As you have probably heard by now, Lieberman has indicated a willingness to keynote the Republican National Convention:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the Democratic Party's 2000 vice presidential nominee, is leaving open the possibility of giving a keynote address on behalf of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) at the Republican National Convention in September.
Republicans close to the McCain campaign say Lieberman's appearance at the convention, possibly before a national primetime audience, could help make the case that the presumptive GOP nominee has a record of crossing the aisle. That could appeal to much-needed independent voters.(...)
"If Sen. McCain, who I support so strongly, asked me to do it, if he thinks it will help him, I will," Lieberman said in a brief interview.(...)
Appearing before the Republican convention carries some risk for Lieberman. His Democratic colleagues could seek retribution by taking away his gavel on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee next Congress.
Color me skeptical on Democratic willingness to strip Lieberman of his committee chairmanship in the 111th Congress. At the same time, it is something that I believe we must organize to accomplish, and which would be successful if half of the Democratic Senate caucus supported it. I have no idea how close we are to achieving that level of support, but reaching it does not appear entirely impossible, especially given Lieberman's support for McCain.
When Lieberman does address the RNC, which at this point is probably a foregone conclusion, at some point during his speech he will probably claim that Democrats kicked him out of the party, instead of taking responsibility for leaving the party himself. Lieberman's claim will be obviously absurd, given that 99% of all Democratic members of Congress endorsed him in the primary, that they gave him a standing ovation upon his return to the Senate after losing the primary, and that they even handed him a chairmanship in the 110th congress. Further, except for someone with a grossly oversized sense of entitlement, losing a primary is simply not the same thing as being kicked out of the party. I haven't heard John Edwards, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, or even Dennis Kucinich claim they were kicked out of the party because they did not receive the presidential nomination. Lieberman chose to gather signatures for an independent run himself. Eliding his personal responsibility for his partisan shift is bitterly ironic for a man who so often preaches about the need for personal moral responsibility.
Now, even with all of that said, I still think that Democrats should accept Lieberman's claim that he was kicked out of the Democratic Party because of his support for endless war in Iraq. While it is an absurd claim, in terms of party image it is actually vastly superior to pointing out the obvious errors in Lieberman's argument. For a very long time, one of the most damaging national images associated with the Democratic Party is that we don't stand for anything. If we claim that yes, we kicked Lieberman out of the party because he supported Bush and McCain's endless war in Iraq, then it becomes pretty darn difficult to argue Democrats don't stand for anything. Such a claim makes us appear to hold a hard line on a deeply unpopular war, an image of principle and toughness on the defining issue of the decade.
Just as the Jeremiah Wright episode counter-intuitively helped Obama by quashing the "Obama is a Muslim meme," and also be providing an opening for Obama to make a groundbreaking speech on race in America, Lieberman can counter-intuitively help Democrats by claiming that he was kicked out of the part over his support for war in Iraq. Lieberman's claim might not be true, but it does make Democrats look tough and principled on a major issue. We should embrace Lieberman's charge whenever he makes it over the next several months, and follow it up by stripping his committee seat once we don't need him in the next Senate. This could be a defining moment for Democrats, and improve our image for a long time to come.
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