Simmons confirms the reason for Cappiello's limp into CT-05

I posted this last week on Cappiello limping into the 5th district:

Hobbled by his connection to the most corrupt group of politicians ever assembled under any political party's history, the GOP's David Cappiello will toss his name into the meat grinder that almost every GOP candidate will have to face in the state of Connecticut because of the meat grinder they have created for the soldiers in Iraq.

Unofficially it began Nov. 7 of last year. Officially the race for the state's 5th District Congressional seat started Wednesday when five-term state Sen. David Cappiello announced - more than 18 months before Election Day - that he's challenging freshman U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy.

"I've accepted that I'm the underdog and that I'm going to have to reach as many voters as I can," Cappiello said in telephone interview during a break from Wednesday's marathon session at the state Capitol. The Danbury senator, a 38-year-old mortgage broker, may be the first Republican to file paperwork for the 5th District contest with the Federal Election Commission, but it's likely he won't be the last.

The state's Republican party took a hit in 2006 when 12-term incumbent Nancy Johnson lost to Murphy and three-term incumbent Rob Simmons lost the 2nd District race to Democrat Joe Courtney.

The GOP... Just call them the hamburger party. No word yet if Joe neocon Lieberman will have any beefs with his fellow Republican David Cappiello, and if he will cross the aisle and support Murphy in the first truly bipartisan move of his recent career.

Yesterday, Connecticut Local Politics points to the fact that even Rob Simmons recognizes that his is the hamburger party and why:

From the LA Times:

Three-term Rep. Rob Simmons of Connecticut, who lost his seat last year by 83 votes, said he turned down an appeal from the GOP to run again in 2008, partly because of the dismal political climate. In a district dominated by Democrats, he said, it has become impossible for even a moderate Republican like himself to win — especially since he voted to authorize the war in Iraq.

The real humour here is that Simmons thinks he is a moderate... Sure he is, and so is his fellow Republicon and RADICAL AMERICAN CENTRIST Joe neocon Lieberman! I like to think of Simmons as a flame broiled member of the hamburger party.

In January I wrote about this mythical "Radical American Centrism" claimed by pure far right wingnuts:

Radical American Centrism: THE BIG LIEberman

The center is such a hard thing to nail down for Joe, at least, as long as it keeps moving EVEN FURTHER to the left of Joe than it was before.

According to C&L:

Military Times: (h/t Hugh)

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation with Iraq?
Approve 35%
Disapprove 42%
No opinion 10%
Decline to answer 12%

A few more stats from Gabe at CLP:

TPM Election Central's Eric Kleefeld neatly rips this absurd argument to shreds (click through to read the whole thing and see the video of McCain making the claim):

First, let's take a look at Connecticut's exit polls. They show that sending more troops had the support of — get this — 15% of voters! Meanwhile, 63% of voters said some or even all troops should be withdrawn, in complete opposition to Lieberman's real position.

Second, given the total number of people who cast their vote for Lieberman, it's nothing short of absurd to say that it's in any way indicative of anything national. According to the final results, a total of 563,725 people voted for Lieberman — in other words, just over half a million in a nation of 300 million people.

Finally, Lieberman won because he was able to misrepresent his views on Iraq, not because voters agreed with his actual views on the subject. Back in July, Lieberman actually said he thought we'd be able to draw down "significant" numbers of troops by now. What's more, Lieberman worked hard to blur the line between himself and Ned Lamont on the Iraq issue. In one ad, for instance, he spoke of wanting to "bring our troops home from Iraq."

PING... Just using "echo location" to point out how much further to the left the people of Connecticut are compared to Joe "Right-Wingnut" Lieberman.

The same RADICAL label should, deservedly, be applied to any of Connecticut's Republican members of the hamburger party.