The Great Change: Turning Cathy into a Lawyer

Word travels fast (even to China)... Apparently Joe Lieberman lost the Democratic primary for his senate seat.

WT at Expressio Unius thinks this may bode poorly for the Democrats:

So you've remade the party -- now the Democrats fear stepping out of line and making nice with Republicans ever -- but at the cost of cutting away at your party. Congratulations, you now have one less Democratic Senator who engages in bipartisanship and compromise. Because you have one less Senator period. Everything in life is tradeoffs.

I disagreed. I commented:

But with Lieberman there's long been a "with friends like these..." problem. And, yeah, maybe *technically* he was part of the Democrat club, but he obviously was of his own mind and not particularly beholden to the Democratic platform. Which I guess is ok, I wouldn't want senators to be automatons, but since his expression of independent political thinking so often included supporting Bush in ways that were so untenable to Democrats, if the seat really does end up lost to a Republican it might not be such a big loss. Yes, a Republican may be more likely to follow more of the Republican platform, but I'm inclined to think that any Republican Connecticut might produce would be fairly moderate and not go along with the full Republican party line themselves. (For instance, more like a Christine Whitman than a Trent Lott. Or a Lieberman in a Republican's clothing for a change.)

And I think that's just part of why this result may not be so bad. The Democrats have been getting into trouble nationally as being too moderate, as the party that stands for nothing and just bitches and moans and then rolls over for Bush. It's not that ultimately being moderate is a bad thing, but Democrats need to be seen to stand for something, and in this political climate, that something may need to be a strong opposition to the Republican agenda. Not only will that help capture disaffected Democrats, but it can also provide an alternative for disenchanted Republicans. With Lieberman so entrenched as the Democratic representative of Connecticut local Democrats simply could shrug and just put up with it. Or not turn up at the polls and let a Republican challenger sneak in. Knocking him out - or at least severing their support for him - at least sends the message that voters want more. WT wonders what kind of harbinger this might be for the Democrats; I think it might be a good one.

Furthermore, while WT thinks the close margin of victory suggests that Lieberman still has a lot of support, I think it suggests not so much lukewarm support for Lamont but how weak Lieberman is. Surely many people who voted for Lieberman were political pragmatists voting in trepidation of the strategy of undermining the incumbent. Many of these voters will likely vote for Lamont, and Lamont may also pick up independents and Republicans unhappy with the status quo. But had Lieberman squeaked through by the same margin I don't think the Democratic prognosis would have been nearly so rosy as it would have pointed out his obvious weakness, and then the Republicans could have steered some extra money to Connecticut to try to capitalize on his disaffected base and finally seize the seat for themselves. I suppose if Lieberman does run as an independent it could pull some people from Lamont, but it could just as easily pull some people from the unknown Republican challenger, which WT also notes.

I should also mention that personally I'm happy to see Lieberman unseated. Not only did I disagree with his position on the war - although I grant that it was at least a principled position - but I found on several other domestic civil liberties-type issues Lieberman's position disconcerting. I'd long since gotten the impression that Lieberman thought that if the US became a theocracy, Jews would get a seat at the table. I disagree that such an outcome would be likely, but in any case, this is not the America I want to live in, where I need to hope that my brand of Jewishness is religious enough to guarantee my full civic participation. I want to live in an America where it doesn't matter at all.