The Kiss Of Death, Part II

Both the Bush Regime and the Lieberman Camp are denying that this happened, which only convinces me that it must have happened (from ABC's World Newser blog):

According to a close Lieberman adviser, the President's political guru, Karl Rove, has reached out to the Lieberman camp with a message straight from the Oval Office: "The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do."

But in a year where even some Republican candidates are running away from the President on the campaign trail, does this offer have any value to Lieberman? Still smarting from all that coverage of "the kiss" at last year's State of the Union, the Lieberman camp isn't looking for an explicit endorsement. That could create more problems than it solves.

The White House might help Lieberman by putting the kibosh on any move to replace the weak Republican candidate, Alan Schlesinger, with a stronger candidate.

And it might be able to convince Schlesinger to drop out of the race and endorse Lieberman in the final week or two, when it's too late for another candidate to fill the GOP slot. A quiet White House effort to steer some money in Lieberman's direction is another possibility.

This is a tricky dance for Lieberman. He needs to figure out a way to get the benefits of Bush support -- some votes from loyal Republicans -- without turning off the independents and moderate Democrats he needs to win. The safest course may be a polite "thanks but no thanks" to the White House offer.

Obviously, the Lamont Campaign should immediately go on the offensive and start running ads with this Rove/Lieberman connection as its centerpiece. The ad should simply state that World Newser blog at ABC reported that Karl Rove reached out to Lieberman after his defeat in the primary and offered whatever assistance Bush could give him. The commercial should then feature an image of Bush as a puppetmaster making his little Lieberman puppet dance.

The GOP and the Lieberman campaign would, of course, be outraged, would once again deny that such a contact took place, and would probably even threaten to sue, meaning that the ad would received lots of free air time on CNN and FauxNews.

In other words, it would put Lieberman and the GOP on the defensive, and that's exactly where they need to be during the entire run-up to November's mid-term. If Lieberman and the GOP attack Lamont -- which they will certainly do if Tony Snow's comments today regarding the "extreme left" of the Democratic Party are any indication -- then Lamont should simply respond with a the most vicious counterattack possible and continue attacking all the way to November 7.