Joe or No-Joe: A Lieberman Checklist for Connecticut Democrats

If you're a Democrat in Connecticut and still haven't decided whether Joe Lieberman deserves another term in the U.S. Senate, don't vote until you've considered these questions:

How important an issue is the war in Iraq?

How important are your rights to speak against the war - or against any of this administration's "wartime" policies -- without fear of being labeled a traitor?

How important is your right to privacy; for instance, your protections against unchecked government wiretapping?

Does Lieberman stand with you, or with the Bush administration, on those issues?

Considering the Senate's likely Democrat-Republican breakdown, how powerful would Lieberman be as a swing vote on those and other crucial issues?

How willing would he be either to switch parties or to accept a cabinet post in the Bush administration?

If he does either of those, who would decide on his replacement in the Senate -- a Democrat or a Republican?

What would another Republican in the Senate mean for Connecticut - and the rest of America - in terms of the war in Iraq, our freedom to dissent, and our right to privacy?