It wasn’t too long ago when Charlie Black, a top McCain campaign strategist, told reporters, “[W]e don’t want to talk about [Barack Obama’s] patriotism and character. We concede that he’s a patriot and person of good character.”
Like most of the McCain campaign’s commitments, this didn’t last long.
One of the McCain campaign’s new themes, that Senator John McCain has always put his country first, has been seen by some analysts as a subtle suggestion that his opponent, Senator Barack Obama, has not.
But as he introduced Mr. McCain at a campaign event here on Tuesday, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut made the attack a lot more explicit, calling the election a choice “between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not.”
In case there were any doubts about whether Lieberman went off-script and said something McCain disapproved of, note that the McCain campaign emailed Lieberman’s attack to its full press list. In the process, Greg Sargent noted, the McCain gang put its “official stamp of approval on Lieberman’s assertion.”
As this relates to McCain, it suggests attacks on Obama’s patriotism are very much on the table. As for Lieberman, just last week, the former Democrat contributed $100
,000 to the DSCC. A Lieberman-friendly Democrat told Roll Call why Lieberman made the donation: “Basically, he doesn’t want everybody to hate him. Plus he wants to keep his committee.”
At this point, Dems everywhere are going to hate him and he’s going to lose his committee.
Looking at the big picture, this is, quite obviously, the end of Lieberman’s relationship with the Democratic Party.
Back in June, Josh Marshall makes a compelling case that Lieberman has burned a bridge that won’t be rebuilt, and the argument continues to ring true.
What does seem clear to me is that Lieberman’s days in the Democratic caucus, or more specifically, his days with a committee chairmanship courtesy of the Democratic caucus are numbered in months.
My assumption is that after the November election, regardless of the outcome of the presidential campaign, Joe will be stripped of his chairmanship. (This seems even more certain to me if Obama wins the general, but I suspect it will happen regardless.) Whether he’ll actually be expelled from the caucus I don’t know and probably doesn’t really matter. Once he’s stripped of the benefits he gains from it, presumably he’ll leave himself and become an actual non-caucusing independent or, more likely, start caucusing with the Republicans.
What that tells me is that Lieberman has no incentive not to make the maximum amount of trouble over the next five months both for his senate colleagues and for Sen. Obama.
Josh raised a couple of points here, both of which are important. Lieberman might as well kiss his committee gavel goodbye, and once that happens, he’ll have no incentive to caucus with the party. Lieberman probably realizes this, which will make him an unrestrained Republican attack-dog throughout the campaign cycle.
I still wonder, though, if Lieberman has considered the implications for his reputation — not with the party, and not with his constituents, but with the media establishment he loves (and which loves him right back). Lieberman’s interesting to pundits and talking heads because he’s unusual. The media can’t get enough of unusual. Lieberman was on the Democratic ticket eight years ago, he had Obama campaigning for him two years ago, and now he’s McCain’s Mini-Me. The media can’t get enough.
But come January, if he’s just another Republican hack, he’s not quite as fascinating anymore.
Interestingly enough, Lieberman doesn’t seem to care.