Lieberman’s Zell Miller transition just about complete

March 31, 2008

That Joe Lieberman endorsed John McCain didn’t surprise me. That Lieberman would appear alongside McCain on the campaign trail, over and over again, barely raised an eyebrow. There are rumors that Lieberman is entertaining a prominent role at the Republican National Convention in September, which seems consistent with his character.

But Lieberman’s appearance on “This Week” yesterday was a stark reminder that stripping him of his committee chairmanship and driving him from the caucus should be high on the list of Senate Democrats’ priorities in 2009.

Stephanopoulos noted, for example, that Lieberman assured Connecticut voters in 2006 that he was committed to helping elect a Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, and asked about the senator going back on his word.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, said it is not the same party that made him its vice presidential candidate in 2000.

“It’s not the Bill Clinton-Al Gore party, which was strong internationalists, strong on defense, pro-trade, pro-reform in our domestic government,” he said. “It’s been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist, and very, very hyperpartisan. So it pains me.”

Lieberman added that McCain is “a reformer, somebody who understands ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country and remembers the other part of the Kennedy inaugural, which said that we will bear any burden, pay any price to assure the survival and sustenance of liberty. That’s John McCain.”

There’s another member of the Senate Dem caucus who, not too long ago, talked the same way. His name was Zell Miller.

Michael Scherer explained:

This is Lieberman making a Republican general election argument, and it is notable for its scope. He is not just condemning his party’s position on Iraq, or praising McCain, his long-time friend. He is condemning in sweeping language the very core identity of the Democratic Party as weak and extremist. This is a tried and true Republican theme, which traditionally has more to do with scaring independent voters than with actual reasoned debate of the issues. It is not hard to remember another Democratic exile, Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, making a similar argument at the 2004 Republican Convention. […]

The thematic coding is almost identical, though Miller huffed-and-puffed, while Lieberman spoke evenly, struggling with a cold. The message: The once noble Democratic Party has been taken over by peaceniks and radicals, who are weakening the country and threatening our security. Nearly two years after being rejected by his lifelong party in the Connecticut primary, it appears that Lieberman has only begun his effort to exact revenge. Look for him in September on a Twin Cities stage.

I’ve been reluctant to draw the Lieberman-Miller parallel, in large part because Miller voted with Republicans on everything, whereas Lieberman still votes with Dems on most domestic policy issues. But Scherer’s right; Lieberman’s denunciation of the Democratic Party is, at a minimum, Miller-esque, and should disqualify Lieberman from holding any kind of seniority within the caucus.

Also from Lieberman’s “This Week” interview:

* He blasted Barack Obama for opposing the Kyl-Lieberman measure on Iran last year, while praising Hillary Clinton for supporting it (I suspect Clinton is less than thrilled to receive Lieberman’s compliment right now).

* Lieberman insisted that McCain doesn’t support Social Security privatization, despite McCain’s clear and unequivocal support for Social Security privatization. (Lieberman should at least try to familiarize himself with the positions taken by the candidate he’s supporting.)

* Lieberman praised McCain on immigration, arguing that McCain “actually stepped out and was much more forward-leaning on immigration reform than Barack Obama was — Senator Clinton wasn’t involved in those negotiations.” What viewers didn’t hear is that McCain abandoned his support for his own legislation, giving up on a “more forward-leaning” approach. (I suppose that means Lieberman now believes McCain supports a backward-leaning approach?)

It was painful to watch.

They don’t call him Loserman for nothing. Please, Please John, pick him as your VP

(Lieberman should at least try to familiarize himself with the positions taken by the candidate he’s supporting.)…What viewers didn’t hear is that McCain abandoned his support for his own legislation, giving up on a “more forward-leaning” approach.

You can’t really blame Loserman for not knowing McCain’s positions when McCain doesn’t even know thm.

  • Lieberman’s denunciation of the Democratic Party is, at a minimum, Miller-esque, and should disqualify Lieberman from holding any kind of seniority within the caucus.

    Agreed. He’s doing this out of desperation — given the likely pickup in Senate seats in the party this fall, he’s going to be irrelevant and easily cast aside. He’s lobbying for a position in a McCain administration.

