Joe Lieberman: McCain's Bipartisan Wingman

Politico: The Two Have Been Nearly Inseparable Since The One-Time Dem VP Nominee Endorsed McCain Last December

(The Politico)  This story was written by Jonathan Martin.

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Wherever John McCain goes these days, it seems, Joseph I. Lieberman is there. 

When McCain needed a quick reminder in Jordan last week on how to characterize Islamic radicals in Iraq receiving aid from Iran, Lieberman was there to whisper into his colleague’s ear. A day later in Israel, the Connecticut senator proved equally helpful, stepping in to help McCain clarify the meaning of the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Whether wearing yarmulkes together amid the throngs at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, meeting reporters outside 10 Downing Street in London or sporting matching suit-and-sweater combos at a snowy New Hampshire town hall meeting, the two have been nearly inseparable since Lieberman endorsed McCain last December.

As McCain hopes to wage a campaign that appeals to an independent-minded electorate exasperated by the Bush administration and the political status quo, Lieberman, a former Democratic vice presidential nominee, has become something of a symbolic character witness meant to testify to the Arizonan’s bipartisan approach.

As recently as 2000, the McCain-Lieberman political partnership might have seemed unthinkable. At the time, McCain was running for the Republican presidential nomination. And Lieberman was one of the nation’s most prominent Democratic politicians, a well-respected centrist whose selection as Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore’s running mate drew widespread praise.

But always more moralistic than some in his party, Lieberman’s hawkish tendencies have put him squarely out of step with his party, a fact underscored by his dud of a presidential run in 2004.

His steadfast support of the war in Iraq, while the vast majority of Democrats soured on the conflict, left him increasingly isolated. His 2006 Senate primary election loss to a neophyte challenger underscored his fall from favor. Lieberman ultimately won reelection, but it was as a third-party candidate.

Though he had initially wanted to stay out of the 2008 presidential fray, Lieberman was swayed by a personal appeal from McCain, an aide to the Connecticut senator said. Shortly after returning from a trip to Iraq together over Thanksgiving, McCain asked for his colleague’s support, saying it would make the most difference before the New Hampshire primary, where independents and Democrats can participate.

But even after the GOP contest moved to states where his influence was limited, Lieberman wasn’t sidelined. The senator whose party affiliation is now “Independent Democrat” appeared with McCain in conservative South Carolina and in some of the most heavily Republican parts of central Florida.

Besides South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who joined the duo on their overseas trip last week and who enjoys something approaching favorite nephew status with McCain, no other elected official has taken as visible a role or become such a ubiquitous presence in the McCain campaign as the junior senator from Connecticut.

Newly energized and again relevant in national political circles, Lieberman is already being talked about as an obvious pick for a McCain administration, likely as secretary of defense or some other high-profile foreign policy post.

McCain strategists see great value in the dissident Democrat and promise that Lieberman will play a key role in the general election.

“He contradicts the DNC caricature [of McCain],” says Mark Salter, McCain’s closest aide and former chief of staff.

As Democrats seek to portray the Arizona senator as representing a third Bush term, argues Salter, Lieberman’s willingness to back a Republican “exposes that for the emptiness that it is.”

“It’s a great story about character and courage,” adds Charlie Black, another top McCain dviser, alluding to Lieberman’s unlikely path from would-be Democratic vice president to senior surrogate for the GOP standard-bearer.

“And it reinforces McCain’s character and courage,” he adds, hinting at the Republican’s own willingness to buck his own party for principle. “[The endorsement] would not have happened for any other Republican.”

Nor would it have happened at all had Lieberman not been so at odds with his former party.

“Clearly that primary challenge he faced was a turning point in Joe Lieberman’s political career,” says Will Marshall, a co-founder of the once-Lieberman-headed Democratic Leadership Council and director of the Progressive Policy Institute. “That experience liberated him to follow his conscience on other political questions.”

Lieberman, who an aide says has only signaled a desire to keep serving in the Senate, has disappointed some of his admirers by coming out for McCain.

