Jonathan Tasini: Hillary’s Ned Lamont?

It has become quite broadly recognized that Joe Lieberman is at serious risk of losing the Connecticut Democratic primary (coming up August 8) to challenger Ned Lamont, who has been championed by several bloggers. Hillary Clinton has a challenger in New York as well, who seems to have been making some headway without much blog notice. "Jonathan Tasini doesn't look like a political threat to anyone. But he has become a thorn in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's side," reports Raymond Hernandez for the NY Times. Tasini is trying to collect enough signatures to get his name on the September 12 primary ballot, and has managed to gain endorsements from the Village Independent Democrats, Brooklyn Democrats for Change, Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats and the Downtown Independent Democrats. Hernandez says Tasini "recently went on a 600-mile bicycle ride around the state and gathered 2,500 signatures for the antiwar resolution he introduced at the state Democratic Party convention." And "As it turned out, party leaders worked furiously to block the resolution from going to a vote in order not to embarrass Mrs. Clinton." Moreover, and of particular note, Tasini once before played David, slaying the Goliath New York Times in the Supreme Court (Tasini v. The New York Times) in a landmark case brought against the paper for ripping off the labor of writers, violating their copyright and using their work in forums without compensation. (Personal interest declared: I am a member of the Graphic Artists Guild, an organization that filed amicus briefs on behalf of plaintiffs in that case.) A month ago, nobody had heard of Ned Lamont either.