Mr. John Dunster
Publisher- Greenwich Time and Stamford Advocate

Dear Mr. Dunster,
When Greenwich Time cleaned house a few weeks ago, we Democrats in this town hoped that the long era during which the newspaper actively denigrated and insulted Democrats might just come to an end.  Sadly, we were wrong.  One had only to glance at the December 3 edition of Greenwich Time to understand that dissing Democrats remains an honored tradition at the paper.  That edition, under the front page headline "Inauguration day 2007", highlighted large color photos of the new Republican first selectman Peter Tesei and his family and, just below that, Republican selectman Peter Crumbine and his family.  Where was Democratic selectman Lin Lavery's photo?  Predictably, Greenwich Time buried her black-and-white photo showing her being sworn in by Connecticut's attorney general and Greenwich resident Richard Blumenthal on page four.  Never mind the fact that Lavery soundly defeated Crumbine in their head-to-head race, winning in the process nine of the town's twelve electoral districts, and almost winning a tenth.  In typical Greenwich Time style, she was predictably dissed by having her photo shunted into the paper's inner recesses.  

Much of my Monday was spent anticipating the loss of an old friend. I live in sight of the Cutty Sark at Greenwich. Like many London schoolkids, I was taken there to get an appreciation of the country's maritime history. One of the joys of moving to my present apartment was the view downriver to see her and the surrounding buildings. I knew the Christmas season had arrived when I saw the tree and its lights lashed to the top of her highest mast.

It was not only to be a loss for me, she was part of a World Heritage site. She was the only surviving tea clipper from the 19th century and was the never quite the fastest but was one of the most beautiful, elegant and functional. A true queen of the seas even if she had become a bit sorry in her dry dock in recent years.  The disaster was even more profound when the police announced that the fire was suspicious. Had vandalism destroyed what wars and  nigh on 150 years of changing economics and wars could not? Would the course for the 2012 Olympic Marathon lose one of its landmarks?

Slowly though, later in the day, better news started to emerge. Hope is starting to rise that she may emerge not quite the same but better than could be anticipated even on Sunday. 

A new mailing I just received from the Shays campaign touts Chris's- get this- "fiscal responsibility".  No joke.  It says right on the front that "Christopher Shays has a record of fiscal responsibility".  Shall we review the facts?

In less than six years during which the Republican Congress, with Shays a senior member of the controlling majority, and the Bush administration teamed up to run the economy, the federal debt of the United States has blown out by 50%.  As a percentage of GDP, that's the biggest increase in peace time in the history of this country.  And for two of those years, Shays served as vice-chairman of the House Budget Committee!  "Fiscal responsibility"?  Give me a break!! 

Following is an intriguing column by Greenwich Time columnist Sarah Darer Littman, who writes from Ned Lamont's hometown.  

In recent weeks, I've become increasingly incensed by the attempts by the campaign for Joseph Lieberman to paint those who criticize the senator's actions as "anti-Semitic." A recent letter to the editor from a Mr. John P. Gawlack of Stamford disputed that voter backlash against Lieberman was really the result of his unceasing support of the Iraq war, because: "Other prominent Democrats (Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Chris Dodd) voted for the war, yet have avoided the vilification being heaped upon Lieberman."

Connecticut voters will be excited to learn that Ned Lamont isn't the only Greenwich Democrat seeking to make history this year.  The intrepid Democrat, Ed Krumeich, is seeking to pull off a feat that has not been achieved for seven decades: win a seat in the Connecticut House of Representatives from the town of Greenwich as a Democrat!  And let's all hope that he succeeds.  For Ed Krumeich is running against one of the most conservative, out-of-the-mainstream Republicans in the entire Connecticut General Assembly- Dolly Powers.

Following is my letter to the publisher of Connecticut's Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time.

Mr. Durham Monsma
Publisher-Southern Connecticut Newspapers

Dear Mr. Monsma

I found yesterday's article by Brian Lockhart in your publications to be absolutely shameful.  Your papers' coverage of the Lamont-Lieberman race and others has long been biased, but Lockhart's efforts to amplify Joe Lieberman's attempts to paint Ned Lamont as a racist are reprehensible.  

Lieberman has been making a lot of his attacks on Lamont based on the basis of Lamonts voting 'with Republicans 80% of the time.'  For something that makes up so much of Lieberman's campaign, this attack holds up poorly to scrutiny.

The problems:  

The math is deceptive, and deceptive by design.

Local issues are different from national ones - siding with Republicans may make a lot of sense, if their policies are sensible.  This is especially true in Greenwich, which is a pretty unusual town.

The real issues become the individual votes.  We can clearly find Leiberman votes that we disagree with, what about Lamont?

Details below the fold.

After reading David Brooks' screed yesterday about the "Liberal Inquisition" we are apparently carrying out against anti-war Democrats, I couldn't help but do a double-take when someone pointed me to two letters which appeared side-by-side in a Connecticut paper today.  

Brooks claims that we're a bunch of rabid sheep, or fodder for loose cannons, or agents for his arch-nemesis, Barbra Streisand, or... I don't know, I can't keep up with all the oxymoronic descriptions of This Thing of Ours that are spewing forth from the Right Wing Hate Noise Machine.

But these two letters - I was almost tempted to black out the names of the candidates to see if you could tell.  They tell the opposite story of the fable Brooks is spinning.