Ned Lamont, the challenger to Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary, the candidate of the Kos Kidz who preen that they "speak truth to power" can see that he is in trouble, and is trying to lie his way out. Apparently he has forgotten how that worked out for Richard Nixon in Watergate.

You see someone very close to his campaign, Jane Hamsher, secure in the knowledge that only conservatives can be racist, posted an outrageous photo—shop job of Joe Liberman in black—face makeup, like a minstrel singer of old, and then when it proved embarrassing, consigned it to the memory hole with no acknowledgement. Until caught.

If the old media still had their monopoly, they might have gotten away with it. But Just One Minute and Michelle Malkin are on the case.

Here's part of JOM's latest post:

Ned Lamont may make a great politico after all, since he seems to have already mastered a key part of the job — when in trouble, lie.  Here he is in the WaPo ducking the Lieberman—blackface debacle caused by blogger Jane Hamsher:

Lamont brushed past reporters Wednesday night in Bridgeport, saying: "I don't know anything about the blogs. I'm not responsible for those. I have no comment on them."

Michelle Malkin hangs a No Sale on this — here is a Hartford Courant story about Jane and Ned's excellent adventure with the Steve Colbert show:

Lamont arrived with an entourage: His wife, Annie; their campaign driver, Marc Bradley; a blogger, Jane Hamsher; and Bill Hillsman, the creator of his offbeat ads, one of which was played weeks earlier on `The Colbert Report.'

Not a large entourage at all — one might think Ned would have had a chance to chat with Jane on the ride to the studio and learn about blogs.  Or perhaps, since Ms. Hamsher is a Hollywood producer, he was getting the benefit of her media experience.

If you would prefer something visual that is not too abysmal, here is Jane putting those Hollywood skills to work by directing Ned in a commercial.  Gee, did she introduce herself and mention what she was doing for the campaign, or just start ordering him around?

Various polls and pundits would have us believe that the GOP faces an electoral disaster in November. Maybe so. We'll see. But the big problem for Democrats is that they can't just run as "the other guy." They have to be actual people. And many of the actual people who fancy themselves in the vanguard of the party, people like Lamont, Dingell and McKinney, have a tendency to say stupid things when they pander, and they pander a lot.

Clarice Feldman   8 03 06

Ed Lasky adds:

One wonders how Maxine Waters feels about this affront to the black community. Maybe she won't be offended at all, since she dismissed Lamont's membership in an all—white country with a wave of the hand. But, perhaps, other members of the Congressional Black Caucus might reconsider their takeback of a promise to campaign for Joe Lieberman. After all, he has been a friend to the black community and he would never associate with a person who would run such an insensitive and offensive caricature.

The Weekly Standard blog writes:

The Worldwide Standard has learned that five members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who had previously agreed to campaign with Sen. Lieberman this Sunday in African—American churches, have apparently backed out of their commitments. I'm told that anti—war groups put heavy pressure on the members to cancel their appearances in Connecticut. The Left's intimidation of Democrats who'd like to support Sen. Lieberman seems to be working in the final days of the primary campaign. And, as I noted in an earlier post, the Left is gearing up against an Independent Joe in November.