Lieberman says campaign is effort to save the Democratic Party from itself

[dajoki]

USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/wickham/2006-08-14-lieberman_x.htm

Lieberman's 'mainstream' isn't Democratic at all

Posted 8/14/2006 7:44 PM ET
By DeWayne Wickham

The morning after his primary election defeat in Connecticut, Sen. Joe Lieberman said his decision to mount an independent campaign to win re-election is an effort to save the Democratic Party from itself.
"I am in this race to the end," he told CNN's Soledad O'Brien. "For me, it is a cause, and it is a cause not to let this Democratic Party that I joined with the inspiration of President Kennedy in 1960 to be taken over by people who are so far from the mainstream of American life that I fear we will not elect Democrats in the numbers that we should in the future."

But Lieberman is not the party's savior. He's its nightmare.

Lieberman is an anti-Democrat Democrat — a fifth columnist who has chosen to flout the will of Connecticut's primary voters by filing papers to compete as an independent in the general election.

"For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand," he said of his loss to Ned Lamont, a newcomer who waged a largely anti-war campaign against the three-term senator.

Lieberman has called Lamont an extremist. And to prove it, he told O'Brien caustically that Lamont's "No. 1 supporter" is Maxine Waters. She's a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from California whose passionate representation of her constituents Lieberman apparently thinks is more of a threat to the Democratic Party than his act of political defiance.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Go Home Joe

Now you're just looking silly.

The primary's over... you lost.... YOU LOST

geesh

[dajoki]

8. The sad thing is ...

that he already lost, but he could still win. Makes no sense!!

[liberalmike27]

47. Wow, His Ideas Destroyed Them

Oh yea, you mean the one that lost Congress in 1994, lost the presidency in 2000, 2004, and has been losing since it has become just like the Republican Party? No, I don't think that's been working Joe.


How amazingly out of touch this guy is. He exemplifies what is wrong with the Democratic Party, nuzzling up to a right-reaching near fascist republican party, not fighting on issues, losing the tug of war, and we're supposed to be even more like them? Is that going to suddenly work?


No! the thing that will save the party is to pull it back to the party that cares about workers in the poor and middle classes and starts demonstrating some backbone on employment issues, on health care and wages. Democrats will respond and vote for those who wish to maintain the lifestyle and standard of living of the tens of millions of Americans that work for a living, rather than seeing lower salaries and competition with poor and child labor in other countries as some sort of solution. Lieberman represents everything that has gone wrong with American Democrats.


Don't worry Joe; I'm sure many Pentagon weapon's companies have a nice lobbying job for you to step right in to.

[MadMaddie]

2. So he votes Republican to save the Democratic party?

With friends like this who needs enemies?

Go Fuck yourself Joe....we don't want you?

[wicket]

3. K & R

:kick:

[MichiganVote]

4. Gonna be harder yet when he loses in Nov.

[dajoki]

I worry about that n/t

[Imagevision]

5. effort to save the Democratic Party from itself? spare us poleeze!

[Imagevision]

7. Joe, your too damn old to be ego tripping...

[dogman]

6. Joe has a Messiah complex just like his hero.

Just let us go Joe, we'll survive in the wilderness.

[Demeter]

9. And We Democrats Thought That We Were Saving the Party from Joe

in this case, majority rules, Joe!

[Cocoa]

10. like he tried to "liberate" Iraq?

no thanks, Joe. We're good.

[BeatleBoot]

11. Let Joe Go...

I know he thinks he's that important, but he's not.

There is bigger (or other) fish to fry folks.

Please keep your eye on the ball. That eye should be on the take over of Congress.

Work locally, but don't get caught up in Joe-ville.

Because in Joe-ville, its all about Joe - and nobody else.

[Democrats_win]

12. I suppose his Republican masters enjoy hearing that. Darth Lieber

[MiaCulpa]

13. SoreLoserman

I'm not certain if it's okay to post a link to something I posted on my site, but I think who is actually backing Joe is very relevant here:

http://miaculpa.blogspot.com/2006/08/sore-losermans-independent-run.html

Good riddance that he's out of the Dem party, and it will be a fine day in November when he's no longer in the Senate. Of course, what dumbya does with him after that ...



(PS: If linking back to my own place isn't acceptable, will someone post and let me know please? I'll enjoy posting here from time to time either way. Thanks.)

