Connecticut's Senator Christopher "Golden Leash" Dodd appeared on Imus this morning, and I think I caught him being less that truthful.

Imus and Sen. Dodd were discussing Senator Lieberman's decision to not withdraw from his Senate race in 2000 in order to commit fully to his run for Vice-President. The question came up when Don Imus asked him if Dodd had decided to run for the Democrat Presidential nomination, would he not have run for another Senate term. Senator Dodd replied (might not be exact, but I transcribed it pretty well):

I don't think anyone expected Joe to walk away from his Senate run, that was a different set of circumstances. Joe was picked in August to be on the ticket [so it was too late for him to withdraw]."

The conversation moved on, and somehow Imus wound up asking if "There were any mayors of cities in Connecticut that weren't under indictment?" Sen Dodd came back with a Zinger, then another selective remembrance:

Well, we've had a perfect record for so long [we wouldn't want to mess it up].

You know, if Joe had stepped out of the Senate race than that guy [Indicted for lots of nasty things and ex-mayor of Waterbury Phil Giordano] could have been a U.S. Senator if he'd run unopposed.

[Ignoring the fact that having a not-yet-indicted likely-felon as a Senator wouldn't really be all the ground breaking.]

Giordano would not have run unopposed. All commentators in the state knew that CT State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has been salivating for years to get such a shot, and the party could have easily picked him to fill Lieberman's space on the ballot. It is also widely acknowledged that Blumenthal, a man whom I personally detest, a man who will sue anyone so long as there's TV camera there to cover the suit, would have beaten Giordano by at least 20 points even without Donk voter fraud.

Nope, 'ol Joe Lieberman simply wanted to hedge his bet. His excuse for not stepping down was the rather lame, almost laughable [Baltimore Sun,October 27, 2000]:

The deadline for Lieberman to drop out is today, but he said emphatically yesterday that he would not do so.

"I really think it would, in many ways, be an act of bad faith if I pulled out at this point," Lieberman said.

That position has caused grumbling in party ranks.

and from the The Boston Herald, November 8, 2000

In New Haven, Conn., Gore's running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, voted for himself twice - once on the presidential ballot and once for his re-election to the Senate. "That felt good," Lieberman said as he left the voting booth. Lieberman's wife, Hadassah, wept as she voted for her husband. Lieberman's refusal to step down from his Senate race infuriated many Democrats. If Gore is victorious, Lieberman will have to leave the Senate, leaving GOP Gov. John Rowland to appoint a GOP replacement.

That move could be costly to Democrats' hopes of taking back the Senate, especially if the results last night left left both parties in a 50-50 deadlock.

The Connecticut Senate Spin Machine is already working on damage control for 2004, hoping to remove all memory of the fact that Joe Lieberman selfishly ran for both his Senate seat and for the VP slot, risking Donk control of the Senate, just because he had no faith that he and Al would win.

Sorry, Senator Dodd, this one isn't quite ready to go down the memory hole just yet.