The Campaign to De-Legitimize the Dem Primary

Joe Lieberman's campaign has a very important thing they need to pull off: they've got to come up with some argument that allows Joe to ditch the Democratic Party and run against it while still being a good Democrat. For, if he fails to bring along a lot of Democrats, then it'll start to be clear to voters in CT that it's going to be a simple choice of Lamont v. Lieberman, with Republicans left to choose between Joe, who they wildly favor but is after all still a Dem who won't promise to caucus with them and Alan Schlesinger.

Based on the last week or two, it's pretty clear what strategy Joe's settled on: Convince people that Democrats who participate in the primary are totally unrepresentative of the party as a whole, so it would be irresponsible of him to respect the result. Of course it's without merit, but that's his argument.

In fact, his camp are saying because of the timing of this primary (Aug 8), that a small fraction of Democrats will be represented. See David Broder today in the WaPo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/16/AR2006061601561.html

Anyways, I tried to take a humorous tack to responding to this one. Here's my letter to the Hartford Courant (which I shared on myleftnutmeg this morning)

Dear Courant,

The way you hear Joe Lieberman and his supporters talk about it, you'd think only 'left wing weirdos' will have the chance to vote in the primary. Sure, August 8th is in the middle of vacation season, but absentee balloting isn't some secret option that only the far left wing is privy to. This Democratic primary will be just as open and fair as any other, and the Democrats who care to vote will do so. If Joe wants to find an excuse for abandoning the Democratic party, he'll have to come up with something else.

Sincerely,