Lamont latest Democrat to not get it, and underestimate Rove

Josh Marshall, in not so many words, says Connecticut Democratic Senate nominee Ned Lamont was asleep at the wheel in underestimating Karl Rove, to the degree Rove had a role in getting Joe Lieberman’s independent campaign off to a hot start.

Anyway, the Joe cult aside, I'm more and more getting the sense that Ned Lamont just didn't get, coming off last Tuesday's win, that he was still very much the underdog and had maybe a week to thoroughly dispatch Joe from the race. But he didn't. From what I can tell he went on vacation to Maine right after the primary. And he was scarce for like a week after the primary.

Lieberman, on the hand, went basically beserk right after the vote, which of course he had to do, to make absolutely sure that everyone realized that, as far as he was concerned, his primary loss meant nothing more than a difference in the way he'd be identified on the ballot in November. He was still the senator, still running for reelection. News of his demise had been greatly exaggerated, and so forth.

As Josh’s reader/guest blogger DK plainly says in this post, “Rove is the carnival barker.

Let’s assume that, as I believe is the case, Lieberman and Rove had some sort of contact before the Democratic primary. Given the stridency with which Lieberman was making these noises, shouldn’t Lamont and his camp have operated under the assumption Lieberman had Rove contact, too? And shouldn’t Lamont have been under the assumption that Lieberman, even without Rove help, would have hit the ground running?

DK again:

Look, one of the Dems' problems in recent years is an inability to walk and chew gum at the same time. Rove Republicans throw everything but the kitchen sink into various electoral strategies.

Indeed.

Of course, the DSCC can also be faulted for being asleep at the switch, if not worse. The “worse” is evident when you have former staff from New York Sen. Charles Schumer now working for Lieberman.