To the victors belong the spoils, but even losers get their kicks.
To the victors belong the spoils, but even losers get their kicks. 02138 caught up with cable-TV magnate Ned Lamont, the 2006 Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Connecticut.
Many media outfits gave you a lot of credit for setting the Democratic agenda this year. Is it deserved? Our message certainly worked for a whole lot of Democrats around the country. When we got into this race, both parties were sort of bumbling when it came to the war in Iraq. George Bush kept saying, “stay the course,” and Democrats were saying something about “a year of significant transition,” whatever the heck that meant. So I was proud that our campaign spoke up.
What’s your advice for the Dems now that they control both houses of Congress? Be bold.
Are you going to run again? I’m not sure about that.
What’s going to be the defining issue of the next presidential election? There is an extraordinary anxiety about jobs. Will my job be here in six years, and how come my job no longer includes health insurance, or I can’t afford what’s offered, or what’s offered is so skimpy that I feel like I have a sword of Damocles hanging around my neck?
People talk about Clinton Democrats. Is there such a thing as a Lamont Democrat? I think that’s probably a little presumptuous.
You were number 18 on our list of the most influential Harvard alumni of 2006. I can’t believe you had me in front of whoever the hell it was. But keep [number 16, Ted] Kennedy up there. All the guys in Washington . . . were all just extraordinarily tactful the entire way. Not Ted Kennedy. He called me up and gave me a pep talk. [In a Boston accent] ‘I don’t care what people say down there in Washington, I’m with you ’cause you’re right on the issues.’ I love a man that wears his beliefs and his heart on his sleeve.
Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert? Colbert put me on the Report, and I got more feedback on that than anything else I did. Did you hear Jon Stewart’s interview with [Pervez] Musharraf? “Have some tea. Here’s a crumpet. How’s the wife? By the way, where the hell is Osama bin Laden?” It was just right on the money.
Now that politics is off the table for a bit, you could become a correspondent on The Daily Show. I’d love that. I think that would be great.
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