The role of Sen. Joseph Lieberman in this year’s presidential campaign as a surrogate for Republican Sen. John McCain gets stranger by the minute.
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The onetime Democrat embraced Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in 2006 when he needed him - when he was facing a primary challenge from anti-war candidate Ned Lamont. Obama, at some cost to his own standing among anti-war Democrats, appeared by Lieberman’s side at a 2006 Connecticut fund-raiser.
“I am absolutely certain Connecticut is going to have the good sense to send Joe Lieberman back to the U.S. Senate so he can continue to serve on our behalf,” Obama proclaimed then.
A 2006 Associated Press story about the appearance described Lieberman as Obama’s mentor after he was sworn into the Senate in 2005.
What happened to rupture that relationship so that Lieberman is now joining Republican conference calls attacking Obama’s foreign-policy positions?
There are several theories: One is that Lieberman was furious when Obama eventually supported Lamont after Lamont’s victory in the Democratic primary - although Obama never campaigned for him unlike several of his Senate colleagues. (Lieberman ran as an independent, third-party candidate and won.)
Another is that despite Lieberman’s protestations to the contrary, he may be eyeing the vice-presidential slot on a McCain ticket – a pairing that would help McCain woo independent voters, as well as the Jewish vote in key states like Florida.
But Lieberman, who shared McCain’s support for the war in Iraq, has been all but immune from political payback because he still caucuses with the Democrats and is integral to the the party’s razor-thin 51-49 majority in the Senate. Without Lieberman, the Senate would be tied, and Vice President Dick Cheney would get to cast deciding votes in favor of the Republicans.
But he is treading a delicate line – one which many Democratic partisans believe he crossed last week when he joined the GOP conference call attacking Obama’s position on Iran moments after the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee had delivered a foreign policy address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Earlier in the week, moreover, Lieberman co-hosted an event with deep-pocketed donors who are part of the “McCain 2008 Victory Jewish Coalition” in a ballroom of the Grand Hyatt in Washington. According to one participant, Lieberman took Obama to task for his policies on Iran and Israel during the event, which drew fundraising pledges totaling $2 million for McCain and the Republican National Committee. He also formed a group last week, Citizens for McCain, to reach out to independents and Democrats.
Adding insult to injury, Lieberman has said he is open to playing a prominent speaking role at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., if McCain asks him to do so.
“I’m going to do everything I can to help him get elected. I’m going to do it my way,” Lieberman told the Washington Post. “But there will be times when I’ll comment, in fairness, on Senator Obama’s positions.”
Yet another source of agita is that Lieberman is scheduled to headline Pastor John Hagee’s 2008 Christians United For Israel: Washington-Israel Summit, on July 22. In accepting Hagee’s invitation, Lieberman became the most senior elected representative confirmed to appear at the annual gala.
Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, has called Hagee’s group “a vital force in supporting the war against terrorism and defending our ally, Israel,” although Hagee was spurned by McCain and many Democrats for his claim that God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land, as well as for his anti-Catholic rants.
“I believe that Pastor Hagee has made comments that are deeply unacceptable and hurtful,” Lieberman said in a statement. “I also believe that a person should be judged on the entire span of his or her life’s works. Pastor Hagee has devoted much of his life to fighting anti-Semitism and building bridges between Christians and Jews.”
If the Democrats emerge victorious in this election, the word is that the Connecticut independent may lose his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“Its a difficult situation,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, the Senate Democrats’ Assistant Majority Leader and a major Obama backer, told Roll Call. “Joe is my friend … but I hope he doesn’t become the lead attack dog. Of course it’s a concern when someone in your Caucus is supporting the other party’s candidate. Let’s not try and sugarcoat it.”
Last week, Obama seemed to give Lieberman a stern talking-to on the Senate floor Wednesday. Obama guided Lieberman to a corner of the chamber, where for three minutes they engaged in an animated conversation. No voices were raised, but several times Obama gently put his hand on Lieberman’s shoulder, and Lieberman more than once pointed his finger back at Obama.
Obama declined to address the discussion, telling reporters Wednesday that it was just about “politics.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a longtime friend of Lieberman’s, said he had no intention of attempting to mete out punishment, such as revoking Lieberman’s chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“We’ll let the future decide what it’s going to be, but I’m not about to threaten anybody at this point,” he told the Post.
None of the talk of retribution and betrayal fazes Lieberman. He said “the post-2006 chapter of my life” has freed him from “tribal partisanship.”
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