From the RepublicanAmerican:
His great-grandfather, Thomas W. Lamont, was chairman of J.P. Morgan. A wealthy progressive pacifist, he was the sugar daddy for the American Communist Party and other extreme left-wing organizations. His wife, Florence, belonged to such subversive groups as the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship and American Committee for Friendship with the Soviet Union.
Their son, Corliss Lamont, was an unapologetic Stalinist and atheist. Congress once declared him “probably the most persistent propagandist for the Soviet Union to be found anywhere in the United States.” As national chairman of The Friends of Soviet Russia, he refused to condemn Josef Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s. For 22 years, he was director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been financed by communists and dedicated to advancing Marxism since its inception and to this day seeks to impose socialism and atheism on America. He also chaired the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee for 30 years, during which time he fought efforts to root out Soviet spies and sympathizers in the U.S. government and military. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from New York in 1952 with the American Labor Party and in 1958 with the Independent Socialist Party; both parties fronted communist causes. Near the end of his life, he befriended Cuba’s Stalinist tyrant, Fidel Castro.
Two things to remember about this LaMont episode:
1. LaMont’s victory is not a problem for the Republicans; it’s a problem for the Democrats.
2. Republicans shouldn’t lift too many fingers to help keep Lieberman in office, and they shouldn’t shed too many tears if he loses the general election. Lieberman is a raving liberal on almost everything except Iraq; losing him will not tilt the balance in the Senate such that national policy could change. On everything else, it’s virtually a wash whether Lieberman’s in or LaMont’s in.
There are only so many seats in the Senate that can be filled by nuts like LaMont, and as recent history has shown, it doesn’t take but a couple of these loony voices to push most Senate Democrats rightward on issues like Iraq and the war on terror. Not only will it not be the end of the world if LaMont gets elected, it could be the beginning of a rightward surge among Senate Democrats, as they seek to put distance between themselves and the LaMont crazies.
Magnolia Tribune
