As a former Connecticut resident, it’s truly sad to see the utter transformation of Senator Joe Lieberman — and not in terms of party loyalty. It’s hard to imagine the 2000 Joe Lieberman accusing a political opponent of not putting his country first –which he has now done as he has totally jumped the shark:
One of the McCain campaign’s new themes, that Senator John McCain has always put his country first, has been seen by some analysts as a subtle suggestion that his opponent, Senator Barack Obama, has not.
But as he introduced Mr. McCain at a campaign event here on Tuesday, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut made the attack a lot more explicit, calling the election a choice “between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not.’’
UPDATE: The McCain campaign apparently agrees with Lieberman’s quote. See UPDATE below.
And so Joe Lieberman (who my mother in Connecticut met many years ago since Lieberman was associated in business with the son of a family friend) now takes the McCain insinuations to a higher level. McCain’s new problem: if Lieberman is truly on his short list for Veep to show that he can reach across party lines, Lieberman will now become a more polarizing choice than ever…less a former Democrat than a hot-button-got-to-vote-against for many Democrats some independents due to his demonizing rhetoric.
Mr. Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, made the remark as he used his introduction of Mr. McCain to deliver a harsh assessment of Mr. Obama without mentioning his name.
“In my opinion, the choice could not be more clear: between one candidate, John McCain, who’s had experience, been tested in war and tried in peace, another candidate who has not,’’ Mr. Lieberman said. “Between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not. Between one candidate who’s a talker, and the other candidate who’s the leader America needs as our next candidate.’’
Earlier, TMV Asst. Editor Pete Abel said that as much as he’d like to, he can’t support McCain right now. In my case, I was a 2000 McCain supporter. Over the past four years a theme of this site has been the need to move away from Karl Rove-style demonization politics. But it is now clear that the McCain campaign is in the hands of Karl Rove (informal advisor) & Friends (Rove’s proteges) and that this will continue because this kind of campaigning works.
With some voters.
There will be some Democrats and independents who could will be turned off by it. Some independents will stay home or vote against McCain. It’s likely to especially chase away those who have longed and argued for higher level Presidential campaigns.
Lieberman has jumped the Jaws fish because he is saying without actually saying it that Obama is potentially a traitor, if not one already. A patriot puts his country first. So who is craven enough to put his country second?
The fact is this:
The old Joe Lieberman and the old John McCain wouldn’t suggest or come close to calling Obama unpatriotic because he disagrees with them. They would have aggressively challenged him on his positions but never questioned his bona fides as someone who cared for his country.
And Joe Lieberman? With this statement Lieberman is no longer a symbol of reaching across party lines but, rather, of crossing (his old party) and tossing (away his former political values). He no longer can be pointed to as a symbol of bipartisanship.
Today’s Joe Lieberman is to bipartisanship what pizza with extra cheese is to weight control.
UPDATE: And the McCain campaign apparently agrees with Lieberman. Talking Points Memo:
Just moments ago, the McCain campaign emailed out the same Lieberman quote to its full press list — putting its official stamp of approval on Lieberman’s assertion.
This is effectively an abandonment of the campaign’s quasi-official position, which used to be that the McCain camp saw questioning Obama’s patriotism as off limits. Last month, senior McCain adviser Charlie Black said explicitly that “we don’t want to talk about his patriotism and character. We concede that he’s a patriot and person of good character.”
That no longer appears to be operative.
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.