Lieberman vs. Snowe -- who would you vote for?

The many anti-Lieberman threads yesterday, coupled with the "Olympia Snowe rocks" thread today, got me wondering about this.
Would you support a moderate Republican over a more-conservative Democrat, even if the senate-majority line were quite close?
Is a Democratic majority more important than the policy platforms of individual politicians? Or are the individuals who make up the Senate more important than who has a majority?

I'd vote for Snowe.

if it came to the Dems controlling the Senate, I'd have to hold my nose and vote for Joementum, but then demand he not receive a leadership position until he came back on line.

I think it'd be pretty humiliating for him to have to take a back seat to other Dems, especially after being a VP candidate.

That's not a choice, that's an echo

(Old song by the original BG's)

I would really be holding my nose when I did it but I hate the republican party that much. At the federal level I don't think I could support any republican no matter how much I may like their personal beliefs.

That is what always complicates this question. A great deal of power to determine the Senate agenda is wielded by being in the majority. All the committee chairs are appointed by the Senate majority leader etc. If electing Snowe meant continuing to have Frist rather than Reid in control of the Senate, I would vote for Lieberman. And that's the sad truth. I would never vote for Zell Miller however.

that on election day, you can't be sure that your senate race will mean the difference between a majority or not. So when would it ever be OK to vote for the GOP, unless one party or the other had a huge majority that couldn't be overturned in the election?

This is such a hypothetical and it is only debatable because we are talking about one of the least objectionable Republicans and one of the most disappointing Democrats. It's not like Lieberman has to fight to get reelected from a Red State. If he got swept away it could open the door to a better Democrat getting in office next time.

To your point; the Senate isn't always realistically up for grabs. With a third of it's Seats voted on every two years theoretically it could virtually always shift, but practically that isn't always the case. Sometimes the tea leaves are pretty clear about who will emerge in the majority, the only question is by how large a margin. I would certainly wait until close to Election Day, to get a last minute feel, before I would vote for Snowe in this abstract scenario.

I was just curious.

It's up to the STATE from which they come to decide whether they are appropriate reps of the Dem party there. If the US Senators with whom he works thinks he needs to be out of the party, I'll listen to them, but that will never happen.

We should be trying to add Republicans to our column, not shove Dems into theirs.

If you don't have a majority, you can't accomplish much.

Natl Taxpayer Union (Conservative) - Lieberman 14%, Snowe 51%
American Shareholder's Assoc (Conserv) - Liberman 10%, Snowe 80%
ACLU - Lieberman 83%, Snowe 56%
Human Rights Campaign (Gay rights) - Lieberman 88%, Snowe 50%
NAACP - Lieberman 94%, Snowe 22%
Eagle Forum (Schlafly's group) - Lieberman 20%, Snowe 60%
American Conservative Union - Lieberman - 0%, Snowe 60%
NEA - Lieberman 88%, Snowe 60%
NRA - Lieberman F, Snowe A-
AFL-CIO - Lieberman 83%, Snowe 67%

I'm not a Lieberman fan, but come on. He's annoying because he's a right wing suck up, but his record is not as bad as one might be inclined think. I'd probably never vote for him in a primary, but against a moderate Republican, he would most likely get my vote. Chafee would perhaps be more likely to have a chance to get my vote.

But lets not let the facts get in the way of getting carried away.

Snowe may be a 'moderate' PUb but she's still a Pub.

Mz Pip
:dem:

If anyone wants to smack the daylights out of JoeMentum, get in line behind me, because I've been wanting to since the day he was picked by Al Gore to be his VP.

BUT ...

BUT, his votes aren't that bad. He's just got this God/Neocon view that mucks up his vision on Iraq.

I have no idea why Snowe is respcted so much by the left. She votes the Bush/Delay/Frist line much more than any democrat.

For me, it would be an easy call were it not for Joe's position on Iraq.

As it is, I would probably vote Joe but then harangue him by e-mail to get lucid about Iraq.

However, if the Senate were split 50-50 on the matter, and Snowe made it 51-49 in favor of a Murtha-like proposal, I'd vote for her because I feel we as a nation owe it to Iraqis to vote for politicians who don't want a perpetual US presence there.

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Could we PLEEZE find a real Dem to run against Nelson?

Granted, Snowe is considerably more moderate than someone like Senator Sanctimonious (R-PA) or Senator Cornyn (R-TX) but that's not saying much. She usually endorses the */Delay line on policy positions unless she knows that it's not going to compromise the Republican majority on a crucial vote. Lieberman is a hawkish neo-con on the IWR but his position on other issues is actually quite balanced -including his views on the Mideast peace process and on domestic policy

A more challenging race would be Lieberman vs. Lowell Weicker, Lieberman vs. Bill Miliken, Lieberman vs. Nancy Landon Kassebaum or Lieberman vs. Mark Hatfield. All of the above Republicans were considerately more moderate than Snowe could ever hope to be