I find myself not knowing quite what to say or to think about this unexpectedly fast emerging dust-up in the Connecticut Senate race. TPM Reader SS wrote in the following yesterday in response to Lieberman’s decision to run in the primary and run as an independent if he loses the primary.
Received a phone message today from Lieberman asking for signatures on his petition to run as an independent. He promises he will always vote Democratic. While I think we are better off with a two way race and hope he wins in the primary, he makes it harder and harder to support him.
Reed Hundt yesterday said that Lieberman has every right to run as an Independent. The question is whether he’d really serve as a Democrat. And I agree.
But like I think SS is suggesting, I think Lieberman may have done himself great damage by choosing to run both ways (as a Dem and an Independent) at the same time.
Politics is all about maintaining the initiative and, well … momentum. And just evaluating this in strategic terms, I think that Lieberman’s key issue in this race is proving, to put it bluntly, that he’s not a weasel.
Two ways suggest themselves to demonstrate that. One way was for him to call a press conference and say ‘People say I’m not a Democrat. But I’ve been a Democrat for 40 years. I’ve been representing this state for 18 years. And I’m going to put my fate in the hands of the Democrats of this state. And I’m gonna fight for this nomination and tell the voters of this state …”
You get the idea. Lieberman would send a very powerful message to Democrats by putting his fate in their hands.
Or he could say, “I’ve represented this state in the Senate for 18 years. I’m a Democrat. But I don’t represent the Democratic party in the senate. I represent the people of the state of Connecticut …”
Both of those would have, I think, given Lieberman serious forward momentum. In different ways, yes. But both forward. Remember, there aren’t just Democrats in Connecticut. There are Republicans and more importantly Independents. And my impression is that Lieberman is still pretty popular among Connecticut voters generally. The latter choice would play to their strengths with them. The former, of course, would play to Democrats.
Which he should do depends on who he is.
But here he’s just covering his bases. He’ll play whichever card works best for him when the time comes. Most importantly, he’s not showing any Connecticut voters he’s willing to take risks. And in so doing I think he may be taking a much bigger risk than he knows. He’s telegraphing weakness and equivocation and the alleged trait that got him in this fix to start with.
