Lieberman's Support for War Leaves Him Embattled on Left

[Snowden]

Lieberman's Support for War Leaves Him Embattled on Left By WILLIAM YARDLEY[/color][/url]
Published: May 19, 2006

HARTFORD, May 18 — "George Bush's favorite Democrat," they call him. "Republican Lite," they sneer. But liberals are no longer just venting on Internet blogs and talk radio programs about their centrist nemesis: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.

Ned Lamont says his frustrations with Senator Lieberman solidified when he voted for a federal review of the Terri Schiavo case.



Now, from across the nation, a determined alliance of antiwar activists is working overtime online and on doorsteps to defeat Mr. Lieberman, whose political moderation helped him earn the Democratic nomination for vice president six years ago. Their goal is not only to punish Mr. Lieberman for staunchly supporting the war in Iraq but also to protest what the activists consider the Democratic Party's willingness to accommodate President Bush.

Without a national race to focus on, thousands of activists from other states — encouraged by a host of liberal bloggers — have contributed money and volunteered to help the campaign of Ned Lamont, a cable television executive with little political experience who is trying to unseat Mr. Lieberman in the state's Democratic primary in August.

Although Mr. Lamont's challenge appears to be a long shot, it is roiling some quarters of the Democratic Party, just as the party is trying to regain control of Congress this year. Many Democrats assert that the vigorous challenge to Mr. Lieberman is overshadowing the governor's race and taking money and attention away from three closely contested House races in Connecticut that many strategists consider crucial to the Democrats' majority hopes.

"It's absolute Democratic cannibalism," said John F. Droney, a former Democratic state chairman in Connecticut.

The liberals' campaign is clearly rattling Senator Lieberman, who has not faced a serious primary challenge in his three terms, Democrats say.
He has been cold-calling scores of state party delegates who will meet to endorse a candidate on Friday. He is boasting of union endorsements and interest groups he once took for granted. He has already run commercials and mailed letters to delegates from prominent Democrats like Senators Hillary Clinton to remind voters of his liberal record on issues like the environment, abortion rights and gay rights.

And while he has continued to defend his Iraq stand, disputing what he calls "caricatures" of his views, he has tried to distance himself from the president. "I'm probably the only person in America to run against George W. Bush twice," Mr. Lieberman, referring to his vice-presidential campaign in 2000 and the Democratic primaries in 2004, told about two dozen people last week at a center for the elderly in Farmington, a Hartford suburb. "Because I don't think he gives us the leadership this country needs."

Yet Mr. Lieberman's critics do not seem to be listening, particularly Mr. Lamont, who has spent more than $370,000 of his own money to challenge the senator.

"Connecticut's a progressive state," Mr. Lamont said at a fund-raiser in the home of a professor in North Haven on Sunday. "You're not going to lose a senator. You're going to gain a Democrat."

A growing cast of prominent activists is backing Mr. Lamont. Markos Moulitsas, who advised the presidential campaign of Howard Dean] in 2004 and founded the blog Daily Kos, is appearing in a campaign commercial for Mr. Lamont.

James H. Dean, the brother of Howard Dean and the chairman of the grass-roots group his brother formed in 2004, supports Mr. Lamont. Tim Tagaris, recently the Democratic National Committee's Internet outreach coordinator, has become director of Internet operations for the Lamont campaign.

Even the state's best-known independent, former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker, has announced his support for Mr. Lamont because of Mr. Lieberman's support of the war.

On Tuesday, the National Organization for Women's political action committee endorsed Mr. Lamont, in part because he said, unlike Senator Lieberman, that he would have supported a filibuster to prevent confirmation hearings for Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court.

Senator Lieberman was also endorsed this week by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group. But some Democrats who have voted for him for years are reconsidering their support. "He won't stand up and fight," Jim Boorsch, a retired lawyer who voted for Mr. Lieberman in his last three races, said at the Sunday fund-raiser. "He wants to be a friend to everybody and he can't be."

This weekend, the 1,607 delegates to the state Democratic party convention will nominate a candidate for the Senate, and Mr. Lieberman is expected to win the nomination handily. But Mr. Lamont will get his name on the ballot for the Aug. 8 primary if he wins 15 percent of the delegates, which many party leaders think is likely. "If he gets 25 percent, that will be sending a real message to Lieberman," said Leland Tolo, a West Hartford delegate who said he would back Mr. Lamont.

Mr. Lieberman's supporters note that he is well ahead of Mr. Lamont in polls. At the end of this year's first quarter, the senator had $4.7 million in his campaign account compared with about $375,000 that Mr. Lamont had on hand. The senator has been endorsed by prominent state Democrats and he has long ties with many local party leaders. But those supporters also warn that liberals could turn out in large numbers on Primary Day, making the outcome less than certain.

"Joe, I'm certain, will be fine, but if I were in his shoes I wouldn't be taking chances with an August primary," said Al From, the founder and chief executive of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group of which Senator Lieberman is a past chairman. "Because nobody's paying attention, and you don't know who's going to vote."



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/ny...html?th&emc=th

[odannyboy]

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"If he gets 25 percent, that will be sending a real message to Lieberman," said Leland Tolo, a West Hartford delegate who said he would back Mr. Lamont.

I do believe Mr. Lamont got over 30 percent. I hope you notice how unhappy folks are Joe.