Behind The Tears of Joy in Connecticut [View All]

[Bob Geiger]

There is so much to be said about the national impact of Ned Lamont's stunning victory in Connecticut's Democratic Senatorial primary on Tuesday and much will be said over the coming days and weeks. Obviously, the main harbinger of change in American politics is that a tireless Lamont, bolstered by a whip-smart and aggressive campaign staff and a passionate and influential blogging community has just made Joe Lieberman only the fourth incumbent senator in a quarter-century to lose his party's nomination.

And a clear signal has been sent to any other Democrats up for reelection and to fledging 2008 presidential aspirants that getting too cozy inside the D.C. beltway and ignoring the interests and values of core constituents is a luxury that has now disappeared.



But, for right now, I can't help but focus on the sheer emotion I felt as I walked around the Four Points Sheraton in Meriden, CT on Tuesday night, high-fiving and hugging strangers and seeing tears of joy coming from so many people celebrating Ned Lamont's astounding victory.

"Thank you. Thanks so much for being here," said a clearly-exhausted Tom Swan, Lamont's dogged campaign manager, as he embraced me and everyone else stepping up to congratulate him on a win few could have imagined just three months ago.

Swan, along with Internet Communications Director Tim Tagaris, appeared almost stoic in victory, as if the heat of political battle and months of incredibly long hours had at first rendered them unable to relax and enjoy what they so richly deserved. And I guess it's because those of us who have written about this race, donated money or volunteered haven't had the same all-consuming, anxious experience as these campaign warriors.

What I think many of us did feel as the returns became final -- and it was clear that Lamont had indeed pulled off a massive political upset -- was made most apparent by a woman I had met earlier in the day, who approached me just after midnight and, with tears streaming down her cheeks, synthesized what many of us were suddenly feeling.

"Can you believe it?" she said, as she embraced me in the middle of the raucous hotel ballroom. "Years and years of being able to do nothing about how our country is run and tonight we've done something this huge."

And as she walked away, I realized that I too was feeling very emotional and that she was absolutely right.

In 2000, we watched the Supreme Court disenfranchise over 50 million Americans who voted for Al Gore and hand the presidency to George W. Bush in what amounted to nothing less than a bloodless coup -- and there seemed to be nothing we could do about it.

Progressives watched as helplessly as all Americans and felt the same pain when we were attacked on September 11 and then saw a corrupt executive branch of government, aided by a clueless legislative branch, take our country into this generation's version of Vietnam. And we have felt that same sense of being able to do nothing to stop it.

We've watched the Bush administration create "clear skies" initiatives that further pollute the planet, spy on Americans without warrants, expose covert CIA agents, violate the Geneva Conventions with wartime prisoners and generally ruin our country's reputation and make us despised throughout the world. And day after day, more deaths occur in Iraq, with no end in sight and nothing happening to suggest that Team Bush, having lied us into a war, has any clue whatsoever on how the hell to get us out.

We've watched all of this with a nauseating feeling that our world is going insane, our ship is sinking and we can do nothing but be dragged down with it.

But the campaign of Ned Lamont offered us all another shot at demonstrable relevance, a chance to take an entrenched, machine-supported, three-term incumbent, who has enabled so many of the things that have brought us pain and do something to run his Bush-loving, pro-war butt out of office.

Working in whatever capacity to support Lamont, has given us all a chance to take that bottomless pit of stored energy and all of that pent-up frustration and funnel it to a place where we actually could shape our world and, at the same time, send a deafening warning shot across the bow of any of our own who want to play by Mr. Lieberman's rules.

In helping make Ned Lamont Connecticut's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate over Lieberman, the message we have sent is crystal clear: Democrats who are not prepared to stand up for the values and beliefs of the Democratic party, can pack their political bags -- because their time is up.

We did that. All of us. And we felt it through and through on election night.



After six years of wondering how our nation could have gone so far off track and feeling so often that the peoples' ability to make change had all but disappeared, we surprised even ourselves by crushing the conventional wisdom, seizing control of the agenda and beginning to draw the world as we want to see it for ourselves, our families and our country.

That's what I believe so many of those joyful tears represented on Tuesday night... The feeling among all of us that, once again, we matter and our voices will be heard -- and that hope for the future truly does still exist.

"Isn't it wonderful?" asked a radiant Congresswoman Maxine Waters as she shook my hand in the media room at almost 2:00 AM on Wednesday morning.

I held on to her hand a long time.

"Yes, Ms. Waters, it certainly is," I said, feeling that emotion yet again. "It certainly is."

You can reach Bob Geiger at [e-mail].