-Desi

[bluedeminredstate]

16. Interesting...

I'll do a search and see if this has been posted. It should have its own thread. Thanks for the info and welcome to DU.

:hi:

[MiaCulpa]

22. Thanks!

This is such a friendly group here, I love it! :)

[bluedeminredstate]

19. Found it.

It's had a few threads in different forums over the last couple of days. I missed it so I'm glad to know just who thinks Joe is worthy of such an ad.

[metamorph]

14. Hang it up, Joe...

...at least until Israel becomes the 51st state. Then they'll be allowed to have Senate representation.:patriot:

[newyawker99]

36. Hi metamorph!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[tinfoilinfor2005]

62. Hmm...interesting point.

Welcome. :hi:

[LittleClarkie]

15. But JFK, God bless him, was fairly conservative by today's standards

JFK wouldn't be considered mainstream today. And neither is Joe.

[dajoki]

17. Remember Lloyd Bentson...

Joementum is no Jack Kennedy!!

[dolstein]

78. Well, you'd probably thrown Bentsen out of the party too

Unlike Lieberman, who is left-of-center by any objective measure, Lloyd Bentsen was a centrist Democrat.

[saltpoint]

18. Joe is drifting deep into Willy Loman territory now.

Deep.

[Imagevision]

20. Bush needs Joe to win to bolster his stay the course act...

[samfishX]

21. Save the party from itself??

How stunningly arrogant of him...

[hatrack]

23. Fuck you, Joe. Just fuck you.

Just fuck off and go away and publish your memoirs through Regnery and take your big fat cash advance and go on the rubber chicken circuit and give speeches for Scaife and Schlafly and the rest of your right-wing assclown buddies.

[mnhtnbb]

77. Ditto

[unkachuck]

24. Joe's campaign....

....is smelling more and more like an attack by Dem corporatists and DLC-types to defeat Lamont and the net/grassroots in order to maintain their stranglehold on Party power....

"For me, it is a cause, and it is a cause not to let this Democratic Party that I joined with the inspiration of President Kennedy in 1960 to be taken over by people who are so far from the mainstream of American life that I fear we will not elect Democrats in the numbers that we should in the future."

....who are these 'people who are so far from the mainstream' Joe talks about? They are you. They are CT voters. They are Democrats!

....we must hear every 'leader' in the Democratic Party repudiate Joes' run and clearly call for Joe to remove himself from this race and to do this repeatedly until he does....if they don't, they're Joes' accomplices....

....we should demand nothing less from Democratic Party leadership and hold the leadership accountable....if they expect loyalty from us, they have to demonstrate loyalty to us and the primary process....

[dajoki]

30. Amen!!

[IChing]

25. Why am I reminded of Senator Palpatine

after the Jedi found out he was a Darth Lord

[fujiyama]

26. His thinking reminds me of Bush's on Iraq:

We'll liberate them by bombing them!

Joe:

I'll save the party by trashing it!

Joe is only attacking the party with RW talking points now. I don't see him doing anything constructive. He's hardly even bothering to defend his decent record on the environment and other issues.

He's a tool of those that support him - namely Hannity, Limbaugh, Rove, Cheney, etc.

[Cha]

35. simpletonjoe reminds me of "1984",

too. Down is up, crooked is straight, evil is good..you sucker proles. "I am the almighty lie-ber-man and I will tell you what it good for you." "Never mind that I am the voice of failed policy that began with a LIE and fueled on LIES ever since."!

[MurrayDelph]

27. Poor Joe. It's so hard to be the drum major

when everyone is out of step but you.

[TankLV]

74. ...or marching in the OTHER DIRECTION...

[neoblues]

28. Jesus "Joe" Christ!

I know someone who probably deserves to be crucified at the polls; let him 'save' us that way.

[Skittles]

29. he truly is an arrogant fuck

:puke:

[Totally Committed]

31. I couldn't have said it better, myself!

Thank you!

:argh:

TC

[Arugula Latte]

32. What a self-deluded, egomaniacal PRICK.

I have insufficient words to express my ever-growing contempt for that scum-sucking worm. :grr:

[opihimoimoi]

33. Projection, it is he that is tearing apart this DEM PARTY what with this

Indy run.

It is he who divides us.

It is he who is a sore loser

It is he who turns out to be a Pub like Politician posing as a DEM

It was he who got a kiss from Bush

This Turd is a PoS.

