A final Quinnipiac poll shows Lamont ahead of Lieberman 51%-45%, which is closer than a previous Q poll that showed Lamont with a 13-pt lead a week ago. Never learning any lessons, Lieberman is already crowing about winning. He told the New York Daily News: "I feel they were flirting with the other guy for a while, wanting to send me a message. I got their message. I think they want to send me back to Washington," he said. "I am thinking victory."
Umm no. That wasn't the message. If Lieberman wins, and that is a big "if", he should take a look at why people are so enraged by him. He will discover that for many it wasn't just him supporting the war. What was too much was Lieberman ripping a page out of the Karl Rove playbook and insinuating that people who oppose the war are hurting America.
As Lieberman famously said: "It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he'll be commander in chief for three more years. We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."
That quote of course implies that President Bush actually has credibility that can be undermined. But setting that aside, it is the kind of statement that Democrats have to endure from Republicans, but we don't have to listen to it from a member of our own party. Lieberman wasn't just saying that he supports the war, a position that even many Democrats could grudgingly accept from a Senator that votes with the Democratic Party 90% of the time. He was saying that if you don't support the war then you should just shut up.
There are many issues that separate Republicans and Democrats, but a core belief of those on the left side of the aisle is that you have an obligation to speak out when you believe your leaders have gone astray. Those on the right tend to embrace the more totalitarian-style "support the Commander in Chief when you are at war and if you don't you hate America" approach, unless of course, the Commander in Chief is a Democrat.
During the Kosovo conflict, Tom Delay regularly attacked the Commander in Chief Bill Clinton from the floor of the House. For example, he said: "There's no national interest of the United States in Kosovo. It's flawed policy and it was flawed to go in. I think this president is one of the least effective presidents of my life time. He's hollowed out our forces while running round the world with these adventures."
I could go on and list a dozen more examples of these kinds of statements, and nowhere is Joe Lieberman urging people to shut their traps while we are at war. Nor should he be. It's a phony, antidemocratic argument that Republicans use to try and keep dissenters in line. And any Democrat who engages in that line of argument shouldn't be suprised when there is a backlash. Should he lose his seat over that or any of the other reasons -- from his unrelenting support for the war to announcing he will run as an Independent if he loses the primary? That's up the voters of CT. But whatever happens, hopefully Lieberman will shed his disdainful view of the majority of Americans who oppose the war in Iraq.
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