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Lieberman Defiant As McCain's WingmanWhat Is He Thinking? Democrats Have No Clue By MARK PAZNIOKAS Courant Staff Writer July 20, 2008 <snip> ... That approach can be awkward for the rest of the congressional delegation, who are peppered with questions from colleagues about working with Lieberman. "Sometimes everyone feels like they are tiptoeing on eggs," Larson said. "But when I run into Joe and Hadassah, they are the same people they were before." An ally in the state legislature, House Speaker James A. Amann, D-Milford, said he interpreted Lieberman's endorsement of McCain as the end of his career in elective politics.
"He obviously is making a statement he is not running again," Amann said.
Amann said he has not, however, consulted recently with Lieberman. It is difficult to find Democrats who claim to know his thinking since 2006, when he lost a Democratic primary over the war and was re-elected as a petitioning candidate. Lieberman moved from New Haven, a political base that became inhospitable, back to his hometown of Stamford, after the '06 election, physically removing himself from many old political friends.
"His circle of advisers in this state has shrunk considerably," said Martin J. Dunleavy, a Democratic National Committee member from New Haven. "This is a guy who lost his home ward. That is quite a repudiation."
Dunleavy, a union activist, was a passionate supporter two years ago, rushing home from Washington to work for his primary campaign. At the AFL-CIO convention, he angrily chased after a union official who had mischaracterized Lieberman's record. But now Lieberman is a mystery to him. Dunleavy said he opposed the invasion of Iraq, but respects Lieberman's position as principled. He does not, however, understand Lieberman's becoming a McCain surrogate.
In 2006, Lieberman asked Democrats not to judge him on just one issue, the war. But Dunleavy said Lieberman has abandoned Obama for McCain over the same one issue. "Other than the war, I don't know what this is about for him. Other than that, I don't know what is going through his head," Dunleavy said. "Call John McCain. He's closer to him than anybody these days."
And...
Even though he is a frequent surrogate for McCain, Lieberman said he never consulted the campaign before accepting Hagee's invitation to speak. "Honestly, I have not talked to them about it," he said.
Why not?
"Because I'm an independent-minded person," Lieberman said, laughing. "You know, this is exactly the way McCain would have done it, if he were me."
Democrats wonder more about what Lieberman might say at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. A Lieberman speech is expected, but not yet scheduled. "I'm never going to attack Barack Obama personally, because I respect him. I like him. We're colleagues," Lieberman said.
So, there will be no reprise of the angry attack on John Kerry delivered at the GOP convention in 2004 by Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia?
"I know Zell Miller," Lieberman said. "He was a friend of mine, but believe me ... " He laughed so hard, he never finished, never delivered the punch line:
"I'm no Zell Miller."
<snip>
Link: http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-lieberman0720.artjul20,0,2946013,print.story
Oh yes you are Joe, yes you are...
:fuckyou:
:mad:
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