[xxqqqzme]

34. we should ALL be so lucky 2

have a representative like Maxine Waters! I haven't been represented in Congress since 1988.

[dajoki]

39. I agree...

since redistricting I've been stuck with "alleged woman beater" Don Sherwood.

[KansDem]

37. Destroy the party to save it, eh, Joe?

It worked so well with villages in VietNam...:eyes:

[dajoki]

38. Reminds me of...

an old Seinfeld episode, Jerry and Elaine having sex to save the friendship.

[flaminbats]

40. lol, so that was Monica's reason!!

Lieberman is still offended about the beating he got in 2004. But this time he just wasn't going to let the primary voters stop him from getting on the ballot in November! :cry: if Lieberman is saving our party from itself, then Hitler wanted to save Jews from Judaism. I still believe Lieberman will ultimately switch parties. If he loses, then he'll run for state office in 2010 as a Republican. If he wins, then he'll run for President as one. But the time to trust this slime is over!

[Apollo11]

41. Great article by DeWayne Wickham

Thanks for the link!

I especially agree with his conclusion:

But now that voters have given him the boot, Lieberman is in no mood for making concessions. He's still pursuing his political insurgency even though many national Democratic leaders have endorsed Lamont.

"But the battle goes on," Lieberman told O'Brien, "and now it's among Democrats, Republicans and independents. And I'm carrying it on because Lamont really represents polarization and partisanship."

What Lieberman didn't say is that Lamont's candidacy also represents the wishes of Connecticut's Democratic Party voters — who Lieberman apparently thinks have drifted "far from the mainstream of American life."

[Major Hogwash]

42. Joe said that about Maxine Waters??!!

My gawd, man, he's lost his marbles!!

Maxine Waters has the right to speak on any issue she chooses as a member of the United States House of Representatives.

I can't believe that Joe said this.

How many other "duly elected" Democrats don't pass Joe's litmus test?

[Vinca]

43. What an arrogant SOB. Lamont's got to beat him.

[GOTV]

44. Doesn't anyone in the MSM challenge Joe on his rhetoric?

When 60% of the American public think the Iraq war is a mistake how can Ned Lamont be categorized as outside the mainstream?

[dajoki]

49. Msm loves joementum n/t

[City Lights]

45. The Dems need to save America from Bush.

"For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand," he said of his loss to Ned Lamont, a newcomer who waged a largely anti-war campaign against the three-term senator.

:wtf:

Joe is a delusional sore loser. Time to get over yourself, Joe.

[TankLV]

75. Funny how he NEVER made similar complaints when the repukes STOLE the

election in 2000 IN WHICH HE WAS ALLEGEDLY RUNNING!

[Jack Rabbit]

46. It is necessary to destroy the party in order to save it?

Who said the war in Iraq isn't like the one in Vietnam?

[Odin2005]

48. Yeah, just like destroying the village in order to save it...

[LynnTheDem]

50. Spoken like a true rightwingnut...arrogant and ignorant.

Buh-bye, joe.

[Yellowcake]

51. I agree with Joe.

Ken Salazar, Tom Carper, Mark Pryor, and Ben Nelson represent mainstream America right now (all Joe supporters) more than Maxine Waters, Dennis Kucinich, and John Kerry (all Lamont supporters.

Not that it matters, because we should stop caring about a race between a Democrat and a Democrat. It's just plain f---ing stupid.

[dolstein]

52. Amen to that

It's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between Democratic Underground and Free Republic.

Frankly, the fact that Joe Lieberman, who received endorsements from liberal organizations like NARAL, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Sierra Club, is able to get overrwhelming support from both Republicans and Independents, is pretty strong refutation of the DU/Kos/Move On mantra that the Democratic Party has to move to the left if we want to become the majority party. If anything, it tells us how much support we could pick up with a move to the center, if only the left wing would be willing to settle for 90% of what they want rather than 100%.

[Yellowcake]

53. Yes, I usually avoid extremists too.

I stick to blogging at Politics1.com or OurSenate.com, both which feature political junkies of all stripes, but occasionally I feel compelled to check on our liberal brethren and remind them that they don't control anything politically, and they do not represent middle class America: the point of stating this is ONLY to remind them to focus on beating Republicans.

[LincolnMcGrath]

54. Extremists? You must mean the 79% of National Democrats who

were happy to see Joe defeated? Or the 52% in Ct?