“I wish I understood it,” laments Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic strategist who stuck by Lieberman in 2006 even after his primary loss to Ned Lamont. “I just don’t know what to make of him anymore. I’m very sad.”

Rabinowitz speculates that Lieberman has entered a nothing-left-to-lose phase and that his endorsement strikes the first notes of a political “swan song.”

Those close to McCain and Lieberman, however, argue that the endorsement is the natural outgrowth of a long-budding relationship that has been cemented by a shared belief in the primacy of the threat of Islamic extremism.

While the two have served together for nearly 20 years in the clubby upper chamber, it wasn’t until the late-90s that they really bonded.

As members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the pair grew close while traveling together on congressional trips much like the one they took to Europe and the Middle East last week. Their friendship took root as they became regulars at the Wehrkunde conference, a Munich confab held every February that draws military and security experts from around the world.

McCain and Lieberman also joined forces on the two preeminent foreign policy issues of the era: American intervention in the Balkans and the decision to launch air strikes against Iraq.

“The split of the two parties on foreign policy compared to the '90s is crucial to understanding Lieberman,” says Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard editor and a friend of both men. “He hasn’t changed his mind.”

For his part, on domestic issues, McCain also has moved closer to Lieberman’s brand of DLC moderation.

Just as Lieberman is now liberated from following political orthodoxy, McCain went his own way after losing the primary to Bush in 2000. The two paired up to sponsor legislation, opposed by the administration and most Republicans, addressing global warming, and introduced the measure creating the 9/11 Commission over the initial opposition of the White House. They were also key players in the bipartisan Gang of 14.

Those close to Lieberman, however, say that his decision to so enthusiastically get behind McCain is borne in their shared experience as party loners, as much about persona as policy.

“First and foremost, it’s character,” says Dan Gerstein, a Democratic strategist who helped lead Lieberman’s 2006 campaign and previously worked in his Senate office. “This is purely a personal decision and is based on faith and belief in McCain.”

Gerstein, a Barack Obama supporter, shares the same concern of other Democrats: that Lieberman could serve as exactly the sort of validator for McCain’s independence that the Arizonan’s aides are counting on.

Lieberman could be especially helpful in Florida, with its heavy Jewish population, says Gerstein.

But Marshall, the DLC co-founder, suggests that Lieberman could be useful in a more unconventional way - with gentiles.

“Oddly enough, Joe Lieberman may have more credibility with religious voters than the very secular John McCain,” Marshall says.

More than anything, though, Lieberman could aid McCain’s effort “to run a campaign that transcends the limited reach of the Republican coalition,” observes Marshall.

“It feeds the McCain image of being attractive to independents and crossover Democrats,” agrees Rabinowitz, who supports Hillary Rodham Clinton. “At best, it’s not helpful for us.”

The key may be which Lieberman emerges: the affable vice presidential nominee of 2000 or the charisma-deficient presidential candidate four years later.

“My only hope is that he’s able to deliver as few people to McCain as he did to himself,” Rabinowitz says.

[tawpdawg1]

hey Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann --turn on your radio. Rush is on there right now ridiculing you and your state laws concerning his "OPERATION CHAOS". He said if you arrest him he would broadcast his show live from your jail and then cackled. Might as well tell you to your face to blow him.

[tawpdawg1]

***Man those Rasmussen people keep callin'''' me about every other day for another poll. I wonder what they would think if they knew I was tellin'''' ''''em the opposite of who I''''m really for ! HA HA HA

[tawpdawg1]

***Obama way ahead.

Latest Dela Katessin poll has Obama beating McCain head-to-head in the general by 64% to 33% and that margin is increasing over the same poll last month while McCain would beat Clinton 55% to 42% with 3% too stupid to decide which poll to believe.

[tulcak]

BIPARTISAN??!! are you kidding me? lieberman is a republican. always has been regardless of what affiliation he makes,... democrat, independent, hey, whatever is convenient. this just tells me that he can''t take a stand.

[liberty4you]

4000 Americans have given their lives for the war effort in Iraq. Do Americans feel that the intelligence that

came from the British was accurate? Or do we know more details today? Was there a back room decision to invade Iraq.

