Joementum is a dINO

I’ve been trying to find a good title for this post, and how best to write this given the news lately. Apparently, Joe Lieberman is facing a tough primary contest against Ned Lamont, a telecom businessman, for the Connecticut U.S. Senate seat. Most of the press – and Lieberman himself – have peddled this contest as a backlash for his staunch support of the Iraq war, and how the left-wing bloggers can’t stand him for it.

While that might be partly true, there’s also been other reasons that the bloggers don’t like him – his literal embrace of Bush at a State of the Union address, his frequent votes with Republicans, his support from GOP pundits and donors, and his use of GOP rhetoric to bash more liberal members of the Democratic party.

And now, his poll numbers are plummeting (he leads by 6 in the latest poll!), and his support is dropping (he got just 67% in an establishment convention and recently lost the teachers’ unions). So, he comes out with this bizarre ad that tries to attack Ned Lamont as the cub of Lowell Weicker (who Joe beat in 1988 and had contemplated a comeback bid this year), while also ironically claiming that Lamont voted with Republicans. This last part is rich given that Lamont’s main political experience is on a town council – as if zoning variances and street lights are going to be heavy partisan issues compared to, say, the Iraq War, billion-dollar tax cuts, or domestic wiretapping.

But what really gets me is that Joementum is contemplating a run as an Independent instead of as a Democrat. Why? Does he think the DNC left him, like Jeffords complained of the RNC? Will he thus caucus with the Republicans? No, apparently his rationale is because he’d have an easier time winning as an Independent than winning the Democratic primary. He plans no change to his relationships in DC and if he does run as an Independent, he would probably demand help from the DSCC just as he’s doing right now. He’d be the first politician to leave a political party not because he disagreed with it on some issue but simply to avoid a primary election.

What it comes down to, is that Joe is a “dINO” – that is, he only belives in a democracy-in-name-only. When faces with a tough election, he wants to find an easier route to power.

This is a really sad turn of events for Joe. And to think, I was convinced to vote for Al Gore when he picked Mr. Integrity as his running mate. Count me as a disappointed former supporter.

Luckily, not being in Connecticut, I don’t have to pick a side in the Senate race. But I definitely won’t give money to Joe, at least not until he quits this Hamlet-esque contemplation of an Independent candidacy.