The most cowardly act of a retiring politician

[meegbear]

Chris Dodd was facing near-certain defeat when he pulled the plug on his Senate reelection bid early last year, and to his credit he didn't try to pretend otherwise.

"I'm very aware of my present political standing," he said in announcing his decision to retire. I was reminded of his unusually -- and refreshingly -- candid statement this morning, when Taegan Goddard flagged comments made by Joe Lieberman and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both of whom recently announced retirement plans of their own, on Sunday's "This Week":

"I believed I would have won re-election. Obviously, it would have been a tough campaign. But, you know, as I said, so what else is new?"

-- Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), in an interview on This Week.

"I think that, if I had run, I would have won. It would have been a tough race, for sure, but I think I would have won."

-- Sen., Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), also speaking on This Week.

Both of them, of course, are full of it. Yes, it's possible that some way, somehow either of them might have won if they'd toughed it out. But they both would have been prohibitive underdogs and both were facing their grim political realities in their home states that they had never before confronted. To pretend that these realities had nothing to do with their decisions to walk away strains credulity.

Lieberman's logic is particularly annoying: "Obviously, it would have been a tough campaign. But, you know, as I said, so what else is new?" In other words, I survived a tough one in 2006, so why wouldn't I be able to do it again? This may sound compelling on the surface, but there are actually significant differences between now and 2006 -- and between now and any other point in Lieberman's political career.

Back in '06, when he lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont only to wage a successful third party effort in the fall, Lieberman had only lost the faith of his own party; his standing was still quite strong with Connecticut's independent voters. And Republicans, who didn't initially think Lieberman was vulnerable in his primary, didn't bother to field a serious candidate. Thus, Lieberman was able to run in the general election as the de facto Republican candidate -- every major Republican office-holder in the stat endorsed him -- and to supplement that GOP base with strong support from independents. But this is no longer the case. Lieberman is now broadly unpopular not just with Democrats but with independents, too. And Republicans have made it clear that they won't be caught off-guard this time around. In 2012, there will be a real GOP candidate for the Senate in Connecticut. Thus, Lieberman was out of options.

<snip>

http://www.salon.com/news/joe_lieberman_iconn/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/24/lieberman_hutchison_retire

[Enrique]

1. oh I am SO glad to see Lieberman go

:bounce:

[CatWoman]

2. aren't the tea nitwits targeting Hutcheson?

[elias49]

3. Can't you hear him sing...

"I'm a little tea-pot
short and stout..."

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. looks like a lot of voters DO have long memories.