Joe Lieberman Gets Anxious
The Democratic senator from Connecticut announced yesterday that, if he loses the Democratic primary to challenger Ned Lamont,
he'll run as an independent in November.
He announced the decision now because, in order to qualify as an independent, he must collect 7,500 voter signatures by August 9—one day after the Democratic primary.
The move is typical Lieberman: Regardless of how his ambition might affect his party's fortunes, Lieberman lusts for power. If he ran as a third party candidate and lost, he could split the vote and throw the race to the Republican, a man whom no one has actually heard of but is rumored to exist. If he won, then he'd be...an Independent senator. Not that much help to the Democrats. (But then, he isn't now, either.)
The national media is framing this race as a referendum on the war—Lieberman supports it, his
primary opponent, Ned Lamont, does not—but I wonder if there isn't something else going on. There is something that I and other Connecticut voters have long found dislikeable about Lieberman: While on the one hand he loves to sound pious and thoughtful and deep, underneath that philosopher-statesman exterior lies a dirty politician with stop-at-nothing ambition. Though he's a favorite of the national media, who don't cover him every day, Lieberman doesn't wear well; the more you get to know him, the more you think that his air of principle is a facade, built deep in order to match his more craven self-interest. Is his bipartisanship a matter of principle—or of cozying up to Republicans in order to feel relevant?
Joe Lieberman has been a senator from Connecticut since 1989. Maybe this is one of those elections where voters have just decided that it's time for a change.
Lieberman campaigning in
New Hampshire in 2003.
