Democratic voters in Connecticut have the right to nominate the candidate of their choice. But it is more than a little disturbing for the longtime popular senator (and the party’s 2000 nominee for vice president) to be targeted for defeat by national fundraisers based on his foreign policy views. There were principled people on both sides of the debate to go to war in Iraq. This page did not support the war, but it cannot cheer on liberal activists who run the risk of being guilty of the same sort of insistence on ideological purity that they deplore in Republicans.
The Democratic Party — the party of Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy — is a big enough tent to include voices on the conservative end of national security policy. Lieberman’s views shouldn’t trigger a nationwide jihad against him.
Speaking as a Connecticut voter, I’m just awfully sorry to learn that these delicate Angelenos find it disturbing to witness democracy in action. The fact of the matter is, Lieberman is a pisspoor excuse for a Democrat, and that’s saying a lot given that the Democrats themselves are mostly a pisspoor excuse for an opposition party. We sure as hell don’t need a Democrat who plays kissy-face with the President, supporting everything from the nomination of Torturin’ Al Gonzales (“I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt”), to this misbegotten war. A Democrat who suggests that rape victims who can’t get proper medical care simply take a “short hike” to another hospital. Etc., etc. Look, I was prematurely anti-Lieberman — I was appalled when Gore chose him as a running mate in 2000, for chrissakes. This is absolutely not about a “single issue” for me — but even if it were, well, the war’s a pretty goddamn big issue isn’t it? Pretty much the defining issue of the day. And the Democratic voters of Connecticut have every right to say, this man simply does not represent my values — and to work to try to replace him. (afterthought: if that resonates on a national level, great. But the decision is ultimately up to the voters of Connecticut, “nationwide jihad” notwithstanding.)
Anyway — and I say this with great affection, as a former longtime Californian — I’m not sure Connecticut voters really need to be lectured about appropriate political behavior by residents of a state in which a legitimately-elected governor was recalled and then replaced — out a field of candidates that also included a porn star, a down-on-his-luck former child actor, and Arianna Huffington — with an actor best known for playing a killer robot from the future.