Notes From D. R.

Does Massachusetts Democrat gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick have a soft spot in his heart for Joe Lieberman?

You have to think so, considering that Patrick’s current attack on the supposed negative campaigning of Republican opponent Kerry Healey bears a striking similarity to Lieberman’s crusade against Hollywood in the summer of 2000.

Back then Lieberman, who had just been selected as Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 election, lambasted Hollywood for supposedly polluting American culture with objectionable content in movies, TV shows and video games. Lieberman insisted that the marketing of such questionable content to children represented the entertainment industry’s fundamental depravity.

Patrick’s critiques of Healey’s supposedly dastardly ads are filled with the same moral outrage that animated Lieberman’s critiques of Hollywood. Patrick has insisted that Healey’s ads have contributed to a toxic political environment, just as Lieberman insisted that ultra-violent movies and video games contributed to a toxic moral environment. Patrick has suggested that Healey’s "negative campaigning" reflects a lack of ethical restraint on her part–the same lack of ethical restraint that Lieberman accused Hollywood of.

Both crusades are defined by their hypocrisy. No one believed Lieberman when he went after the industry whose artists filled Democrat coffers for decades. No one believes Patrick when he condemns Healey’s "negative campaigning" while at the same time ignoring the negativity coming from pro-Patrick unions whose ads are filled with attacks on the "Romney-Healey administration." In 2000, Lieberman’s attacks on Hollywood represented hypocrisy without equal. Now, in 2006, we’re watching the sequel.

UPDATE: Human Events on the role of race in this race.