Wesley Clark joins Lamont on the campaign trail
 

October 7, 2006
By Brian Lockhart | Staff Writer | The Advocate

DERBY -- During his 38-year military career, retired Gen. Wesley Clark faced the Viet Cong and former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

But yesterday, drawn into Connecticut's U.S. Senate race, the general was opposite an elderly Housatonic River Valley resident with the nickname "Wild Bill" who wants to see Democratic U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman re-elected.

"I like Joe," Clark told William Menna, Ansonia's former Republican mayor, as local and national media pressed in around the table at McDonald's. "But I'm very disappointed in him."

Clark campaigned yesterday with Ned Lamont, the Greenwich businessman who defeated Lieberman in August's Democratic primary.

The three-term senator has petitioned his way onto the ballot as a minor-party candidate. Though calling himself an "independent Democrat" he enjoys substantial support from Republicans such as Menna.

The retired general and Lamont, en route to an afternoon rally at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, made a mid-morning stop at the McDonald's on Division Street in Derby. A group of veterans regularly gathers there for breakfast.

"Do something 'wild' on Nov. 7," Lamont urged Menna before he turned to greet other patrons and Clark took his argument against Lieberman to the press.

"He rubber-stamped a mistaken war and he's rubber-stamped it all the way through," Clark said.

During the primary, Lamont tapped into voter anger over the Iraq invasion and many Democrats' belief that Lieberman has become a supporter of President Bush and the GOP-led Congress.

Clark and Lieberman unsuccessfully sought the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. The general was initially hailed by many Democrats as the party's best candidate to defeat Bush because his credentials as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO lent credence to his opposition of the Iraq war.

Lieberman has tried to paint Lamont as having several positions on the future of Iraq and used a similar strategy against Clark during the presidential primaries. During one debate, he accused the retired general of taking "six different positions on whether going to war was a good idea."

Clark yesterday said "you must not send people to war unless it's a last, last, last resort" and feared the Bush administration is heading down the same path with Iran.

He said for all of his experience in the Senate, Lieberman was unable to discern that the Iraq invasion was a mistake, leaving all of the war-torn country's problems "dumped on men and women in uniform."

Although this was Clark's first public appearance in Connecticut for Lamont, a national group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans he helps advise -- VoteVets -- began running ads in early September accusing Lieberman of not asking enough questions in the buildup to war.

Last week, Clark e-mailed his national list of supporters saying he is proud to endorse Lamont.

Menna, who served in the Navy in World War II and Korea, afterward called Clark "a good man," but his admiration for the general will not translate into a vote for Lamont.

"Joe and I go back a long time. He's done a damn good job," Menna said. "To break in a new man at this stage I don't think would be good for the state and country."

But Lamont appeared to enjoy plenty of support from many of the other veterans.

"We've got to get. . . out of there," said Clarence Douglas, who served in the Army in World War II. He called Iraq a "holy war" the United States cannot win.

Joseph Vicdomino, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10585, said he and his fellow veterans are tired of Lieberman and the war.

"It should have never been," Vicdomino said. "You can't change religious feelings going on for over 1,000 years."

But Vicdomino and some other veterans appeared confused about Lamont's position on another issue -- criminalizing flag desecration. They were angry with Lieberman for his opposition to a constitutional amendment to make burning the American flag illegal.

Vicdomino said Lamont plans to "look into it."

Asked on his way out of McDonald's if that was true, Lamont said he honors the flag but the country does not need such an amendment.

"That's too bad," Vicdomino said when told of the candidate's response.

But the veteran said he will still vote for Lamont. "We need a change anyway," Vicdomino said.