Republican Lite? -- Mother Jones On Lieberman

Joe Lieberman sometimes seems to want to ride into the White House by donning an elephant's suit. To his critics, he's coming awfully close to selling himself as Bush Lite. According to Joe, the way to get America back on the right track is to vote for Lieberman, the man who's not Bush, but who's also not one of those extremist democrats. On Monday, he told a recent National Press Club audience:

"I share the anger of my fellow Democrats with George Bush and the wrong direction he has taken our nation <...> But the answer to his outdated, extremist ideology is not to be found in outdated extremes of our own. That path will not solve the challenges of our time and it could well send us Democrats back to the political wilderness for a long time."

But Lieberman's frustration is significantly less focused than say, Howard Dean's. Lieberman's campaign strategy is pretty straight-forward: play it relatively conservative, say as little about the lack of WMDs as you can get away with, and criticize the other Dems for being too liberal. It seems this strategy was working for a brief period, but the latest polls show Lieberman lagging behind the other top candidates. The most recent Iowa poll shows Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt leading the pack with Joe trailing in fourth place, four points behind John Kerry.

John Nichols of the Nation writes that we shouldn't be too surprised that Lieberman's technique is failing him. He argues that Lieberman's rush to the center is exactly what drove Democratic voters away in 2002.

more,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/32/we_522_03b.html

When he brought up school vouchers in front of union members.

He's a guy wearing a elephant suit surrounded by elephant hunters. I think that he is done.

Amber Ale would be more like it.

Not sure what you are drinking but as a Connecticutian that voted for Lieberman twice in the last election... He is basically a Republican. Took a lot of money from Enron amongst other things.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

A lesson you should learn soon is that the Dean supporters and Kucinich supporters aren't that different. Both candidates are doing great things for getting people involved.

As a Dean supporter, I'll never bash Kucinich, because I think both of them are vital to the process and speak for the base. I just wish more Kucinich supporters felt that way.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

And I know a lot of them nationally--well, Kucinich is almost always their second pick.

In other words, just in case Dean doesn't win the primary, it might be good for your candidate to lay off the extremist talk about Dean, because many of those same people would happily vote for Kucinich if he wins.

But to each his own...I'm fairly certain that you'll ignore my advice.

Anyway, you've stated in another thread that you'd vote for Bush over Dean, so I'm not too sure that you're really listening to anyone.

I dont think Kucinich was saying what Celtic was saying last night. I really would love to call a truce, but frankly I want Dean supporters to join our side really, come we'll repeal the patriot act, and all the other junk, and need I say you get a more balanced Israel-Palestine approach. I get along with most Deannies myself, this really is rather unfortuante even though I have increasing misgivings about Dean. Also something about Kucinich that some may not know, he one time wished Dean's campaign the best, what you saw last night was politics basically, and most people I know like Dean because he is a fighter, I like Kucinich because of what he fights for. So can we agree to disagree?

And I wish the best to Kucinich and his supporters too. Grassroots is where the changes have to happen with this party, and Dean and Kucinich are where it's at in re. to that issue.

Unfortunately, it seems all the candidates have some jerks for supporters. ;-)

<---in these parts

Why would a "right wing wacko" go to France?

BTW- I really think this Dean/Kucinich thing
is getting out of control. Dean's really not
a right-winger, but more of a moderate liberal,
who emphasizes government health insurance,
balancing the budget against tax cuts, and
investing more money in infrastructure development.

Kucinich is more left of center, I agree.
But he's got issues where he departs from
the liberal/progressive agenda, namely abortion
up until a year or so ago.

As a progressive who supports Dean, I have no
problem with Kucinich's policies, except for
his Department of Peace proposal which is supposed
to do what the State Department is supposed to be
doing. Overall, his proposals represent my dream
scenario, which I know wouldn't get passed in Congress
unless a major sea change like the Great Depression happened.
As it is, I want something tangible that I know we can get.

My problem with the guy is that his rhetoric
is leaden - "worker's white house" and so forth -
and that he's not a very good speaker. He came to
speak at my college, and I came away thinking he
was a nice guy and a good liberal, but nothing special.

With Dean, I'm not happy with a few of his positions.
On the other hand, I'm happy with enough of them, and
I know that I'm not going to get anything better for
a while. No president has been a perfect progressive;
Wilson was a racist, enacted thorough crackdowns on free speech and nonviolent protest, and invaded Latin American nations
repeatedly - but he also instituted the direct election
of senators, unwillingly enacted voting rights for women,
enacted the income tax, and established the concept of
progressive international law and the self-determination
of peoples. Roosevelt was a moderate who was very slow
at times to support the Wagner act or other progressive
reforms, and he had no compunction with illegal/quasi-legal
acts like Japanese internment, moving towards war, or
violating civil liberties - but he created the minimum
wage, labor rights, social security, etc. etc. Kennedy was a cold warrior who backed very shady governments in the Third World, he was very cool to the civil rights movement, and increased nuclear arms production. On the other hand, he also advocated detente, nuclear non-proliferation treaties, weapons-test bans, diplomatic resolution of the Cuban Missile crisis, the Alliance for Progress, the Peace Corps, and called for most of the policies that comprised the Great Society.
Johnson was a segregationist and he did plunge the U.S into Vietnam with both feet, but he also enacted the Great Society and pushed through the civil rights bills.

In the end, I view the achievement more than the purity of ideals.
If Dean passes universal health care, gets federal recognition of
equal rights for gays, repeals the Patriot Act, increases funding
for education and community development, and turns the economy around, he'll be remembered as a great progrsssive president. If
he fails at most of those things, he'll be remembered as a failure.
I can't see Kucinich achieving anything - just a lot of overturned
vetos, all quite moral but all quite ineffectual.

Lieberman has always reminded me of the wimpy father personality of the family, in the Alf television series.

<snip>
Lieberman <...> speaks of 'strength' in a faint, creaky voice. He makes a fist but never clenches it and seldom raises it above the podium. When he does swing it forward in an attempt to look forceful, his head reclines away, as though he's the one getting punched. 'My campaign has a lot of energy,' he asserts in a voice trailing off. 'I'm standing for something,' he insists as he leans on the podium. In the flattest tone imaginable, he drones that he's 'stunned' by Bush's lack of preparation for postwar Iraq. He accuses Bush of 'tighten the noose around working families' necks' and tries to illustrate the noose, but somehow can't manage to close the distance between his hands to less than 18 inches. He threatens to hit Bush 'right up the middle' but defuses the gesture with an avuncular grin.
Lieberman isn't the only candidate in this race who's mismatched with his message. One of the comedies of the 2004 campaign is watching all the candidates other than Dean claim to be angry when they clearly aren't. Lieberman just happens to be the least convincing of them. 'I share the anger of my fellow Democrats,' he croaks faintly. The impersonation is miserably weak. If you got into a fender bender with Dean, and he got out of his car and started walking toward you, you'd be afraid he was going to hit you. If, on the other hand, you looked up and saw that the guy approaching your car was Lieberman, you'd relax and roll down your window."
<snip>