Central Miscasting: Lieberman needs to be played by somebody else (SLATE)

Central Miscasting
Joe Lieberman needs to be played by somebody else.
By William Saletan
Posted Monday, August 4, 2003, at 3:51 PM PT


I want to vote for Joe Lieberman. I really do. I just want somebody else to deliver his lines.

That's the pained, guilty feeling I get every time I see him speak. And I'm not alone. A lot of moderate voters love Lieberman's record and message. He's been fiscally responsible, tough on crime, and strong on defense. He hasn't let the Bush administration's gratuitous exaggerations muddle his basis for supporting the Iraq war. He's resisted demands from the left to reject Bush's half-a-loaf prescription-drug benefit and to repeal all of Bush's tax cuts, including the middle-class relief Democrats supported in the first place.

In short, Lieberman has carved out a crucial, compelling role as leader of the mainstream opposition. The problem is, he can't play it.

Today's speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., illustrates the conundrum. Essentially, Lieberman is here to declare war on Howard Dean and the left. He starts off with a boxing metaphor: "Today I'm in training for two bouts. The first is a fight for the future of the Democratic Party. The second, the main event," is against Bush. Since Bush "is covering up on his right, a left hook is not going to knock him out. We've got to go right up the middle," says Lieberman. He vows to stay in the fight for the full "15 rounds." He speaks more than a dozen times of "strength" and "fighting."

That's the message. The messenger, however, looks unconvinced. The first question he gets is whether he's aiming his remarks at Dean. Lieberman replies that he "respects" Dean's opposition to the Iraq war, "but I just plain disagree with it." Disagree? This isn't some Iowa house meeting, where candidates have to suck up to an anti-war crowd. This is the epicenter of self-conscious Beltway moderation. Yet Lieberman can't pull the trigger.


more....................

http://slate.msn.com/id/2086592/

if i didn't already know better, i'd swear was running as a repook.

it's sad.

if he gets the nomination and wins - well, there will be a dem in the WH, but you can expect further retreats on progressive issue.

b/c if he gets the nomination, there's no way in hell he's gonna win... he'd carry 3 states maximum... and he CERTAINLY wouldn't get MY vote...

like a wiseman on DU once said, why vote for a new beast, when we have the real thing already?

Then, Joe will have no support whatsoever.

can wake up and smell the coffee, because its all gonna be smoke and mirrors ala the 'compassionate' asshole Bush. I want someone I want dammit. and we NEED something other than the center after the VRWC gave us the chimperor.

"played by somebody else", he needs to BE somebody else, for instance he can start by actually being a Dem instead of a repuke-lite and Shrub ass-kisser.

of Edwards (whom I distinctly dislike, being from NC, but I still think Gore/Edwards would have pulled votes big time a and maybe Edwards would have grown better in National Office than he has as the NC Senator who "would be President" which seemed to effect him (in his head) too much.

The word out in NC Gossip was that " Edwards was his first pick but Lieberman was a compromise." Now, I wonder, if it was a DLC Compromise......Whatever....Gore won anyway...even with Lieberman.....