What’s So Funny, Joe?

What's So Funny, Joe?

UPDATE (1:50 p.m.): Here's a copy of Joe's flyers.

UPDATE II (2:01 p.m.): Steve Gilliard's got a must read post: How low will you go? He nails it. Shameless Joe, I say.

UPDATE III (5:05 p.m.): Joe stoops to vote buying!

Via Atrios. Wait for it; it's at 1:06 on the You Tube clip counter.

Then there's the bit about Lieberman attacking Lamont's wife. Classy stuff today, huh?

Ned's wife doesn't clip coupons, the horror. Joe's wife lobbies for
Big Pharma. Yikes. Which bothers you most?

Joe is really getting desperate. This is almost as desperate as passing
out racist flyers at a church yesterday. Al Sharpton will be campaigning
for Ned Lamont, joining Maxine Waters, so you've got to wonder why Lieberman
is trying such a stunt.

But via
David Sirota, we find out that Lieberman got one of his supporters to attack
Lamont's wife for not clipping coupons. I'm not kidding you. Funny, last time
I looked Mrs. Lieberman didn't either.

Sen. Lieberman has long been known to cultivate the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, which provide jobs in his home state and contributions to his campaign fund. But he has literally been sleeping with one of their Washington representatives ever since his wife, Hadassah, joined Hill & Knowlton last year. The legendary lobbying and PR firm hired her as a “senior counselor” in its “health and pharmaceuticals practice.” This news marked Hadassah Lieberman’s return to consulting after more than a decade of retirement. “I have had a life-long commitment to helping people gain better health care,” she said in the press release announcing her new job. “I am excited about the opportunity to work with the talented team at Hill & Knowlton to counsel a terrific stable of clients toward that same goal.” It would be uplifting to imagine that Hill & Knowlton—after spending the past decade as a defendant in tobacco class-action lawsuits because of its role in propaganda disputing the deadly effects of smoking—is now devoted to improving everybody’s health. More likely, the firm remains devoted to improving the profits of its clientele, which has historically included Enron, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, Saudis, Kuwaitis, American International Group and Boeing. When a senator’s wife works for one of the capital’s largest lobby shops, appearances tend to matter. In this case, something happened immediately that didn’t look very good. Mrs. Lieberman signed up with Hill & Knowlton in March 2005. The firm’s clients included GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharmaceutical giant that manufactures flu vaccines along with many other drugs. In April 2005, Sen. Lieberman introduced a bill that would award an array of new government “incentives” to companies like GSK to produce more vaccines—notably patent extensions on other products, at a cost of billions to governments and consumers. … Joe Conason

It seems Mr. Lieberman has forgotten his own record, especially where heathcare
is concerned. When your wife lobby's for Big Pharma it's really rich to slam
your opponent for not clipping coupons. But the real issue on this does get
down to something very imporant: healthcare reform.

As a matter of fact, John Kerry has an op-ed
today and did a speech
on healthcare earlier today.

Ned Lamont is another Democrat who expects our senators to do more than be married to Big Pharma.

… Mr. Lamont, campaigning heavily among black voters who are expected to play an important part in determining the outcome, continued to stress his opposition to the Iraq war. He called it a “defining issue” in the Democratic primary and framed nearly every other issue on his agenda in terms of the cost exacted from it by that conflict. “How come we can afford to spend $250 million a day over there in Iraq, and we can’t afford health care for each and every American as a basic right?” he asked a congregation at the Zion Baptist Church in Waterbury. Referring to an entrepreneurship class he teaches, he added, “How come we’re spending all that money over there, and I’m teaching at a high school in Bridgeport that’s shutting down at 2:30 in the afternoon, and too often these kids are coming home to an empty house?” … For Rivals in Connecticut, a Dash to Pick Up Votes