It's Not Shaping Up To Be A Party For Lieberman

[kskiska]

In a wobbly November appearance on the "Imus in the Morning" radio program, U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, recently returned from Baghdad, celebrated Iraq's "robust political life." And now Lieberman's about to have some excitement of his own at home. He's not as cheerful about that.

Greenwich millionaire Ned Lamont is strongly considering a challenge against Lieberman for the Democratic nomination to the Senate. Lamont, whose active interest in politics has been limited to developing a dead-on JFK imitation, a run for the state Senate in 1990, service on the state's pension advisory board, raising money for Bill Clinton and working with the liberal think tank the Brookings Institution on budget issues, may have found his unlikely moment.

At 52, Lamont is tan, fit and possessed of an easy confidence that often comes with being born into a fortune and making it bigger. He understands the long odds against succeeding in a primary against an incumbent senator. His interest in making the race springs from issues, not burning personal ambition. Lamont declared in a recent interview in his cable company office that "two things really got my goat." The first was the war in Iraq, which Lamont has opposed from the start. The other was last year's transportation bill with its emblematic millions for the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska.

Iraq, however, is the issue that will drive Lamont's race. He was inspired when hawkish Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., called for a withdrawal of American troops late last year.

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