Carpetbagger answers the question, “Why is Joe Lieberman too conservative to win the nomination?”

Quick quiz. A major American political figure was at an important campaign event last week. This person first spoke about the American military victory over Iraq, saying, “Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States and most particularly to his neighbors…. We did the right thing, and we gave him 12 years, and tried everything short of war to get him to keep the promises he made to disarm at the end of the Gulf War. We did the right thing in fighting this fight, and the American people will be safer as a result of it.”

Soon after, on the issue of health care, this individual criticized the idea that we can address issues like these “with the kind of big-spending Democratic ideas of the past.” This same notable political figure, at the same event, emphasized his support for the American “right to own firearms,” concluding that “it is no more unlimited than any other right that we have,” and also proudly condemned Hollywood and the entertainment industry “for peddling sex and violence to our kids.”

OK, who was this political celebrity? Was it:

a) President George W. Bush at a rally in Little Rock on May 5
b) Vice President Dick Cheney in a speech to the Heritage Foundation on May 1
c) Senator and presidential candidate Joe Lieberman at a Democratic candidate debate on May 3

If you said Lieberman, you’re right. (Then again, the headline to this post kind of gave away the answer. But I digress…)

The conventional wisdom is that Lieberman, who was on the Democratic ticket as Gore’s running mate less than three years ago, is far too politically conservative to win the nomination. I’ve said just that on this site on more than one occasion.

But I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, let’s call him Prodigy, and he wondered why, exactly, everyone makes this assumption. It’s a fair point. Analysts frequently dismiss Lieberman as too conservative to win, but few ever stop to actually explain why.

Well, Prodigy, this one’s for you — Carpetbagger’s official Top Eight Reasons Why Joe Lieberman Won’t Win The Democratic Nomination.

1. Foreign Policy — Lieberman was a Democratic hawk before being a Democratic Hawk was cool. Truth be told, he was pushing for “regime change” in Iraq before Bush was. To be sure, Lieberman wasn’t the only Democratic contender to support the war, but he was easily the most vociferous of the bunch. Democratic primary voters, meanwhile, have been skeptical of Bush’s foreign policy, particularly when it came to the invasion of Iraq. Lieberman has also endorsed the Republicans’ biggest defense pipe dream — a national missile defense system.

2. Guns — Lieberman supports some gun control measures, but doesn’t mind occasionally going against the gun control lobby within the Democratic Party. As he said in the South Carolina debate, he opposed his own running mate’s proposal to license and register new firearm purchases in the U.S. This message may go over well in South Carolina, but there are a lot of Dem primary voters who abhor the NRA and support new restrictions on gun ownership.

3. Hollywood — When it comes to the “blame Hollywood” crowd, Lieberman was one the movement’s founding members, joining conservative blowhards such as Bill Bennett in castigating movies, music, and video games for undermining our culture and warping our kids’ minds. The entertainment industry, however, remains an important source of support (financial and otherwise) to the Democratic Party, and most Dem voters find scapegoating Hollywood to be an overly simplistic look at complex social problems. Let’s put it this way, I don’t think David Geffen will be hosting any fundraisers in his house for Lieberman in ’04.

4. Tort Reform — One of the Republicans’ favorite issues is changing America’s tort laws to shield corporate wrongdoers from civil penalties. Democrats, who have historically opposed protecting big business against the interests of injured families, fight tort reform aggressively. That is, except Lieberman, who has literally won awards from the American Tort Reform Association and has been named by the National Law Journal as “unsurpassed among Senate Democrats in supporting tort reform.” In fact, one lobbyist for a coalition of insurance companies once said, “Joe Lieberman is the most effective Democrat in the Senate” on tort reform. Joe, that might help if you were running in the Republican primaries, but you’re supposed to be a Dem.

5. Faith-based initiatives — President Bush’s relentless campaign to break down the wall separating church and state in this country and fund religious ministries with tax dollars has been resisted by most Democrats in Congress. Not Lieberman, though, who loves the idea. In fact, when Sen. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum (R-Pa.) needed a co-sponsor to champion the Bush plan in 2001, Joe Lieberman didn’t hesitate to join him and work with the Bush administration to push the legislation in the Senate.

6. Accounting reform — Remember when Enron was all the rage? When corporate sharks at World Com and Global Crossing were fleecing investors and their employees while driving their companies into the ground? The corporate scandals led to major accounting reform legislation, led by mild-mannered Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.). One key element of the Sarbanes plan was to count corporate salaries against earnings, a move corporations and congressional Republicans resisted. Where was Lieberman? Where else? With the Republicans, fighting the reform effort.

7. Voucher aid to private religious schools — Democrats want strong, well-funded public schools. Republicans want to use tuition vouchers to take funds out of the public school system, allowing students to attend religious and other private schools with tax dollars. You guessed it, Lieberman is pro-voucher, too.

8. Social Security “reform” — The holy grail of conservative ideas is to privatize Social Security. Democrats fight privatization with all they’ve got. Surprise, surprise, Lieberman has voiced support for the Republicans’ goal. In a 1998 interview, Lieberman acknowledged that “not everybody supports” privatization, but he does. “We’re going to see again a kind of old Democratic Party/new Democratic Party kind of split on this. I think in the end that individual control of part of the retirement/Social Security funds has to happen.” To be fair, Lieberman has since said he’s no longer an advocate of privatization, but the fact that he was once such an enthusiastic supporter of the plan is a big knock against him.

I realize that Lieberman isn’t the only Democrat to take an “untraditional” stance on these basic political issues, but Lieberman is the only one to buck the party’s orthodoxy on all of them. The bottom line for me is this: if you asked 100 random Democratic staffers on Capitol Hill if they’d trade Joe Lieberman to the Republicans for Lincoln Chaffee (R-R.I.) and a draft pick to be named later, a strong majority of them would agree to the trade without hesitation. The party simply can’t nominate a guy who meets this description.