Lieberman's Chessmatch

The Hartford Courant today has a pretty good article by Dan Lightman. He asks:

Want to see a Democratic senator squirm? Don't ask about Iraq or gasoline prices. Ask about Joe Lieberman.

They edge toward the door, duck into the elevator, scoot down the hall to avoid the question: Will you support Joe Lieberman if he loses the Aug. 8 Senate primary to Ned Lamont and runs as an independent?

The article is pretty good and gives some interesting viewpoints. The ending is burlesque:

Lieberman smiles quietly when informed of all this vague support.

Anyway, he said, Democrats should not worry if he runs as an independent.

"I'd organize with the Democrats if I'm fortunate enough to win," he said. "I'd remain a Democrat."

Wow, that is reassuring, isn't it? Not to me. I don't give a hoot if Lieberman has been a senator for 18 years and was also elected as the Vice President candidate, those are not credentials for re-election in my book. But it was a comment by Liberal Voice over TPM Cafe that struck me as truth about Lieberman:

Lieberman is being forced by a AFL-CIO endorsement to run as a democrat [else no endorsement]. The union has called Lieberman's bluff in a very clever Catch-22 way [The unions are way smarter today than years ago]. They know he'll lose the primary and then the union can cleanly [saluting the DLC along the parade route] endorse the guy they actually like, Lamont.

So, Joe is trying to play a chessmatch he cannot win [and isn't smart enough to recognise the board]. No he cannot gather signitures without losing his endorsement AND giving democrats the ammo to say, "See told you he wasn't a Dem."

Clever.

Brilliant is more like it. If in fact that is what they are doing and I surely hope so.

As for the "senior" Democrats, perhaps it they were smart enough to start reading the blogs and stop listening to beltway pundits and journalists, they would realize the PEOPLE, the Base, the young, the old, and the middle aged have educated themselves and they are not putting up with Bush's war. A large majority consider this war an abject failure. They know that Bush is obsessed with secrecy and power. The people are keen to the Rovian Republican politics. They are fed up with the gasoline prices, the economy and heathcare.

The Democrats need to stop joining in on the imbecilic discussions about gay marriage and flag burning and get serious. I believe it was Sen. Feingold who walked right out of the Senate one day over moronic republican talking points. Every Democrat politician needs to do that and then they need to start listening to what their base is saying, after all, they could just lamont-ed next election cycle.