Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Connecticut for Lieberman Ego Run Amok Case Closed
If any of you are scholars of this area of American History can you tell us? Has there ever been a party named for a single individual before? Even Perot didn't name his "party" after himself. Senator Schumer and the rest of the pro-Joe Democrats should be questioning their decision to support someone who has made this kind of outrageous display.
It gives me no pleasure to point out that Joe Lieberman, all evidence to the contrary, irrationally believes that he isn't just a gifted politician but that he is a man of destiny. With nothing but an ill advised and counterproductive nomination as Vice President to support it, he believes that his political career is a key to the fate of the nation. Unfortunately, given the potential of this embarrassing display of self-delusion to keep the Republicans in control of the Senate, he might be tragically right.
There will be finger pointing at the people who support Ned Lamont for the nomination. This is short sighted in two ways. Joe Lieberman hasn't promised publicly that he wouldn't bolt the Democratic Party if selected as its nominee. There isn't any guarantee that the suspicions that he had planned to do that from the start aren't right. Without that promise made with a promise to vacate the office if he bolted Connecticut Democrats couldn't be certain that they weren't nominating the next Republican Senator from their state.
Second, Lamont and the prominent Democrats around him have announced that they will support whoever the Democratic Voters in Connecticut choose as their nominee. Lieberman's supporters and he, himself, haven't shown this kind of loyalty to Democratic Voters. Democratic Voters are owed loyalty and must insist that anyone asking for their nomination promise to respect their decision. All Democrats, everywhere had better clear up that misunderstanding right now.
No, for Joe it's all about Joe. Nothing is more important than him. This is the kind of thing that happens in a political culture that forgets that the People are supreme, that Citizen Voter is the highest office that anyone can aspire to. The office holders, yes, even those magisterial Senators, are the servants of the People.
If any of you are scholars of this area of American History can you tell us? Has there ever been a party named for a single individual before? Even Perot didn't name his "party" after himself. Senator Schumer and the rest of the pro-Joe Democrats should be questioning their decision to support someone who has made this kind of outrageous display.
It gives me no pleasure to point out that Joe Lieberman, all evidence to the contrary, irrationally believes that he isn't just a gifted politician but that he is a man of destiny. With nothing but an ill advised and counterproductive nomination as Vice President to support it, he believes that his political career is a key to the fate of the nation. Unfortunately, given the potential of this embarrassing display of self-delusion to keep the Republicans in control of the Senate, he might be tragically right.
There will be finger pointing at the people who support Ned Lamont for the nomination. This is short sighted in two ways. Joe Lieberman hasn't promised publicly that he wouldn't bolt the Democratic Party if selected as its nominee. There isn't any guarantee that the suspicions that he had planned to do that from the start aren't right. Without that promise made with a promise to vacate the office if he bolted Connecticut Democrats couldn't be certain that they weren't nominating the next Republican Senator from their state.
Second, Lamont and the prominent Democrats around him have announced that they will support whoever the Democratic Voters in Connecticut choose as their nominee. Lieberman's supporters and he, himself, haven't shown this kind of loyalty to Democratic Voters. Democratic Voters are owed loyalty and must insist that anyone asking for their nomination promise to respect their decision. All Democrats, everywhere had better clear up that misunderstanding right now.
No, for Joe it's all about Joe. Nothing is more important than him. This is the kind of thing that happens in a political culture that forgets that the People are supreme, that Citizen Voter is the highest office that anyone can aspire to. The office holders, yes, even those magisterial Senators, are the servants of the People.
