"I'm Dan Malloy, and I approved these lies."

Prologue: This blog is and always has been pro-Democrat. Bob was a State Democratic convention delegate and Kirby can't remember the last time she didn't vote for a Democrat -- she was national co-chair of Nurses for Dean. And that's why Malloy's behavior is particularly reprehensible to us -- because nobody's ambition is more important than the party.

"I'm Dan Malloy, and I approved this message."

This weekend, Dan Malloy reached a new low in negative campaigning with his latest ad, in which he drags out old Lieberman lies (sourced from a SINGLE New York Times article from 2006, which Malloy absolutely KNOWS has been proven inaccurate) and he accuses Lamont of being unable to tell the truth about "anything".

The ad is despicable for the blatant race-baiting, which Malloy started. Dannel is using a single discrimination claim in 25 years of business as some kind of indicator of Ned's character.

And, he has pushed it in two straight television commercials, and in two straight press releases, which tells us about Malloy's lack of character.

Meanwhile, back in the reality-based universe, Malloy has been sued for discrimination left and right as Mayor of Stamford:

55 human rights complaints were filed against the city of Stamford with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) between July 2004 and July 2009 (http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Sunday-print-exclusive-Racism-in-Greenwich-508827.php) 46 civil rights and discrimination cases were filed in the federal District Court of Connecticut against the city of Stamford between 1995 and 2009 (stats from http://www.pacer.gov/). Dannel, you can't pick and choose what you get credit for as mayor. You're the chief executive. The CEO of the city.

During the tough and occasionally bitter Obama-Clinton contest from 2008, neither candidate came even close to the level of bile spewing from Malloy's campaign. Malloy is getting much closer to Palin's approach in the general, which tells you all you need to know.

Malloy is behaving like a mad man with his increasingly bitter and downright misleading ads. If he can't beat Lamont on the issues, maybe he figures he'll damage him enough with outright lies to slither by on primary day.

Is this the character of the person we want to lead Connecticut?

Ned Lamont has been forced to respond to Malloy's relentless, and increasing toxic attacks. Lamont took the high road four years ago, and he allowed Joe Lieberman the chance to control the political dialog. And Dan Malloy didn't bat an eye before hiring the very same disgusting "political consultants" who helped Joe Lieberman defeat the true Democrat in the race. Those of us who worked on that 2006 campaign feel like it's deja vu all over again as the same baseless attacks are leveled at Ned.

This year it has to be different.

Malloy knows this is his last shot at the big office for which he's been running for at least six years. He chose not to run for Mayor of Stamford last year to "focus on the governor's race."

Actually, he barely won reelection in 2007 with not quite 51% of the vote, and there was a very good chance that he'd have lost if he ran again last year. He's running out of options. Either he goes all out to win THIS race, truth be damned, or he's through with politics and he'll have to go out and try to get a real job without the favors of political office to trade.

This is the reason he's dropping all talk of the issues and going full negative. It's a tried and true last ditch tactic, and Lamont is faced with no choice but to have to fight back. Malloy can't beat Lamont on the issues, but thinks maybe he can win by going dirty.

Judging from all Malloys's self-professed jobs expertise, it shouldn't be too hard to find a job. Maybe he can start his own company and get a taste for exactly how difficult it is to make payroll when you don't have the option of raising taxes to close a shortfall.

Hell, a guy who claims he created 5,000 jobs shouldn't have that much trouble finding himself just one. Maybe he could hook up with Mike Jarjura, who has experience in creating jobs for failed politicians?

In the meantime, Malloy is running the most cynical and dishonest campaign I've ever seen. There's no distancing himself from those enormous lies when at the end of every single ad, you hear him say: "I'm Dan Malloy, and I approved this message."