Donors say Lieberman will be well-funded

Crossing party lines
Bialosky said, “I’m not going to be happy if Lieberman votes for (Nevada Democrat) Harry Reid” as Senate Leader and “I don’t agree with him on most issues,” but “he is so clear on this issue” of defeating jihadists that he deserves support.

A Republican campaign fund-raiser based in Washington, who spoke on condition that he not be identified by name, said, “There’s a definite sense among a significant number of the Republicans who I deal with that Joe Lieberman is a man of principle and a man we should support.”

This fund-raiser said he’ll contribute money to Lieberman’s campaign and raise money for him.

He noted that there is a school of thought in GOP ranks that sees Lamont as extreme in his views and would like to see him win in November. These Republicans think it would be tactically advantageous for their party to have Lamont in the Senate during the run-up to the 2008 presidential campaign so that they could say to voters, “Look at what we’re running against.”

But this source said he himself didn’t take that view, saying “There are a lot of people who’d like to say to Moveon.org, ‘It’s dangerous to squelch bipartisan leaders like Joe Lieberman.’”

Moveon.org is the anti-Bush group which worked to defeat Lieberman in last Tuesday's primary. Last week Moveon.org's Eli Pariser said the group members "made 77,000 calls to get Connecticut voters to the polls and put Lamont over the top."

GOP leader non-committal
In an interview Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman pointedly refused to endorse the official Republican nominee, Schlesinger.

“My leadership in the state (of Connecticut) has said to me you ought to stay out of this one,” Mehlman told NBC’s David Gregory. He also said he was not endorsing Lieberman.

As of the beginning of July, Schlesinger had $75,000 in his campaign war chest, a pittance compared to the $2 million Lieberman has. Schlesinger is likely to remain a negligible factor in this race.

On Fox News Sunday Lamont addressed the question of Israel’s security by saying, “We've destabilized the Middle East and we've done nothing for Israel's security” by sending troops to Iraq.

Some Democrats who are supporters of Israel are uneasy about Lamont’s embrace of Al Sharpton who clashed with Jewish leaders in New York in the 1980s and 1990s and Jesse Jackson who once famously embraced Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat.

Other say Lamont’s statements supporting Israel don’t put him in the same league with Lieberman.

“Lamont has made good statements on Israel. I wouldn’t want to equate that with Joe Lieberman’s record,” said Forman. “He has been there for 18 years. It would be hard for anybody to have a comparable record” of support for the U.S.-Israel relationship.

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