As a result of Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman?s strong support of President Bush on the war in Iraq, he faces a stiff primary challenge for renomination in Connecticut next month from Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, a vociferous opponent of the war.
Though the veteran Lieberman is still running a comfortable 25 percent ahead of Lamont in the latest poll by Quinnipiac University of Hamden, Conn., the gap has appreciably narrowed from what it was only a month ago, and Lieberman is worried.
So worried, in fact, that he confirmed in Hartford the other day that if he should lose the primary to Lamont, he would run as an independent against him ? and prospective Republican nominee Alan Schlesinger ? in the November election.
Finessing the possibility that his candidacy could split the Democratic vote and surrender the seat to the Republican when Democrats are fighting to gain control of the Senate, Lieberman has come up with a clever dodge.
If he loses the primary, he says, he will run as a “petitioning Democrat” on the independent line and if elected “I will stay a Democrat,” voting with the party to organize the Senate and thus not deny it the Connecticut seat.
That is all well and good, but it may smack too clearly of self-preservation to many voters in the state where he has been its senator for 18 years. For one thing, running as an independent against the Democratic nominee would be an odd payback for the party accepting him as its vice presidential nominee in 2000, when he was Al Gore?s running mate.
After their narrow loss, Lieberman showed his gratitude to Gore for selecting him by later telling a meeting of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council that Gore had lost the election by waging class warfare against the Republicans. Gore conspicuously used the slogan, “They?re for the powerful, we?re for the people,” in that campaign and, according to Lieberman, paid a price for it.
In a fall campaign that many in the Democratic Party hope will be a clear referendum on Bush?s conduct of the warin Iraq, Lieberman will be of little help because of his outspoken support of the invasion of Iraq and continued backing ever since, though with some criticism.
At a recent Washington meeting of Democratic progressives, Lamont received an enthusiastic welcome among activists who usually play an inordinate role in primary elections and have been sour on Lieberman even before his outspoken defense of Bush on the war.
The most recent Quinnipiac poll indicated that Lieberman would run stronger than Lamont as of now against Schlesinger, though Lamont also was running comfortably ahead of the Republican.
In any event, if Lieberman loses the Democratic primary and goes ahead with his independent candidacy, he will display a certain disdain for the will of his fellow Connecticut Democrats, and unless he retains his Senate seat, it could be the end of the political road for him.
His comment to John King of CNN that, “I am very loyal to the Democratic Party but I have a loyalty higher than to my party,” isn?t likely to sit very well with many of the faithful. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for one has responded by saying, “We must honor the decisions made by Democratic voters” in their primary, and “the challenges we face call for a strong, united party in which we all support and work for the candidates who are selected in the Democratic process.”
In 1976, when U.S. Rep Morris Udall of Arizona sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the New Hampshire primary and lost, he balanced disappointment with acceptance of the will of the voters, and with customary candor and wit. “The people have spoken ? the bastards,” he said, with a smile.
Whether Lieberman would take a losing result in the same jocular vein he may never have to demonstrate. But his overweening ambition to cling to his Senate seat at the cost of further alienating sentiment toward him in his own party raises heavy doubts abouthis worth to the Democratic Party as a team player, not to mention his commitment to the primary system itself.
Jules Witcover, a Baltimore Examiner columnist, is syndicated by Tribune Media Services. He has covered national affairs from Washington for more than 50 years and is the author of 11 books, and co-author of five others, on American politics and history.
