The picture:This was originally part of a
post about the Lieberman campaign by Jame Hamsher over at Huffington Post.
Derived from this: (note the costume change)
Subsequently, the image was removed from that website and Jane issued an
apology of sorts.
Creating and using that picture:
- Was wrong.
- Was offensive.
- Was stupid.
Lamont was beginning to pull away from Lieberman in the latest polls, with the election a week away, and did not need this kind of "support".
There have been defenders of Jane (e.g.
Digby), but I cannot join them. For all Joe's faults - and there are many big ones - he does not deserve this.
Lieberman has
said:
Before I got into politics, my first act of public service was in the civil rights movement. I marched with Dr. King 40 years ago, I went to Mississippi to fight in 1963 for the right of African Americans to vote.
Which, while long ago in the past, should count for something. (And yes, I'm aware of the flyer about Lamont and his country club membership.)
For the record: This blog sees Joe's defeat in the Connecticut as very important in terms of getting the Democratic Party back on track. Lieberman had been associated with many odious causes and characters, as outlined in
this TAPPED entry. He was a major impediment in getting a clear message out about where Democrats stand because of his cosying up to Republicans. And it mattered more with Joe than with other Democrats,
because he was the Vice-Presidential nominee and not some ordinary Democrat (like Ben Nelson).
Why write this post and put up the offensive picture? Because it's not something that should disappear down the left-blogosphere memory hole. Many people, including myself, learned about the image only after it had been pulled down. But sometimes you have to see what has happened, in all its aspects, in order to render a judgement about what's going on.
UPDATE: Slate's John Dickerson has
written about this incident.
UPDATE2: Jane Hamsher has toned things down. In a subsequent
post at firedoglake, she has an image characterizing the primary as a battle between Lamont, piloting an
F4U Corsair, which has just shot down Lieberman, bailing out of his
A6M Zero.
That's
much nicer, don't you think?
UPDATE3: BagnewsNotes has a
similar position about this isue (and is a Koufax award winner)
posted by Quiddity at 8/03/2006 05:42:00 PM
Thanks, I also missed it.
That image is a real stink bomb.
Jane prides herself on having an original picture with each post and sorta jumped the shark this time.
You neglect to mention the flyer that joe produced and sharpton denounced. The blackface performer traditionally could be described as sympathetic on the surface and paying homage to the slaves and jim crow victims while actually holding and displaying racist views.
I think that is what they were getting at with the picture. Joe is sort of racially sympathetic on the suface but his race baiting of Lamont and his policies show a deep underlying dissonance.
Of course the GOP needs something to latch on to....
Hmm ... I dunno. It's not a jab at African Americans. Unless one says it reminds them of the humiliation of blackface acting by whites.
But the point seems to be that Joe is as offensive as blackface acting by pretending to be a Democrat when he's not.
The image makes a subtle point.
But I'm against political suicide, so if it don't make sense, I'm against it.
