By Doug Dalena
Stamford Advocate - August 29, 2007
STAMFORD - U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., got an anti-war welcome to his new neighborhood yesterday, but he may not have been around to receive it.
Opponents of the war in Iraq, which the senior senator has supported, handed out leaflets in front of his recently purchased Strawberry Hill condominium yesterday afternoon, then gathered outside the Government Center to protest the war.
Lieberman last week paid $402,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominium on the 10th floor of Hayes House, a 12-story residential building at 44 Strawberry Hill Ave., Town and City Clerk Donna Loglisci said.
A doorman at the building said no one had moved into the home yet. Democratic Registrar of Voters Alice Fortunato said Lieberman had not responded yet to voter registration cards sent to his address.
"He's not a registered voter in Stamford yet," she said.
The former presidential and vice presidential candidate announced in June that he would move back to Stamford after 47 years in New Haven, where he first moved in 1960 to attend Yale University.
Yesterday, several critics of Lieberman's stance on Iraq handed out leaflets near Hayes House urging Lieberman and U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport, to abandon their support for the war.
"Joe's made a comment that when people come and protest at his residence, it's too personal," said Ed Anderson of New Haven, a vocal Lieberman critic.
Anderson created the Web site www.dumpjoe.org during the senator's Democratic primary battle with Greenwich resident Ned Lamont.
"For the families that have lost family members in Iraq, or who have done three or four tours in Iraq, it's very personal."
Anderson, who learned Lieberman's new address from city real estate records yesterday, said Lieberman should be used to protests outside his home, because war opponents have done the same thing in New Haven.
"Are we smiling and saying, 'You can't get away from us?' Yeah, we are, but it's nothing new," Anderson said.
Anderson and John Murphy, who helped organize the leaflet drive and demonstration afterward that drew about 40 people, said Lieberman can expect to see more war protests near his new condo.
"It'll be a somewhat regular event," Murphy said.
Vincent Garramone, who said he has lived in Hayes House for five years, had no problem with Lieberman moving into the building.
"He's just a resident like everyone else," Garramone said.
The extra attention the building will get can hardly approach the hubbub when Lieberman announced his 2004 presidential run across the street at Stamford High School, Garramone said.
"We had trucks and lights out there at 5 a.m." he said.
Garramone said he has mixed feelings about Lieberman's position on the war.
"We shouldn't be there in the first place," he said, but added he didn't want to see Iraqi people left with chaos if the United States withdraws troops now.
People who disagree with Lieberman's politics should still welcome him, said Jeff Moore of 82 Strawberry Hill Ave.
"It'll add some excitement to the neighborhood, maybe," he said.
During the Government Center demonstration, activists called on Shays and Lieberman to support a rapid end to the war, and to vote with the majority of Connecticut residents who now oppose it, according to statistics they cited.
Lieberman, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, has argued that the 30,000 troop surge in Iraq must be given time to work, and that no one should discuss a pullout until after Gen. David Petraeus reports on progress in September.
He has voted against measures calling for withdrawal of troops from Iraq by next April, minimum periods between deployments for military members sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and time limits on deployments to the two war zones. U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. voted for all three measures.
Shays voted against the withdrawal mandate and for a House version of the time-off bill. Last week, Shays said the troop surge is working. He said he supports a timeline for getting out of Iraq but that Democratic plans would be too soon.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
