedway - before they started selling Speedway name sponsorships - in 1982/83) but in the movie there …

2. 2 relish Says:
   August 3rd, 2006 at 1:43 pm

   So is Jane Hamsher an independent agent or not, Mr. Lamont? On the one hand, you deny any knowledge of “the blogs” and insist that Jane Hamsher is not affiliated with your campaign, but when your campaign manager contacts Ms. Hamsher and insists that the offensive photo be removed, poof, it’s gone!

3. 3 mikebdot Says:
   August 3rd, 2006 at 2:23 pm

   I will definitely agree that Hamsher is a pompous windbag, but, who give a crap? Why is this even anything close to resembling news? This is gossip news. Tabloid stuff. I guess you’re just fighting fire with fire (i.e. responding to Hamsher’s gossip tabloid crap with your own?)?

   There are lots of people with a bad sense of humor. Go here for many examples.

   If you want to take Lamont to task for saying “I know nothing about the blogs” go ahead, but the fact remains that the questioning that prompted said response is vacuous pithy tabloid crap.

   In a related topic, Lieberman’s campaign continues to astonish me. He actually said “This is one of the most disgusting and hurtful images that has been used in American history”. Is he serious? I’m glad he’s got his priorities straight, his campaign first, the country second.

4. 4 too many steves Says:
   August 3rd, 2006 at 2:56 pm

   Well, it is a political campaign after all and the record of the incumbant, including his stance on all but one of the issues, is being manipulated in a dishonest way. So, yeah, fight fire with fire I say. It does no good to be right if it means losing the election.

5. 5 Rock_climber02 Says:
   August 13th, 2006 at 10:07 pm

   Its news because Leiberman made it news by commenting on it and demanding Lamont take action. Until then it was a non story

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