PrintJuly 6, 2007
Lieberman may not support Democrat for president
Reuters reports that Senator Joseph Lieberman said yesterday that
...he was not ruling out endorsing a Republican in the White House race.The 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate said he also wants to see if an independent enters the crowded field of 2008 presidential hopefuls."I'm going to chose whichever candidate that I think will do the best job for our country, regardless of the party affiliation of that candidate," the Connecticut senator told reporters in the state capital Hartford.
Senator Lieberman is carving out a reputation as a bit of a maverick, and may join his former colleague Zell Miller in crossing party lines for presidential endorsement. These days, a moderate Democrat who is not afflicted with Bush Derangement Syndrome is considered a maverick. His stance reveals the extent to which the Democratic Party has become unmoored from its history. (Even the liberal Peter Beinart has acknowledged this phenomenon regarding the Democratic Party's weakness in the foreign policy area in his recent book.)
Lieberman clearly feels his victory in Connecticut running as an independent (since he lost the Democratic primary) is a measure of the support he enjoys among the people of Connecticut, a respect that he has built through many years of public service. His ability to be open-minded regarding the 2008 race should be applauded. All too often, we have people voting for party labels, instead of the individual. This is a short-sighted, and ultimately, disheartening aspect of modern politics: it contributes toward polarization and partisan strife that poisons politics in America and leads our best and brightest to forage in other fields of endeavor.
Thomas Lifson adds:
I have to wonder if the good Senator might be considering another run as Vice President, this time on a ticket with Mike Bloomberg, who could single-handedly finance a presidential campaign, thereby avoiding one of the major obstacles to an independent run and simultaneously freeing up the time other candidates must devote to fund-raising. THis would enable him to distance himself from the madness gripping his party without going over the the Dark Side quite so completely.
It is probably just a coincidence, but nevertheless notable that the Senator made this statement after his forming running mate Al Gore made comments on the Today Show suggesting he would not enter the 2008 presidential race: "I've kind of fallen out of love with politics." I speculate that Senator Lieberman might not have wanted to support someone else if his former running mate were on the ticket or seeking the nomination. One thing we know about Lieberman is that he has a deep sense of personal decency.
