Im a political man and I practice what I preach

I may not be a high traffic blogger, but I sure know some. Thus, I was lucky to be invited to attend a small private Ned Lamont (D-CT I hope I hope I hope) fundraiser in Los Angeles last night. Hosts were largely Hollywood writers, producers, as well as my buddy Arianna, who because of book tour engagements, wasn't able to attend. John Amato, Jane Hamsher, and Mickey Kaus were among the other bloggers there.

Here is Jane interviewing Ned a while back:



Ned chatted with various groups of us, very at ease, friendly. He did deliver a 15 min. address, the usual talking points, but coming from him, I believe them. While this wasn't a real press event, I did take some notes:

He does believe in Universal Health Care. 47 million Americans have no health insurance, and he's not really happy about that. And America spends 50% more per person than many other fully insured countries. There's some American productivity down the crapper.

He mentioned that Lincoln, the Republican that every Repub today liked to emulate by doing everything that Lincoln was against, funded the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, which gave Federal lands to states for universities. This, he said, was an appropriate use of Federal powers and funds.

He talked about his state of Connecticut having 63 lobbyists per elected Representative and Senator as a bad thing.

He mentioned the newly leaked NIE. Leaked apparently because someone(s) in the intelligence communities don't seem to think like GWBush does, that we are, you know, safer now.

And in re: Iraq, he said that, as a businessman, he believed that often, schedules need to be made, and adhered to. And that it was time to start an over-the-horizon deployment of American troops from Iraq, ending sometime in '07. Time for both sides to put up and shut up.

I spoke with him after, and he agreed to do an email interview with me, which I will post here and at HuffPo. I also spoke with some supporters working and traveling with him, who seem to genuinely like the guy, and believe in him.

Any inaccuracies here are solely my error, by the way. I took largely illegible notes, so I can only go by what I wrote tempered by my memory. I really enjoyed meeting him, and feel he would be a great addition to the Senate.

Far better than Lieberman. Far, far better.