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Jewish World Review
August 14, 2006
/ 20 Menachem-Av, 5766
Dems' dangerous drift: Lieberman didn't leave the party — it left him
By
Michael Goodwin
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Aug. 8, 2000, was sweltering in Nashville, but the 97-degree heat didn't stop the celebration when Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore introduced Sen. Joe Lieberman as his running mate. "Joe and I come from different regions and different religious faiths," Gore said. "But we believe in a common set of ideals. And we both believe, with our whole resolve, that as Americans we must make real the great ideal that we are one country, with a common history and a common destiny."
The crowd chanted "Joe, Joe, Joe" as Lieberman pumped his fist and smiled.
Exactly six years later, last Tuesday, the chants in Connecticut were for the man who took the party's Senate nomination from Lieberman. Rich upstart Ned Lamont defeated the three-term senator by claiming Lieberman had betrayed Democrats by supporting the Iraq war and being close to President Bush.
That is more than a stretch. Lieberman didn't leave the Democrats. The Democrats left him. He's the same pol he was six years ago. It's the party that has changed.
The rise and fall of Joe Lieberman personifies the historic, disastrous shift of the Democratic Party. In a relative blink of the eye, it has gone from nominating an Orthodox Jewish centrist to being a collection of angry radicals who have zero tolerance for moderation and dissent.
Six years ago, Lieberman's ticket selection was hailed as a sign of inclusiveness, and insiders crowed he lent gravitas and morality after Bill Clinton turned the Oval Office into a pickup bar. Now the party kicks him aside for sticking with his support for the war against Islamic fascism.
The change suggests a new party slogan: "Give me conformity, or get the hell out."
Still two years from the next presidential campaign, the hard-left lurch is drawing deserving comparisons to 1972. That year, Dems picked George McGovern to run against an unpopular war - Vietnam - and an unpopular President, Richard Nixon. But McGovern proved to be too liberal for even his own party and won only Massachusetts in a Nixon landslide. Except for Jimmy Carter in 1976, a Democrat didn't win the White House again until Clinton in '92.
If history repeats itself, George Bush will get the credit and Howard Dean the blame.
Bush drives many Dems to distraction. They hate, hate, hate him. Say anything nice about Bush, as I have, and the mail from the wingnuts makes me want to call a psychiatrist for them. Their rage begins with Iraq, but spills over into any and all topics.
They see dark conspiracies that recall bad Oliver Stone movies. They act like spoiled children throwing temper tantrums.
Most disturbing, they are in denial about terrorism. Every incident, including the huge airliner plot busted in London last week, gets twisted into an argument against Bush instead of a concern about the threat facing all Americans. This is not only bad politics - it's dangerous policy.
And Howard Dean is the Pied Piper. When he became party chairman, even after his meltdown in Iowa in 2004, I predicted he would be the Dem gravedigger. Lamont's victory, which Dean's brother helped engineer, shows he's digging very fast.
Lieberman, now reduced to running as an independent, is the kind of swing-voter Washington needs if we have any hope of finding common ground in this polarized era. Surely there are Democratic grownups who know that. And surely they will stop the madness before Dean buries them all.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and the media consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.
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