Swing State Project

« KY-Gov: Welcome to the People's Republic of Kentucky | Main | MD-Gov: Duncan Drops Out »

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

CT-Sen: Lieberman's Kamikaze Assault on the Democratic Party

Posted by James L.

Today, the Senate is debating the merits of two competing Democratic resolutions for troop withdrawal--one hardline proposal by John Kerry to remove all U.S. forces by July 2007, and, of course, a much more moderate (read: tepid) amendment by Sens. Levin and Reed. (My favorite description of the latter proposal comes from the always-scathing, always-awesome Las Vegas Gleaner: "a proposal to sort of begin thinking about maybe at least phasing out by the end of this year, or something like that.")

This situation puts Lieberman in a bind:

If the Connecticut Democrat goes along with his fellow party members' plan to urge the Bush administration to begin redeploying troops by the end of the year, it could look like he's flip-flopping on his stay-the-course stance just six weeks before his primary with Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont.

But if he votes against the measure, he's likely to be one of only a handful of Democrats siding with virtually all the Senate's Republicans - thus giving Lamont and anti-war Democrats fresh ammunition for attacking him.

So what did he end up doing? Duck out of the chamber? Keep his head low and quietly vote one way or the other? Nope. Instead, he rallied around the Republican flag and actually led the charge against both proposals:

Kerry and Feingold - the authors of one amendment - were forced to cut short their speeches at the request of the Sen. Warner who is managing debate for the Republicans. Warner then immediately yielded time to Sen. Lieberman to speak. Yes, Lieberman opened up debate for the Republicans. He opposed both amendments, even the exceedingly moderate Levin amendment, which is co-sponsored by Senators Biden, Clinton, Feinstein, Obama, and Salazar. At the end of his speech, Sen. Warner slobbered all over Joe, basically reading a love letter to him on the floor of the senate, in thanks for his help in killing these Democratic amendments. Santorum, the next speaker up, also fawned over Lieberman.

Yes, Lieberman probably won't be the only Democrat to vote against these resolutions. Whatever. But will you see any other Democrat leap at the chance to lead the charge for the Senate Republicans by taking over their debating duties? Lieberman's been so good at talking like a Republican that now he's accepted their position as Senate spokesman.

You've got to wonder whether Lieberman has the worst political instincts in the world, or whether he just has a deathwish in the Democratic primary (where his support is dropping like a stone) so he can rise like Lazarus as an Independent.

Posted at 07:38 PM in 2006 Elections - Senate, Connecticut | Technorati

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.swingstateproject.com/mt/mt-track-ssp.cgi/2419

Comments

Note to Connecticut: Please send Joe packing. We've had enough of his pandering to the Gop.

Posted by: Predictor at June 22, 2006 05:16 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

CQ Politics interview with Ned Lamont:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/06/the_cqpolitics_interview_ned_l.html

Posted by: Predictor at June 24, 2006 09:25 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

http://geo-minarchist.squarespace.com/display/ShowJournal?moduleId=643324&creatorId=93135

Joe needs help.

Posted by: nasir at June 29, 2006 06:30 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment