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<DIV>Even Liberman wasn't liberal enough for the Dems. This is an
interesting story. </DIV>
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<DIV>Dick S.</DIV>
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<TD class=storyTtl colSpan=2>Independent's Day</TD></TR>
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<TD class=storyAuth colSpan=2 height=25>By Ilya Shapiro : <B><A
id=_ctl0_HyperLinkBio
href="http://www.tcsdaily.com/Authors.aspx?id=270">BIO</A></B>| 09 Aug
2006 </TD></TR>
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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>Though his "Joe-mentum" --
translating into a furious final ten days of campaigning -- closed
the gap from the double-digit lead that Ned Lamont held in some
polls of only a week ago, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman has
nevertheless become the first incumbent U.S. Senator to lose a
primary since 1980. The loss is official, with challenger Ned Lamont
squeaking out 51.8 percent of the vote against the 2000
Vice-Presidential nominee's 48.2 percent.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>The small difference, 10,000
votes out of over 282,000 cast, may overstate the tightness of the
race because nearly 30,000 people registered as Democrats in the
final weeks (both new and previously unaffiliated voters) -- in a
state where 44 percent had been registered independents. </P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>Still, the 282,000
represented over 50 percent of the eligible electorate, a stunning
turnout for a state primary in the dog-days of summer. The figure is
no doubt a reflection of the microcosm of national politics that the
Connecticut primary had become (because, of course, Lieberman
unflinchingly voted to go to war in Iraq, and has steadfastly
supported President Bush on foreign policy), and the attendant media
attention.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>Throughout his campaign,
Lamont insisted that he was no "one-issue candidate," that it was
the depth of his platform that gave people a reason to vote for him
rather than against Lieberman. But who was he kidding? This was a
retrospective referendum on Iraq, and the "Democratic wing of the
Democratic party" -- to use now-DNC chair Howard Dean's famous
slogan from the 2004 presidential race -- ejected one of the most
down-the-line Democrats of the past 25 years.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>In all the spin about how a
"moderate" cannot win given our nascent "politics of polarization,"
we lose sight that Lieberman's supposed moderation rests mostly in
his even-tempered disposition. This is a man, after all, who
received an 80 percent approval rating Americans for Democratic
Action and only 8 percent from the American Conservative Union (less
than Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer and equal to Chuck Schumer
and John Kerry). Heck, even in voting to authorize President Bush to
go to war in Iraq, he was joined by a majority of his colleagues
(including Clinton, Schumer, John Edwards, and Minority Leader Harry
Reid) in a lopsided vote that was greater than that approving the
first Gulf War.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>Yet Lamont adviser Jesse
Jackson said in an op-ed in the <I>Chicago Sun-Times</I> Monday that
"A loss for Lieberman would be a win for progressives." Jackson went
on to fault his party's putative Vice-President -- many who pulled
the lever for Lamont no doubt still consider Al Gore to be President
-- for "embracing key elements of the conservative agenda,"
including questioning certain excesses of affirmative action and
supporting cuts in capital gains taxes that have ushered in a new
class of investors.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>Such arguments expose the
nasty truth at the heart of the modern "Party of Jefferson": You
have to embrace the entire Democratic catechism (abortion on demand,
racial preferences, etc.) or risk banishment from this "party of
inclusion." While accusing the GOP of being a group of intolerant
extremists -- so intolerant that the party establishment is funding
Lincoln Chafee (who has a voting record equal to Lieberman and
Clinton, and more liberal than 14 Democratic senators) against a
conservative opponent -- it is the Democrats who are repeatedly
shown to have binding litmus tests.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>What does this say about the
(heavily Democratic) Jewish vote? Forgetting for a moment that
Lieberman is an Orthodox Jew who refrains from campaigning on the
Sabbath -- because religion qua religion is no longer an issue in
American politics (or so hopes Mitt Romney) -- how comfortable
should Jews be in a party that rejects any semblance of a hard line
in the war on Islamofascism? While the Bush administration has been
a better friend to Israel than arguably any in U.S. history, most
Jews continue to, as the anachronistic wag went, "live like
Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans." </P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>While we have no exit polls
out of Connecticut broken down by religion, it is safe to say that
Jews -- and all those who support peace and freedom in the Middle
East -- should be wary of the signals that Lamont's big win sends
America's enemies.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>And so, after calling his
challenger to congratulate him on his victory, Lieberman pronounced
that, "We've just finished the first half and the Lamont team is
ahead, but, in the second half, our team -- Team Connecticut -- is
going to surge forward to victory in November."</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left>While many would welcome that
result, a better lesson for the "big tent" Democratic Party would be
for Republican Alan Schlesinger to eke out victory from a three-way
race in this very blue state (John Kerry's sixth-highest margin)
that promises to continue being a major focus of the 2006
campaign.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=left><I>Ilya Shapiro is a lawyer
and TCS contributing writer whose last "Dispatch from Purple
America" <U><A
href="http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=073106C">asked why we
couldn't all just get along</A></U>.</I></P></DIV></TD></TR>
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