I think I can safely say that the shock of yesterday’s Republican convention was the thrashing that Sen. Lieberman gave to Sen. Obama. To then go further, and to request that Democrats cross lines and vote for Sen. McCain must certainly be resounding through the Democratic party this day. It is payback in a big way.
Why do I say payback? We need to remember that the reason Lieberman is an independent today was because he was forced out of the party that he knew, loved, and had served for many years. He is a perfect example of what happens when a radical group within a party begins to gain control and is able to begin to purge those who do not live up to their ideas of what is right.
In this case, a far-left anti-war group had gained control of the party apparatus in Connecticut. They thought to put in a more clearly anti-war candidate as the Democratic candidate in the then upcoming elections. And, within the party primary, they succeeded. But, they made a major miscalculation. Lieberman had many years of service to his state, and, was seen as a true moderate. The far-left also miscalculated the anger that such a raw grab for power would generate, not to mention the assumption that Lieberman would roll over and play dead.
The result has been a Lieberman who ran as an independent, won, and is now free of all party strictures. Rather than creating a far-left seat in Connecticut, the far-left did not just lose a seat and an ally, they lost the seat for the national party, and created a major power broker. In a Senate as closely divided as ours, a single vote can mean the difference over who controls. And, that single vote now belonged to Lieberman, who could no longer be disciplined by a party to which he does not technically belong. And so, in some ways, Lieberman actually has more power now than he did before the far-left launched its ideological coup attempt.
Yes, yesterday had the strong smell of payback about it.
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