He’s now making a direct pitch to recruit supporters of Hillary Clinton.
Prediction: The Democrats won’t do anything in terms of ostracizing Lieberman right now. But after the elections it’s highly likey that no matter what has been said so far they’ll make life difficult for him. The reason: the Democratic party base is going to demand it, particularly if it shapes up as a close Presidential election.
There are several was to perceive Lieberman. To many Democrats, he is a turncoat. To Republicans and to some independents (independents tend to be split in the way they lean, although they are now leaning more towards the Democrats) he is courageous. But his problem in coming years will be with Democrats: they need him now to retain their Senate majority. But if they don’t after the November elections, they may feel he has now crossed the line and that they want to help shove him totally over it.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.