Joe Lieberman's "Tomorrow Tour"

Joe Lieberman's primary campaign: hilariously inept when it's not threateningly desperate.

The first human within reach is Derosier. Joe grabs his hand and embraces him in a full-on man-clench for the cameras, as though Derosier were a faithful supporter who drove out to the mouth of the Norwalk River just because he’s eager to hear more about Joe’s support for bike trails. I turn to the young staffer next to me and say, “Wait, that’s his driver he just embraced!” She shrugs like, No shit, you idiot, that’s how this works. And she’s right. This event might as well be taking place on a soundstage. All that matters is that the manufactured support looks real on the evening news tonight and in the paper tomorrow.

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I get close enough to Joe to ask him if he condones the tactics I saw yesterday. Stories about “Cheeseburgergate” are flying across the blogosphere, and even the Hartford Courant and New York Times reporters are asking Joe about his tactics now. “It’s all part of politics, unfortunately, in this day and age,” he says. But Senator, do you condone the tactics at the machinists’ rally and at Ted’s? He says he doesn’t know anything about those tactics but adds, with righteous indignation, that he did see a picture in this morning’s Courant “of a Lamont supporter attacking two of my kids.” There you go. That seems to be the plan. Get the Lieber kids attacked and then get righteous. A handler cuts off my follow-up question and escorts the senator out of reach.