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Sunday, April 09, 2006

CT-Sen: What Is Joe Thinking?

Posted by DavidNYC

Friends, I know we've been down this path before. But it's not my fault Joe Lieberman keeps making me play whack-a-mole. Amazingly, Joe - in his clearest statement to date - has held open the idea of running as an independent if he were to lose the Democratic primary:

I hope there's not a primary. I'm confident if there is one, I'll win it, but I'm not gonna rule out any other option for now....

Kids, if Joe loses the Dem primary, he just can't, can't re-file as an independent. Let me 'splain once again:

[I]ndependent candidates have to submit petitions by August 9th, 2006. It just so happens that the Connecticut primary is on August 8th. In other words, if Joe loses the primary, in order to run as an independent in the general, he'd have to file petitions the very next day.

This is all but a literal impossibility. Joe would have to collect petitions while still running in the Dem primary. Can you imagine such a spectacle? It would be beyond unheard of for a sitting senator to do such a thing. The only real way Lieberman could run as an indie would be if he abandoned the Democratic Party (save your jokes) well in advance of the primary. Otherwise, he's just talking smack. If he loses the primary, he's done, finished, tostada del dia.

Let me tell you this: If Lieberman starts collecting petitions to run as an indy candidate, all hell will break loose. Somehow, though, I very much doubt anything like that would ever come to pass.

Posted at 09:58 PM in 2006 Elections - Senate, Connecticut | Technorati

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Comments

David
I think you're missing another option, as obnoxious as it will sound. Lieberman loses the primary. All of a sudden the GOP candidate (if there even is one) drops out, and Lieberman is chosen to replace him. Forget the legal stuff - Toriccelli, Delay and other have shown that there are ways to replace candidates if the party wants it done. Now how's that for a way for Lieberman to still run?

Posted by: msn1 at April 9, 2006 10:38 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Joe Thinking? What a laugh! Let's just hope that when we wake up from this nightmare on November 8th that the Democrats have at least a TWO seat majority in the U.S. Senate, and Joe becomes irrelevant, hey, he could even switch to the Republican party then and be with his buds.

Posted by: RoscoeRoni at April 9, 2006 10:55 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Hi David! Luv your work!

Dave, you're missing a big something. I know it is incredible to imagine, but there very well could be no primary.

Basically, Joe will watch his internal polls, and if Lamont gets anywhere close, Joe is gone, gone, gone.

He can dump out of the Primary up until 10 days/2 weeks before. (He'd say something like, "I got the Dem endorsement, but I'm worried about the wacko anti-war Dem turnout...")

So it's not a matter of Joe being in two elections. It's whether DEMS will get to decide Joe's fate, and the clear answer is, No!

Posted by: TrueBlueCT at April 9, 2006 10:56 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Forming a new Party
He could form a new Party quietly, I am not sure when they have to be nomitated, by he could create it get, himself nomitated on it as a just incase. CT allows cross endorsements

Posted by: Democraticavenger at April 9, 2006 10:56 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Given the way that DeLay has been willing to play the election process rules, I am wondering what Lieberman's options are here. Does he have the option to drop out of the Democratic primary as TrueBlueCT mentioned? Also, what if the upcoming CT Dem convention results disappoint him? Could he not pull out then and begin an independent candidacy?

I don't ask these questions with any intention of discouraging the Lamont's campaign. Instead, being aware of possible scenarios gives his campaign and all the rest of us the opportunity to plan for contingencies.

Lastly, his threat to run as an independent is just that - a threat. And threats are made by bullies. We cannot allow bullies to threaten us. And if Lamont's challenge is successful, we will get a two-fer-one: we'll get rid of Republican-lite and a bully!

Posted by: phonatic at April 10, 2006 12:24 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Great!

"Democratic"Avenger is a huge CT Lieberman apologist.

"Dem"Avenger--

Joe doesn't have to form a new party. CT has relaxed ballot access laws, and he could just buy a line on someone else's ticket!

Do you ken how pathetic that consideration is? A former V-P candidate so completely out-of-touch that not only is he getting primaried, but it might be a close contest? And his response isn't to look and see where he is wrong. Instead it's to figure out how he might game the system?

Good effing grief! And you somehow support the guy???

