The Conneticut primary is tomorrow, and it's starting to look like Joe Lieberman will need some sort of last second miracle if he is to run as a Democrat for re-election to the U.S. Senate. Recent polls have him trailing Ned Lamont by over ten points. A nearly constant stream of major Democratic personalities campaigning for Lieberman has done nothing to help that number (if anything, things have been getting worse, instead).
It's clear that the opposition to Lieberman is fueled largely by anger. You really don't need to do much more than look at the matchup to figure that one out. Ned Lamont shows a great deal of enthusiasm, but he really doesn't have much in the way of political credentials. The only political office he's held was at the city council level, and he lost his only bid for a seat in the state Senate. Lieberman is a three-term US Senator, and is not currently in prison or under indictment. Given those circumstances, Lamont should not even be a factor in this election. If there isn't a hell of a lot of anger out there in the electorate, the current polling data would lack any natural explanation.
The mainstream media, showing a level of perceptiveness normally exhibited only by concussed tree sloths, is more than happy to tell us what this election is really about.
"It's all about the war", the Boston Globe tells us, as do numerous other media outlets. Even Joe Lieberman seems to have somehow picked up on the idea that people don't like the war that much, since he finally took some time to defend his position the other day.
If only things were so simple.
The war, and Lieberman's willingness to parrot administration positions on how well things are going in Iraq, is definitely one of the reasons that Lieberman is having problems. It's hardly the only one. Mostly, this is about leadership - or, more precisely, an extreme lack thereof.
For the better part of a decade now, the Democratic party has firmly stood for very little when push came to shove, and it has stood against not much more. At the same time, the Republicans have spent their time routinely demonizing us. Various members of the right wing noise machine have called liberalism a "Mental Disorder," and "Treason." Strangely, there still seem to be people out there who can't figure out why some of us might be just a little bit fed up with the Republicans at the moment. Lieberman, sadly, is one of them. If the Republicans are the schoolyard bully of politics, Lieberman is the quiet kid who tells you that if you keep your cool and don't tell the teacher, he can probably get the bully to give back half of your lunch money. Enough for the milk, anyway, if not the whole meal.
There is a time and a place for bipartisanship, and this ain't it. This is a time for leadership. It's a time when we need people who will fight for us, not for people who will continue to give ground. It is entirely possible, if not probable, that Ned Lamont is not such a leader. But we know damn well that Joe Lieberman isn't, and this time the devil that we know isn't the better choice.
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When a mid-90's Republican leader (Newt Gingrich, I think) compared Congressional bipartisanship to date rape, everyone thought he was making a typically hyperbolic description. The Bush-II era Republicans have taken it as marching orders. As you point out, Lieberman's gone right along.
I am in California and working to defeat Joe Leiberman. The problem is the DNC or is it the Democratic Council who decidec for all of "the little people - us" who we should support? I think this is the same group who decided to run "Joe" for vice-president. I've always believed this was a waste of my vote. The horror of the Democratic so-called leadership continues Lieberman always thought highly of himself and the Democratic parties hope to hold on to the Jewish vote is clear again. I'm getting tired a being a Democrat. I'm a 65 year old Black woman and I hope "Joe" loses!!