Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Myself to Death: How Will Lieberman's Influence Be Felt?

Thursday, August 10, 2006

How Will Lieberman's Influence Be Felt?

Speaking of Lieberman, a probably overly optimistic thought occurred to me today, but I thought I'd share it. Lieberman wasn't the only incumbent to lose a primary last night. Representatives Cynthia McKinney of Georgia and Joe Schwarz of Michigan also went down to challengers from their own parties. While Ned Lamont attacked Lieberman from the left, liberal McKinney was defeated by a moderate opponent, and moderate Schwarz failed to fend off a challenger from the far right. This isn't an ideological trend, then, but an anti-incumbent one. As we move closer to November, I expect the discontent with out sitting elected officials to strengthen.

So here's the optimistic part of my thinking: I wrote last night that Lieberman's staying in the Connecticut senate race had the potential to take the air out of other races against vulnerable sitting Republicans. While I still think Lieberman will take attention away from those races, what if it doesn't do that much damage? What if his situation influences the other way, possibly even helping Dem challengers? If the country is in a growing anti-incumbent mood, what might help feed it more than an incumbent who was defeated for reelection but refuses to go away? Could that fire up the feeling against incumbents even more? Maybe it's wishful thinking. Certainly it's heavily optimistic. But can we be sure it's not possible?

2 Comments:

At 2:26 AM, August 10, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think what you suggest is exactly what will happen. Long live Joe! The longer he stays around the angrier the electorate will get.

As a side note: is it just me, or is the Fox-pimped "left wing purge" meme going nowhere? Is it possible that the public/press is finally on to the trick?

 
At 5:00 PM, August 10, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If, as I've heard, Republicans are cynically giving money to Lieberman, maybe Dems should too. As Lieberman comes more and more to personify politicians' sense of entitlement, he gives us more and more reason to dump them all out. If he's front and center until November, he'll be a constant reminder of how the whole system's broken.

As for the "left-wing purge" meme, it's just not catching on. I hope people have gotten wise. But it doesn't hurt that Ned Lamont comes across as a reasonable, concerned guy.

 

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