It was refreshing to see a DLCer finally admit that they only post here to disrupt the conversation among us democrats though. :eyes:

[dolstein]

57. You're aware that wasn't a scientic poll, aren't you?

And you're aware that the 52% figure is only of primary voters, and that only 40% of Democrats bothered to participate in the primary?

Well, if you're anything like Kos, you probably weren't aware of this. Next time, do your homework.

[LincolnMcGrath]

60. You are aware Joe lost the Primary, aren't you? It figures! lol

Next time do your homework.

You really need to give it up. Joe is not a Democrat, He quit the party.

[dolstein]

56. Unfortunately, they are bound to misread this election

It's pretty hard to envision any circumstance where the Democrats don't make substantial gains this fall. And you just know that the left-wing is going to crow about how this it's because the Democratic Party abandoned New Democrat centrism and went back to its roots. Of course, these people are entirely clueless about political history (they think the modern Democratic Party was founded by George McGovern, not Franklin Roosevelt), so they really wouldn't have a clue as to what the Party's roots are. But nevertheless, they'll claim victory. Of course, the election is much more likely to be a rejection of the current administration rather than an embrace of the Democratic Party. Moreover, it's a sign of how far we've fallen that though the Republicans have pretty much self-destruted, the Democrats will be lucky to eke out a bare majority in either chamber. Compare that to where the Democrats were in 1936 or 1964, and it becomes obvious that we aren't even close to building an enduring majority.

[Yellowcake]

58. Don't forget...

there's Hawaii, where I'm sure if moderate Ed Case were to upset liberal Dan Akaka in the impending Democratic primary, he would be immediately embraced by all Democrats the country-over.

...Right? I mean so many Democratic folks wouldn't be hypocritical about this, would they?

[The Magistrate]

59. As Usual, Mr. Dolstein, You Make Some Excellent Points

Democratic gains this year are going to come from popular disenchantment with Republican failure, in the main. It is a "buyer's remorse" election, and not a re-aligning event.

[Yellowcake]

64. Bingo.

Well said.

[LincolnMcGrath]

66. Color me shocked!

Not really

[The Magistrate]

73. What Would There Be To Be Shocked About, Mr. McGrath?

Would you care to flesh out your comments, Sir?

[Name removed]

65. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

69. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LincolnMcGrath]

55. Actually the Lieberman supporters are in a tiny minuscule minority.

[dolstein]

61. Well, he's still ahead of Lamont in the latest polls

Lamont may have convinced 52% of the primary voters that Lieberman isn't worth keeping in the Senate, but the general electorate isn't nearly as receptive to Lamont as the primary voters were.

[LincolnMcGrath]

67. Keep on spinning away.

Since nothing in your reply to me addressed anything in the post I replied to. But hey, if you're alright with the slam on John Kerry, who am I to argue?

[TankLV]

76. Not any more...

HA!

Choke on THAT!

[dolstein]

79. Care to cite a poll that shows Lamont ahead of Lieberman?

And I'm talking about all voters, not just primary votes. After all, Lamont needs to win the most votes in the general election to win, not just the most Democratic votes.

[The Magistrate]

63. There Do Seem To Be A Number Of Them In Connecticut, Mr. McGrath

Roughly half the Democrats of that state, and more than half of the independents. Good campaigning by Mr. Lamont, and poor campaigning by Lieberman, may alter this, certainly, but defeat for the later is far from a done deal....

[LincolnMcGrath]

68. Did you miss the post I replied to?

Or are you building strawmen just for sport.

[dajoki]

70. Lieberman wants a mulligan...

What are primaries for anyway? He lost and won't accept it. He should switch parties if he runs in general election. The Dems made their choice.

[LincolnMcGrath]

71. Joe (I want a do-over) Lieberman (Iino-Ct)

[tsuki]

72. BS. It's Lieberman, always Lieberman. He's the Republi's House Democrat.

[mvd]

80. Give me a break

This is all about saving his own political career.

Unless saving the party from itself means:

1) Illegal wars that destabilize a region are fine

2) The infringement upon our liberties is ok just because of a "war on terror" that is made for political means. It's an old fascist tactic. We all know the neocons are more concerned with control and wealth than terror. If Bush really wanted democracy in Iraq, he would give them the chance to govern themselves instead of pushing the status quo. He knows that whoever gains power, he can arrogantly wield his stick at them.

3) Dissent is not patriotic


None of which is true!