  • Gore needs to come out of the wilderness and go medieval on JoeLie. It would also give Bill C something productive to do. They need to be very blunt with the American people: the Democratic platform is not meaningfully different today than it was under Clinton-Gore; it is not meaningfully different than it was in 2001 and 2004 when John McCain wanted to be a Democrat. The Democrats haven’t moved to the left; Lieberman has simply moved to the angry, vengeful and childish.

    I think we can actually turn this around rather powerfully and get a two-fer: a great “teachable moment” for the American public about where the parties really stand with respect to the mainstream and a chance to push Lieberman over a cliff.

  • “It’s not the Bill Clinton-Al Gore party, which was strong internationalists, strong on defense, pro-trade, pro-reform in our domestic government,” he said. “It’s been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist, and very, very hyperpartisan. So it pains me.”

    Joe Lieberman — the concern troll of Democratic Party

    I’m imagining a voice that sounds like James Earl Jones speaking into a syrup can voice intoning:

    “Excellent young Joementum. Now, challenge Chris Matthews to a duel, and your transition will be complete.”

  • Curious that Lieberman seeks cover behind the names of Bill Clinton and Al Gore, who he disagrees with on the Iraq War. Lieberman’s narcissism has detached him from 2008 reality.

  • Hopefully, this is the end of Lieberman. What’s he going to do once stripped of his committee assignments? Caucus with the repubs? Right now he’s their useful idiot. One who can be counted on to defend Bush and McSame while pretending to be a Democrat. Without that pretense, he’s useless to them. As a repub, he’d be at the top of Club for Growth’s hit list, with very few defenders. Without his ‘Democrat’ facade, I doubt even FOXNews has a place for him.

  • Lieberman thinks first of Israel, secondly of America. That explains it all. I hope McCain when elected will not become the prisoner of the Israel Lobby.

  • Lieberman insisted that McCain doesn’t support Social Security privatization, despite McCain’s clear and unequivocal support for Social Security privatization.

    And THAT is the paydirt we need to be mining. McCain’s bedrock of support is the older folks who don’t like the idea of having a young whippersnapper as president. But these are also the people who know that Social Security is a huge part of their retirement income, and literally the foundation of their future lives. McCain has opened himself up to attack on this issue, and the recent stockmarket troubles make it abundantly clear that privatization would be a disaster for retirees whenever the economy takes a major dip.

    Lieberman should be branded the warmonger that he is. Every stupid thing he has said about Iraq (and Iran) should be strung together and contrasted with the reality of the situation and made into a 2-minute commercial, which would be played in Connecticut until his approval rating goes down the toilet. He should be made an example of.

  • The Publican party morphed from a center-right coalition into its current irresponsible/hypocritical right manifestation over quite a few decades, but it didn’t achieve it’s current mask until the Bush/Delay axis neutered the centrists. I am aware that such a thing could happen to a center-left coalition in the Democratic Party.

    Still, I would like to see a purge, of ideas at least if not people, represented by the DLC types who never met a corporate boss the couldn’t suck up to, and the Blue Dog Quislings like Lieberman. We should have room in our party for responsible accountants and people who can see the potential problems in the programs we come up with to clean up the mess the neo-cons have made. But we should also make much more room on the left for the dreamers and idealists – those who have been pushed aside by the Clinton/DLC wing. Those who knew the invasion/occupation of Iraq was wrong back in 2002, and said so.

    And I would love to see Lieberman serve as the subject of the first immolation.

  • #7 candide hits the nail on the head.

    andrea mitchell on the chris mathews show yesterday said obama has much work to do with jewish democrats; that they’re nervous about him right now. i suspect it’s because he’ll review the wag-the-dog gravy train policies that it seems no one else has the courage to do.

  • His excuse for why he’s backing away from his 2006 to support the Democratic nominee doesn’t even make sense. It wasn’t a pledge from 2000, and he was already insisting at the time he made the pledge that the party had been overrun by extremtists, which is why he thinks he lost to Lamont in the primary. And the idea that the wide range of support that both Hillary and Barack get is somehow a “small group on the left” is utterly insane.