Posted by: TrueBlueCT at April 10, 2006 12:25 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

On an aside, I'm beginning to wonder how Lieberman has managed to stick around this long. He just doesn't strike me as a very savvy POLITICIAN. Just think of all the "political tin ear" moments we've seen lately:

1 - Most obvious was his brilliant "Ain't Iraq Grand" campaign strategy to win the Democratic PRIMARY. I sometimes wonder if the Lieberman primary campaign was some sort of twisted form of "The Producers" (with a different ending of course).

2 - His nibbling at the whispers that he was in the running for Bush's Sec. of Defense. That, i think, was the proximate cause of his (to quote Billmon) Strawberry Fields Forever op-ed on Iraq in the WSJ ("nothing is real. . .") If he thinks Bush, Rove, and Rumsfeld are going to give that spot to a Democrat, he's crazy. And more critically, he hasn't been paying attention to anything happening in DC over the past 10 years.

3 - His refusal to go after Cheney in the 2000 debate.

And that's just his political incompetence. That's not even getting at his torture response or his pukey* Clinton-impeachment moralizing or his playing footsie on Social Security.

That guy sucks. That said, I'm not particularly optimistic that the Conn. Democratic rank-and-file pay much attention. I wish everyone were as well-informed as blog readers, but we're not exactly representative of the greater population.

*"pukey" is a good kentucky word that big shot hippy liberal New Yorkers like DavidNYC should incorporate more often

Posted by: publius at April 10, 2006 01:02 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I prefer "vomitorious." Also, I'm a yuppie, not a hippy, damnit. :)

Posted by: DavidNYC at April 10, 2006 02:48 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Hey DavidNYC - the rumblings here in CT are that if his showing at the nominating convention is less than stellar (Lamont gets 30-40% of the delegates; he needs 15% for there to be a primary), Lieberman will pull out of the primary and run as an Indy. Of course they are rumors, so....

Posted by: thekickingdonkey at April 10, 2006 09:01 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

One more thing, the nominating convention is in May. The seeming threat issued, that he will bolt if the delegates do not overwhelmingly endorse him (i.e. head off a primary) will not endear him to the delegetes of the land of steady habits. Just saying.

Posted by: thekickingdonkey at April 10, 2006 09:03 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Oy vey. Why all the obsessing about Lieberman? Yes, he has become quite the DINO on the issue of the war. Yes, he has kissed up to the Bush Administration. And if the Dems had the majority in the senate right now, I would say, go ahead, put your resources into getting rid of Lieberman. But the fact is, we're in the minority. We've got a handful of make-or-break senate races across the country. It's a much greater priority that we get rid of Santorum, Burns, Talent, and Allen than wring our hands about Lieberman. Once we have a majority, with strong newcomers like McCaskill, Klobuchar, and Tester, Joe will start to behave more like a Democrat. My point is, I'm no fan of Lieberman, but at this point, we have bigger concerns.

Posted by: The Caped Composer at April 10, 2006 11:33 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

The most telling part of that statement, for me, was Joe's wistfull comment that he "hopes there won't be a primary". But Lamont has already announced. So what the hell is Joe saying when he talks as if there might not be a primary?

Joe wants Lamont out of the race. He wants a clear field to the nomination. His comments are a direct threat to the party that if they don't do what is necessary to give him that clear field then he will take his ball and go play with it in another field.

But there is something even deeper going on here. It is quite common for incumbents to request that their party give them a clear field. But such requests are made in private and the attempts to make it happen are equally private. For Lieberman to making such a push in public can mean only one thing: Joe no longer has the pull within the party to make it happen.

Joe Lieberman is weak and he knows it.

Posted by: Chris Andersen at April 10, 2006 11:36 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

The most telling part of that statement, for me, was Joe's wistfull comment that he "hopes there won't be a primary". But Lamont has already announced. So what the hell is Joe saying when he talks as if there might not be a primary?

Well, there is a chance that there WON'T be a primary, because Lamont has to get the support of a certain amount of delegates--15% to the best of my knowledge--at the nominating convention in order to get on the ballot. (I think the alternate method is getting ~50,000 signatures, and Lamont is trying to do both, I hear.)

Posted by: HellofaSandwich at April 10, 2006 12:07 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment