CT Election Watch

In an interview with Conservative Blog Network Pajamas Media Lieberman was asked “if he could forgive once close friends Chris Dodd, Al Gore and Teddy Kennedy, for endorsing his opponent Ned Lamont, the former Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate responded: “I can forgive … but I probably won’t forget.”

Democrats shouldn’t forget why they endorsed Lamont.

There is no doubt that right now Connecticut has an interesting and somewhat rare situation, one of the most nationally recognizable Senators, a former Vice Presidential candidate, potentially losing his Senate seat, and also likely losing his seniority within the Democratic party.

When Lieberman was facing a primary challenger that was doing much better than expected, but long before the prospect of Lamont taking out a 3-term US Senator who had been his parties Vice Presidential candidate only six years prior seemed at all likely, Lieberman was asked if he would accept the results of the primary even if they were not in his favor. Lieberman initially dodged the question, saying that he would win the primary.

At the time it was a reasonable statement, however the fact that the primary was basically a referendum on if Lieberman was still considered a Democrat by voters made the question fairly important. More and more media outlets began to run with the question, especially when Lamont made it clear that he would not run as an Independent after an August loss. Lieberman was eventually forced to respond that he would consider a primary run. I strongly believe that it was at this point that Lieberman lost his primary battle, whether it proves to be a wise move on his part remains to be seen. In a primary election, voters are concerned with two things, who best represents the party, and who can win. Given the extremely weak Republican field, the main question for Connecticut Democratic voters on primary day in August was which candidate better represented the party, they knew that by voting for Lamont they weren’t endangering the seat.

Lieberman is a career politician, one could cynically argue that that is why he has some trouble with the truth, although whatever the reason, the evidence shows that it is the case. Once the race became competitive, he began to seek endorsements from his colleagues. Dodd, Gore, Kennedy, as well as other Democratic Senators like Chuck Schumer who is currently the chair of the DSCC and Harry Reid, current Senate Minority Leader, gave endorsements too, but publicly stated that they would support the winner of the Democratic primary, and that their endorsement andfundraising came under the assumption that Lieberman would do the same.

The fact that Lieberman made the decision before the primary to file his petitions for ballot access from the newly formed Connecticut for Lieberman party shows that Lieberman had no intention to accept the result. The endorsements and fundraising he accepted before the primary could have gone to Lamont had Lieberman not been willing to lie to his “friends” that he now claims to have been betrayed by. Lieberman has made it more than clear that he cannot be trusted, and voters would be wise to pay attention.

Any Democratic voters that are still wavering on Lieberman versus Lamont should consider the fact that Lieberman was more than willing to take fundraising and an endorsment from Harry Reid then set up a party in his own image. In my opinion Lieberman’s loss shouldn’t be looked at as only an anti-war reaction, but should be considered an outcry against a self-important Senator who is willing to say what it takes to win. Non-Democrats voting for Lieberman may want to take this warning too, before electing a man that will only serve himself in the Senate, as the name of his newly founded party indicates, the number one issue in this campaign in Lieberman’s mind isn’t Iraq, it’s Lieberman.