Letters to the Editor
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100% confused
So then, what are these primaries for anyway?
I thought that Democracy meant people have the voting power.
Joe Lieberman just took that away from the voters in my view.
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Another really great thing about Lamont's win
...is that it is an all too-rare demonstration of what the primary process is really supposed to do... challenge the incumbent. Without such challenges, it is all too easy for an incumbent to become to comfortable with the trappings of his or her office, ignoring the real wishes of their constituents.
In fact, from what I've read, that was the original intention in Connecticut: just get Lieberman to pay attention to his constitutents. Nobody really dreamed it would go so far, at first.
I really hope that the power of the primary challenge spreads like a virus throughout the country. That would really be something to watch!
Instead of sitting home during the primary... because: why bother, after all? perhaps more voters can/could/will be energized and inspired to vote "early," when it really counts, if only they, too, can be presented with someone courageous & resourceful enough to challenge an entrenched incumbent. As everyone has acknowledged during Lamont's campaign, even a good showing (for the underdog! not the incumbent!) is a kind of victory. If only because it makes the incumbent just a little bit less comfortable.
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Write to Lieberman
I've just written to Senator Lieberman the olde fashioned way: an actual letter. I've asked him to resign his Democratic committee assignments just as he resigned from the Democratic Party last night. I also wrote to Harry Reid to urge him to strip Lieberman of his assignements if Lieberman doesn't voluntarily resign them. I encourage War Room readers to do the same.
Lieberman's disdain for the will of the Connecticut voters smacks of the same disdain for democracy that has been the hallmark of the Bush administration. If Democrats cannot stand up against Lieberman and exact penalties for his party disloyalty and undemocratic behavior, how can they be expected to stand up against Republicans for the betterment of our nation, our government, and our democracy.
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Damn pesky voters
The media is as bad as Lieberman. "Has the crazy, anti-war left taken over the party?"
As many have pointed out, 60% of the nation thinks the war was wrong in the first place, which must mean at least 85% of Democrats think so. Think about that; 85% of the party is on the fringe of the party, according to “conventional wisdom.”
Meanwhile, warmongers like Bill Kristol (whose views are reflected in no more than 15% of the population) continue to help define "the center" as a part of inside-the-beltway roundtables broadcast by cable channels up and down the dial.
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Who will be the first
To write a law that says if you lose in a primary to someone with over 50% of the vote, you can not run as a third party candidate?
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HUGE Irony (or is it?)
Lieberman folded faster and more conclusively to Bush in 2000 than he did to Lamont.
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Thanks, but too long
I'm glad that the War Room is continuing on during Tim Grieve's vacation, but the posts in Grieve's absence are significantly longer on average than those typically written by Grieve. The reason that I like War Room is that I can read the posts quickly during breaks in my work day. I feel like I have to devote more time to the posts in the past week. The info is great, but try to keep them more concise.
Thanks
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A perfect illustration
Lieberman's behavior is a perfect illustration of what happens when a politician is in office for too long. Retaining the office with it's power and trappings becomes the most important thing, trumping the matters of policy which are supposed to be what they're there to decide. This is the best argument for term limits that I know
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Have people forgotten there can be more than 2 candidates?
First, let me say that I'm a liberal and if I lived in CT, Joe wouldn't have my vote.
Now to my point. In my view, all this hatred simply because Joe disagrees with a majority of Democrats in CT is a mistake. The Democrats have spoken and Joe doesn't represent them. If he feels that a majority of the voters still approve of him, let him run. If he's right, then he'll win. If he's not, then he'll lose. That's the democratic system. It seems to me that he is standing by his ideals, even if I (and most Democrats) don't agree with them, even to the point of losing his Senate seat. His stance is not one of someone who only craves power. If that were the case, he'd be more like Hillary and try to please everyone all the time.
I would hate to think that we are becoming so entrenched in this 2-party system that people are upset, no, absolutely up in arms, when someone dares to run outside that system. It disturbs me that the bloggers, the so-called outsiders, are so adamant that no one should question the 2-party system. What if Joe leaned so far left that the mainstream Democrats couldn't take him and he decided to run as a Green (or under the Earth First! banner, for that matter). Don't you think the liberal bloggers would cheer his independence and refusal to bow to pressures from the organized political structure?
I do, however, agree with the previous comment that Lieberman should immediately resign any committee positions he has which represent the Democratic party.
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Article is Spot On
This article describes the very reason I was so happy Lamont won last night.
Great point Swan. Letter in the works.
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Devil's advocate
I'm a former Connecticut voter who sadly remembers the day the voters first chose Lieberman over Weicker (thus trading a liberal Republican for a conservative Democrat). But you're stretching your argument a little thin here. You keep saying that the "Connecticut voters" have chosen Lamont. Well, not all of them: just the registered Democrats. When it comes down to what all of Connecticut's voters think, there's a very good chance that they'll still pick Lieberman. Given his track record, he's likely to draw more votes away from the Republican candidate than Lamont, but the latest polls show him winning handily in a three-way (or else you wouldn't be so outraged, eh?).
Don't get me wrong -- I think Lieberman is appalling, and hope that Lamont wins. But I wouldn't count on it. And if he loses to Lieberman in the long run, it will be because that's what Connecticut voters want.