Joe Lieberman and the Soul of the Republican Party

By Paul Gessing

A few weeks ago, prior to Connecticut’s Democratic primary in which Joe Lieberman lost to Ned Lamont, I wrote that this was a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. Well, we all know now how that race turned out and that a majority of Democrats indeed voted to become a party of opposition as opposed to just a slightly left version of the Republican Party.

During the last few weeks as Senator Lieberman announced his decision to run as an independent and built an early lead in the polls, it has become clear that much of his support is coming from Republicans in Connecticut, but is largely being encouraged by the Bush Administration. In the aftermath of the election, Dick Cheney called Lieberman “a good man that he has a good deal of respect for” and argued that Lamont’s opposition to the war in Iraq would provide “Al Qaeda types” evidence that they are winning the war. This viewpoint is largely shared by right-wing and other hawkish pundits desperate to preserve the political life of one of the staunchest defenders of our failed intervention in Iraq.

So, with Republicans running to embrace Lieberman and Democrats in his own state and in the Senate supporting Lamont, it must be considered what will happen if Lieberman were indeed to maintain control of his Senate seat. It is hard to imagine that Lieberman would want to return to the Democratic Party or even caucus with them – or that the Democrats would allow him to do so. Thus, there is probably a good chance that Lieberman would either become a Republican or at least caucus with them.

What would it mean for Republicans to accept Joe Lieberman as one of their own? Simply put, it would signal the depth of their slavish dedication to their adventure in Iraq at the expense of nearly all other policy areas. Sure, as I outlined in the previous article, Lieberman has sided with Republicans on a handful of trade issues and occasionally on the issue of educational choice, but Lieberman hasn’t a fiscally-conservative bone in his body.

Never in his career has Lieberman scored higher than “F” in the Ratings of Congress published by the National Taxpayers Union. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that according to the BillTally study published by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation – a study that tallies up the total spending agendas of each Member of Congress were all their bills enacted – Lieberman would like to expand the size of the federal government by another $30 billion! This big-spending agenda dwarfs the agendas of fellow Democrats (and alleged liberals) including Russell Feingold (D-WI), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Robert Byrd (D-WV).

With Bush’s policies on the rocks not only in Iraq, but in Iran, Lebanon, and North Korea, it is understandable that the knee-jerk response of many Republicans is to run to the defense of the leader of their party. That said, if the fiscally-conservative wing of the party simply rolls over and accepts Joe Lieberman into their ranks, it will simply be another sign that Republicans really don’t care about fiscal policy.

Perhaps Joe Lieberman should consider starting his own political party, the “anti-liberal” party. After all, his foreign and domestic policies, were they fully adopted, would go a long way towards furthering Bush’s rollback of our political freedoms and expansion of the role the federal government plays in our daily lives. Hopefully, now that Lieberman has decided to separate himself from his newfound Republican supporters by calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation, sensible voices in the Republican Party will start to think twice about throwing their support behind Lieberman.

Regardless of what ultimately happens, it will be an interesting few months until November.

Paul J. Gessing is a Senior Editor of The Free Liberal and is a member of its founding committee. His writings have been published in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, and U.S. News & World Report. Prior public policy jobs included working at the Marijuana Policy Project and Congressman Bernie Sanders' office.

He completed his B.A. in Political Science at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and received an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School at the University of Maryland. Paul resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico and manages a think-tank there.