Lieberman to Hold Fundraiser for Sununu in Manchester Tonight

But neither Collins or Lieberman are darlings of their respective Parties... (0.00 / 0)

But they are darlings of Independents.

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by: nhpoliticscom @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 07:08:59 AM CDT

Joe Lieberman is not a Democrat. (4.00 / 1)

He was voted out by the Democrats in his state last summer.

He is now a member of the Connecticut for Lieberman party.

Here is the Connecticut for Lieberman party's platform:

1.If you run under Connecticut for Lieberman, you must actually join our party.
2. The party will nominate people for office who have the last name of Lieberman and/or who are critics and opponents of Senator Lieberman.
3. If any CFL candidate loses our party's nomination in a primary, that candidate must bolt our party, form a new party and work to defeat our party's endorsed candidate.
4. We in the CFL intend to run the same candidate for three different jobs at the same time, ie. House, Senate and Governor.

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by: Dean Barker @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 07:47:11 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Heh. A Lieberman opponent (0.00 / 0)

managed to take control of the party after the election.

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by: elwood @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 08:27:40 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

They were. (4.00 / 1)

Polling shows that the Iraq War is deeply unpopular among Independents today.

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by: elwood @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 07:47:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

But from there the polling about what to do about Iraq totally scatters.... (4.00 / 2)

The challenge, for both parties, really, is how to harness as much of that whole scatter with the dissatisfaction regarding the Iraq policy, and I mean that more from a political science view of getting to 50.000001 percent in most races, and especially the important races, rather than a political conviction view.

By scatter I mean some people want a pull out, immediately.  Some people want a change in approach and administration because they believe the problem is in the incompetence of the Bush administration to administer their own policy, and there are lots of shades in between that represents the total unpopular number regarding Iraq.

The trick is to take your conviction and quantify a compromise with those who are dissatisfied that gets you to 50.00001 percent.  You only want to compromise your conviction as much as you have to, but you have to compromise your conviction as much as you have to.  That is hard.  Very, very, hard.

And it's much more complex than relying merely on that unpopular number.  And anyone compromising their conviction regarding the issues of war is not something any of us do lightly, or easily, or, hopefully, thoughtlessly.

It's a pretty tricky challenge.

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by: nhpoliticscom @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 08:29:49 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Agreed, but (4.00 / 2)

full-throated support for the current Bush policy, which appears to be Lieberman's position today, has no chance of garnering that 50.00001%.

But yes, constructing a candidacy and campaign with a specific plan to resolve the War will be a challenge for Presidential candidates, and perhaps for Senate candidates as well.

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by: elwood @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 08:34:13 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'm particulary refering to the Pres. and US Senate and House seats. (0.00 / 0)

What is tricky for your Democratic candidates is how do they add the necessary compromise to get to 50.0001 percent with people who want to do something more in Iraq than an immediate pull out and retain not only the votes, but the enthusiasm of the people who want an immediate pull out. I don't, but if I believed that an immediate pull out was the right thing, goodness, much more than that would be pretty hard to compromise about.

Compromise is hard.  Compromise over issues of war is so intricate and delicate.  Ultimately it's going to take a lot of faith in the nominees making those calculations.

When you are making your own calculation about putting faith in someone I just want to give this plug about Governor Shaheen.

Many Democratic orientated people in the 80s and 90s became RINOs because the Democratic Party just wasn't really a factor in policy, nor was it a road to any sort of personal political career success.

Jeanne Shaheen never - EVER - considered that.  She was a Democrat, she stuck with it, and instead of compromising she went out and changed your Party not only to contribute to policy in an influential way, but she made it so that your young Democrats can plan real, high level, career goals from within your Party.  That may not seem like much now.  It's easy to take that for granted.  But that was not the political reality that Jeanne Shaheen and her tenacious political conviction encountered in the mid-seventies when she started.

I would think that is something that should create faith from members of your Party about her conviction. And I won't rehash my grievances with your party, but that has not always been the case.

It's really tricky.  And Jeanne Shaheen's calculation about whether this race is winnable is not exclusive to Sununu's vulnerabilities, but also how reliable her Party will be to commit to winning, and doing what it takes to do that.

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by: nhpoliticscom @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 09:07:55 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Lieberman (0.00 / 0)

I know about the collegiality of the Senate and all that, and generally I respect and appreciate it, but actually campaigning for a Republican is going too far.

In 2012, Lieberman should be among the top targets of the DNC, because he can't be trusted -- I can absolutely picture him caucusing with the Republicans.

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by: JimC @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 08:23:08 AM CDT

He's already voting with Republicans (0.00 / 0)

on most major issues.  (The EFCA and labor issues more generally being an important exception.)  Caucusing with them wouldn't be much of a change.

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by: Laura Clawson @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 14:25:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It would be if -- (0.00 / 0)

It shifts Senate control. I used to trust him not to do that; I no longer do.

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by: JimC @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 15:06:05 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

One more thing (4.00 / 2)

I'm not sure I buy the premise that Sununu will reach out to Lieberman -- unless Lieberman switches parties.

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by: JimC @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 09:05:05 AM CDT

Well, no one thought (4.00 / 1)

he would continue to run for Senate after he was defeated fair and square in the primary, taking advantage of Rove's assistance and a Republican nominee who had a known gambling problem.

And few imagined that even an Iraq hawk like Lieberman would advocate bombing Iran, as he did a couple weeks ago.

Joe's full of surprises, and I'm not sure we've seen the last of them.

But getting back to "it's really all about Joe": I think it's Lieberman who needs Sununu for political survival much more than the reverse - until such time John E. needs to prove his indypendence to win re-election.  Then who knows what will happen.  Which is why I think it important to highlight right here and now with Collins that cozying up to Joementum for dollars will only rile up the opposition even more against you.

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by: Dean Barker @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 09:39:26 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Correction: (0.00 / 0)

Some people thought he would reject the will of his own party, but I naively imagined that he would respect them.

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by: Dean Barker @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 09:41:49 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

The reachout may be in the reverse direction (0.00 / 0)

with Joe seeking out Sununu and offering to help.

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by: elwood @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 09:42:28 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Ugh (0.00 / 0)

(By way of agreement)

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by: JimC @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 09:56:37 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

One other area of agreement between Lieberman and Sununu... (0.00 / 0)

is that both seem to accept the Republican tax rate gimmick that creates deficits, and debt, and wastes our hard earned tax money on interest on that debt: The Republican Interest Expense Pork Program.

Democrats can clobber them both on that one.  Remember Howard Dean's "You just can't trust Republicans with your money."?

I think that anti-war Democrats were so focused on the war issue that many overlooked just how much that helped Howard Dean.

I totally disagreed with Howard Dean's war position, for instance.  But NHPolitics.com was as helpful as I could make it for Howard Dean because of his deficit and tax rate gimmick position.

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by: nhpoliticscom @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 11:04:01 AM CDT

More on Lieberman (0.00 / 0)

{http://www.commondre...)

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by: Jennifer Daler @ Thu Jun 21, 2007 at 11:23:51 AM CDT