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Perhaps reflecting the heat of the Connecticut primary race, my description of Joe Lieberman as a "Democratic centrist" has raised hackles. Let me explain my word choice.
According to the National Journal's authoritative rankings of 2005 Senate votes, Lieberman voted on the liberal side of key votes 66 percent of the time. His ranking is virtually identical to that of New Mexico's Jeff Bingaman and West Virginia's Robert Byrd. Nor was 2005 an a aberration. In 2004, according to National Journal, Lieberman's liberal rating was 70 percent, a bit ahead of Indiana's Evan Bayh. That year Hillary Clinton, by the way, was ranked by National Journal at 71 percent.
Lieberman may annoy a significant group of Democrats with his position on the Iraq War, his efforts to work with Republicans and the tone of some of his public comments. But ire should not blind readers to where Lieberman actually stands on the ideological grid of the Senate and the country.
Remember a political label like "centrist" is a comparative. And I suspect that I would also get snarky letters if I started labeling Lieberman's ideological soul-mates in the Senate, like Bayh and Bingaman, "Democratic conservatives" or, to quote a letter-writer, "one step left of Dick Cheney."
