When Joe Lieberman went after Howard Dean by name last week, I begrudgingly saw the wisdom on the approach. I’m not a fan of either candidate right now, and I don’t like to see Dems going after other Dems so aggressively, but strategically, it made sense.
Dean is riding high and generating all the buzz. Liberal Dem primary voters are gravitating to him in droves. Lieberman realizes that these Dems are leaning towards Dean now, buy may ultimately shift to John Kerry or Dick Gephardt. No matter what, they will never back Lieberman.
So Lieberman figures he’ll volunteer to be the anti-Dean. You think Dean’s too liberal and can’t get elected? Then I’m your man, Lieberman essentially said. Kerry, Gephardt, Dean, and Kucinich can split the left, and Lieberman will take the middle.
“[Dean] seems to be pulling some of the other candidates back to the old Democratic ways that did not work high taxes, big spending, weaknesses on security,” Lieberman said.
I may not agree with Lieberman’s analysis, but I understand the strategy and it generated some valuable press for the Lieberman campaign.
Yesterday, however, I think Lieberman pushed this a little too far, aiming for Dean and ending up hitting the entire liberal wing of the party.
Appearing on Fox News Channel, of all places, Lieberman continued on the week’s efforts by criticizing Dean and saying, “I think some of the ideas that [Dean] is reflecting are out of tune with what America needs today.”
Then Lieberman went after the left in general, railing against “big government,” and saying Dems “don’t deserve to run the country” if they move left and embrace “the failed solutions of the past.”
“If we’re for middle-class tax increases, if we send a message of weakness and ambivalence on defense, if we go back to big government spending, if we’re against trade [and] for protectionism — which never created a job — we don’t deserve to run the country,” Lieberman said. “We’re not going to be able to meet the challenges that America faces today.”
I don’t know if Lieberman is aware of this, but rank-and-file Dems tend to be liberals. The kind of Dems who vote in primaries identify themselves as left-of-center. Lieberman argued that repealing Bush’s tax cuts would mean a “middle-class tax increase.” Not only is this a wrong argument, it’s the Republicans’ argument. Lieberman suggested opposing the war in Iraq is tantamount to “weakness and ambivalence on defense.” Again, this comes straight from the GOP’s talking points.
If Lieberman wants to appeal to more moderate Dem voters who may be uncomfortable with Dean, fine. I don’t know if it’ll work, but Lieberman probably doesn’t have much choice otherwise. But going after liberals in general — on Fox News — will not earn Lieberman any new friends during the Dem primaries. It’s almost as if Lieberman is running a centrist general election strategy against Bush now, trying to appeal to moderates and left-leaning Republicans.
That’s great, Joe, but you seem to forget that there’s a bunch of Dem primaries coming up. And you’re going to lose.