Good grief!

It seems like it's the days of Richard Goodstein are happening all over again as the Liebergoons went after Ned earlier today at a SENIOR CENTER (man, those jerks are lucky I wasn't there).

TRex from FDL filed this report.

Day Two of the Big Bad Bus Tour isn't exactly off to a good start. This morning's first rally was to be outdoors at the Percival Smith Towers Senior Center. Before the event was even underway, a crowd of Lieberman supporters turned up. They have a fake voting booth set up in the bed of a Toyota 4¥4 and speakers that play that insipid jingle, ("When you're in the voting booth/Watch out for the LieberYouth...") over and over and OVER. It looks like a porta-potty on wheels and the music coming out of it is akin to the smell one would expect from such an enclosure.

They started out at the street, holding signs and chanting, a clot of 25 to 30 thick-necked Young Republican types. Then they moved up the driveway to the Senior Center and blocked the bus. They formed a noisy, chanting mob around the bus door and blocked anyone from getting out. Eventually Ned and some others managed to push out through the crowd, but the noise only increased and the LieberYouth pressed tighter, chanting so that the news cameras and microphones couldn't pick up a word Ned was saying.

It was an ugly and intense little scene. The few seniors who had come outside were rushed back in by the Percival Smith staff. I did manage to ask one bright-eyed little senior lady what she thought of all this, but she just pointed at her temple and twirled her finger in the universal sign for "crazy" and then she was whisked away by a staffer.

So this is what it has come down to, Mr. Lieberman? Sending your thugs out to physically intimidate old people? Nice. Classy.

Yes folks, you read this right. Joe Lieberman sent his goons to go and cause a HUGE scene at a SENIOR CENTER. Classic Lieberman tactic...why am I not surprised since I've seen these goons in action throughout the summer.

Remember, Joe Lieberman will do anything to get re-elected:

* Lieberman threw the Democratic Party under the bus by actively looking for Republican support therby placing the Congressioanl Democrats in trouble.

* Lieberman's campaign passed out race-baiting flyers throughout the African American community days before the primary, accusing Lamont of not caring about race-relations (although he taught at an inner city high school in Bridgeport and the quote Lieberman used in the flyer was TOTALLY taken out of context).




* During the primary, holy Joe sent his D.C. lobbyist buddy Richard Goodstein and his Liebergoons to disrupt several Lamont (FYI: this was teh same time Joe dished out 387,000 in petty cash). Two of the most memorable events was the disgusting incident at Ted's in Meriden and the blowup from Goodstein at a Lamont event in Greenwich days later.

First, Teds:

Ned walks into Ted's Steamed Cheeseburgers for the event, and the 3 or 4 booths inside are already packed, as are some of the counter seats, with about 15-20 teenagers and one older gentleman, many of whom had asked for and received Ned Lamont stickers from the Lamont staffers organizing the event. Ned says hi to the owner. As Ned starts talking, the teenagers reveal Lieberman T-shirts. The older gentleman starts yelling "Are You an Al Sharpton Democrat or a Bill Clinton Democrat?" and something along the lines of "because Bill Clinton has the support of everyone and Al Sharpton only has the support of..." trailing off. Ned decides to leave, with his staff fearing for his physical safety.

The entire scene moves outside, where about 6 reporters are there, witnessing the entire spectacle. A near melee ensues as at least 5 of the Lieberman kids continue to yell and scream at Ned and get physically abusive with Lamont staffers, even bloodying a photographer's nose.

A Lamont supporter at the scene noted the Lieberman staffers looked "red in the face" with anger.

Ned attempts to talk with a 90-year-old WWII veteran pilot from Virginia who wanted to discuss his opposition to the Iraq war. The Lieberman kids scream accusations about Ned's patriotism, spewing right-wing bile accusing him of not caring about our troops, and questioning whether he would (not verbatim) "let our citizens die again," assumedly a reference to 9/11.

One reporter goes up and tries to ask some of these kids whether they are volunteers or paid staffers for the Lieberman campaign. The kid screams in response, "Let me see your credentials!" The reporter produces said credentials. The kid replies "those are fake." None of the 15-20 Lieberman kids there would admit to being paid staffers. Nor would they tell the reporters their names, or any other personal information.

This event was even reported on in GQ magazine. For those who are new here, lets go back in time and revisit the scene.

The next stop is just a few miles away at Ted's, a famous cheeseburger shack in town. Ned greets some supporters on the patio outside, and then we file inside to get our steamed burgers. It's small and crowded in here, and though the drill is to stay as far out of the candidate's way as possible, I get pinned right up against Ned in the crowd. Then, all of a sudden, everyone in the restaurant, in the booths and at the counter, everywhere, simultaneously pulls on a white Lieberman T-shirt. It takes a second to process what's happening. "Oh, my God," Ned says. "It's the Lieber people." They start heckling Ned aggressively, using campaign attack lines about taxes and how for sixteen years, until right before this campaign, Ned belonged to a country club in Greenwich that has almost no black members. Most of Joe's supporters in Ted's are kids, but there's one big bald guy, the only adult among them, who starts a loud, frenzied inquisition right in Ned's face. "Are you a Bill Clinton Democrat or an Al Sharpton Democrat?"

"They're not mutually exclusive," Ned says.

"No, I'm asking. Answer me! Clinton or Sharpton?" Ned tries to answer, but the guy interrupts: "I worked for Abe Ribicoff. He couldn't play golf at your country club in Greenwich!" When Ned starts to turn away, the guy says, "Don't turn your back on me, Ned!

"Let's keep this civil for the last five days of the campaign," Ned says, and he starts making his way among the Lieber kids, shaking their hands again.

The big bald guy is right in my face now. I ask him where he's from, what his role is here, and he shouts and wags his finger and demands my credentials, yelling to the crowd that I'm not a legitimate reporter and I must be with Ned. Suddenly, I realize the goal here is to provoke Ned into overreacting on-camera. And if not him, then someone on his staff. And it's working; I want badly to take a swing at this lunatic, and I'm not even on the campaign. I flash back to yesterday and the Banana Man and the thug yelling at Tom Swan, "Hit me! Do it!"

...and again, here's a videocip of Goodstein and the goon's in action days after the Ted's incident (pay attention to the reporter who questions Goodstein about the Ted's incident).
Classic Lieberman playbook, whine about people attacking him while he send out his goons to do the dirty work going as far as making a scene AT A SENIOR CENTER.

Is this the type of person you want representing you in Washington?

UPDATE: I hearing reports from all over the place about the Liebergoons and more stuff is popping up on the blogs about what happened. Click here for David Sirota's report. I'll keep everyone updated if I hear more...