A few weeks back, I chronicled a number of the sins and peccadilloes of Bush's Favorite "Democrat", Senator Lieberman (D-CT), pointing out that this Democrat In Name Only deserves to lose his seat, and that right thinking people should support the strong primary challenge being mounted by Ned Lamont (those moved to direct a few dollars to the Lamont campaign should click here), as recently discussed by Professor Leiter.
In response, reader KDR wrote in:
If Lieberman wins the primary, I will have to consider voting for a Republican for the first time in my life (at least for high national office: I can't recall if I've ever voted R in some local election or other) in the general. Important as it is for the Dems to get the majority in at least one of the houses -- in part, so they can start some very badly needed investigations --, I think Lieberman is perhaps the single congressman/senator, of either party, who does the most to aid Bush. In part, he's such an effective helper precisely b/c he is a Dem.
So it would be a great relief if Lieberman could be knocked off in the primary, so I don't have to face the greatest dilemma of my voting life.
What should readers from Connecticut do if Lamont loses the primary challenge? The answer is not clear, but my inclination is to vote for Lieberman in the general.
* Lieberman is not a super-dependable liberal voter, but by standard measures does better than the "moderate republicans", like Snowe, whose MO on issues of any significance is to go through pangs of conscience to placate the folks back home, then do whatever Karl demands.
* Lieberman is indeed good for the GOP and Bush Gang, lending a veneer of "bipartisanship" (in the Norquist sense). But what tips the balance for me is that the propaganda value of controlling the Senate is tremendous, immensely outweighing this. The party in control of the Senate gets majority representation on every Senate committee, which means two things: first, legislation individual GOP Senators would prefer not to go on the record about can be brought to the floor for a rollcall vote, rather than buried in committee; and second, committees have subpoena power. Sick of the Bush Gang sweeping the politicization of science/intel lies about Iraq/warrantless spying and break-ins/torture/etc under the rug? I daresay the corporate media is not inclined to hype these issues on its own. But imagine the incalculable damage it could do to the GOP for decades to come to have the rancid sump of six years of their rule probed over in endless detail, day in and day out, for two years. I like the sound of that!
