Notes on Lieberman: The Soul of the Party?
The other day, Beltway conventional-wisdomist Mort Kondracke wrote this about the Lieberman—Lamont race:
This is no exaggeration: The soul of the Democratic Party — and possibly the future of civility in American politics — is on the line in the Aug. 8 Senate primary in Connecticut.
Nope. No exaggeration there.
Does anyone seriously think the Lieberman-Lamont campaign will have one iota of impact upon the civility of any single race in the future?
Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for these pundits who talk about all the horrors that have been visited Lieberman actually to name some of them. The worst I've heard is that someone called Lieberman a "warmonger." That's less an incivility than an exaggeration.
Kondracke's column inspired Joshua Micab Marshall to write this, which (you'll be shocked to know) strikes me as exactly right:
I think the Lieberman skeptics are really on to something when they point out that in the Kondrackes and others there is this sense that for a well-liked-in-the-beltway senior pol like Lieberman to face a primary challenge is somehow a genuine threat to the foundations of the system. You'd think he was a life peer, if not an hereditary noble, suddenly yanked out of the House of Lords and forced to run for his seat like they do in the Commons.
Marshall's right: From the viewpoint of the Beltway Boys, the worst horror inflicted upon Lieberman is the mere fact that someone has dared to challenge him in the primary.
I'd add to this the small point that Kondracke isn't even a Democrat, and it's kind of annoying to have a Fox commentator lecturing the Dems on what constitutes the soul of their party. The best way for the Dems to lose the soul of their party is to listen to a Fox commentator telling them how to save the soul of their party.
And two, does Kondracke not remember how Lieberman won his Senate seat? With attack ads portraying his opponent as fat, sleepy and out-of-touch. I'm not sure I've seen anything in the current campaign that's nastier than the tactics that Lieberman used to win power for himself....