    I sure hope the minority of Dems who voted for him in Connecticut realize how they were duped into voting for a Republican. I’m not one who thinks there can’t be liberal Republicans or conservative Democrats, but it’s obvious Lieberman is only a Democrat because a Republican couldn’t get elected in his state. And all the same, this is yet another move of his that makes no sense. I think he’s still bitter about losing the nomination in 2006 and it disturbs him too much to realize that it wasn’t a fluke leftwing usurption that lost him the nomination, but rather a sustained shift in the political winds. So he still holds onto the idea that this is somehow a weird leftie conspiracy out of desperation.

  • #7 candide hits the nail on the head. -entheo

    I hope McCain when elected will not become the prisoner of the Israel Lobby. -candide

    Well, not the whole nail.

  • When the Dems get a bigger majority in the Senate this November, they need to kick LIEberman out of the caucus! I watched Joe’s shameful interview yesterday. What an idiot… speaking of no principles. Stephanopolis tried to get him to say what, besides Iraq, he and McCain agree on. He mumbled a bunch of stupid stuff then admitted they disagree on many things.

  • Give Lieberman credit for his sincerity. He’s the only one who willing to say, “Hey, can’t we just admit that Democrats and Republicans both represent the wealthy & the war-mongers?”

    somebody who understands ask not what your country can do for you…

    …Because “government is the problem,” according to St. Ronnie.

  • 12. doubtful said: Well, not the whole nail.

    true, true. i rorschached an “if” instead of the “when”.

  • Get thee gone, Joe Leiberman! Get thee to a weekend retreat for right-wing think tankers! We don’t want you in our caucus anymore!

  • If the Senatorial Democrats have any sense at all, they’d strip good ol’Joe of his chairmanship of the governmental operations committee (the same committee as Henry Waxman’s in the House). Joe hasn’t lifted a finger to go after the malfeasance of this WH crowd since he was given this chairship. Joe is no good for our nation, and I hope his constituents in Conn. begin the recall process shortly. -Kevo

  • What a piece of crap ol’ Loserman is!! And to think that he is doing it to pay back the Dems for denying him the nomination in 2004. That’s what’s going on here; it’s pique, pure and simple. He’s just another asshole who never got beyond 2nd grade in his emotional orientation.

  • In this country, you can criticize the germans, you can criticize the brits, the aussies, the chinese, and whoever you want. but if you tell the truth and say that the Israeli government model today is the 3rd reich, that the wall in the ghetto of Prague is just like the wall in the ghetto of palestine, the Kristalnacht in 1932 and cutting down Palestinian olive trees are both the same act, then you are an anti-semite.

    We need to get beyond this notion that we have a special relationship with Israel. I have no special relationship, and I object to the huge money we pay these nazi jews in Israel.

  • Oh, it’s starting again – the Great Dem Petty Fractiousness that somehow always finds a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

    This should be the year when the left sweeps the board at all levels, not only captures the presidency but piles on FDR-like victories in the US Senate and House , not to mention state-level races, but you can already see the faint fissures and cracks forming, that will inevitably lead to gnashing of teeth, wailing, finger-pointing, and “wh-wh-what the fu*k HAPPENED?!?!” come the morning after the November elections 😀

  • Hey—Darth Joe can challenge me to a duel any time, anywhere. I know enough about that to know that I, as the one receiving the challenge, get to choose the weapons.

    I choose nail-studded baseball bats at close range….

  • Zell Miller speaks the truth. And so does Leiberman While you may call them all sorts of names and whine and cry over their desertion of the Democratic party – but the facts they speak are honest and true. We support them 100%

  • The poster before me is absolutely right. The Dem party is no longer the party of Bill Clinton. It has moved in the wrong direction. We are seeing that this primary season.
    The DLC is great. I don’t agree with them on everything .. but nor does hillary, then. It espouses a more centrist view.. which is exactly how we came back from the political wilderness.
    America is not left or right. It is somewhere in the middle. Life is not black or white it is grey. Best is to take the best of both ends..and produce a balanced solution. because the best solutions, in life, are compromises.
    That is also how we won in 2006.by running moderates (conservative Dems) It wasn’t Dean’s idea. Now with Obama he at best would be Carter’s 2nd term. A weak president who gets to office and becomes inefficient.
    Lieberman, McCain on soc sec and immigration as well as Zell Miller .. all that I wanted to find.

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