McCain was a war hero in a war that lasted for over twenty years and now his old enemy opened their first
capitalist stock market and oil companies have rushed

to open off-shore oil platforms off the Mekong Delta.
Was the Vietnam conflict worth it to get out then?

For Iraq, perhaps we should elect McCain and stay another fifteen years and have more Americans lives
lost and then leave and have the same results.

Iraq is looking a lot like ''Nam America if McCain is elected.

[greatdrivew]

It''s too bad there weren''t any McCain fund raising events near Afghanistan or Pakistan.

In between events he could have inquired about al Qaeda.

Come on India, throw some McCain fund raisers!!

Think of it as your contribution to keeping the world neocon-safe.

[kansas1946]

Bi-partisan??? Joe just needs to join the Republican party and be done with it.

[wardoglrs]

The Truth about War

http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.12.%20MoneyMasters.htm

Truth about Immigration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ

[singindick]

Lieberman can bite me. He''s so disgusting and pathetic that there''s really not much else one can say about him, other than point out that he''s lower than the *** on GWB''s shoes, and man, that''s freakin'' low!

[pansycritter]

GOP Joe has got to go!!!!!!!!!

[rickstas]

Lieberman is an Israeli agent. His loyalty is with Isreal, not the US. Check his record. He spends all his time ensuring that the US protects the interests of Isreal.

[ixoye_02]

Lieberman couldn''t win the Connecticut democratic primary and had to run as an Independent. Now, Lieberman is a man without a party and his alliance with McCain seals this idea in my mind. And I think the Dems would be better off cutting all ties with Lieberman because I wouldn''t want a senior senator with a committee chairmanship in Congress who would put the interests of Israel above those of America and working-class Americans.

[notopennshut]

Lieberman? Hoping for a position if McCain gets elected! He is and will be a republican, even when he claimed to be a democrat. So beware, if he wants to rejoin the party and then support McCain by saying that McCain can work across the aisle with both parties. All politicians want is power and that''s where Lieberman is targeting. Besides, McCain has shown that he is in fact quite ignorant of foreign affairs and really needs Lieberman to help him correct all the goofs he made as recently shown.

[latinovoter1]

I like John Mccain, but, I think he doesnt really know what is going on some of the time. He should not display Senior Moments during Newsbriefs. Just hurts the Republican Party.

[parrot123-2009]

parrot123...If you are still here I have the ABC story that I mentioned. Go to ABCnews.com then go to the politics section. Click on "McCain Gains from Clinton-Obama Feud". It''s the second story right under, "Dr. Death". Anyone else who is interested in what people are saying about this might want to check it out but if you''re an Obama supporter get ready to be really pizzed off.
Posted by Element51 at 02:27 PM : Mar 24, 2008

Will do ........ Thanks!

[jn122736]

The similarities between Bush and McCain are staggering!

Liberman is at McCain%u2019s side to steer/control him in his contact with the media, et al.

Bush always had Cheney at his side.

Remember, Bush would not even testify before the 9/11 commissions without Cheney there with him?

Bush would never answer questions that were not pre-submitted and would speak only to hand-selected crowds at campaign meetings

Watch for McCain to follow that same strategy.

They both want to %u201Cstay the course%u201D in Iraq.

Neither really knows or cares about the economy.

McCain Now supports torture, and embraces Evangelical leaders he despised in the past.

Lieberman won his last election as an independent because the majority of republican voters in his state voted for him (they knew the republican candidate couldn%u2019t win).

Al Gore is now probably wondering how much Lieberman actually helped Bush/Cheney in 2000.

He wasn%u2019t much of a challenge to Cheney in their VP debates

[element51]

parrot123...If you are still here I have the ABC story that I mentioned. Go to ABCnews.com then go to the politics section. Click on "McCain Gains from Clinton-Obama Feud". It''s the second story right under, "Dr. Death". Anyone else who is interested in what people are saying about this might want to check it out but if you''re an Obama supporter get ready to be really pizzed off.

[parrot123-2009]

None of these candidates has been tested in the way they will before and after November but Obama has been tested the most and is still standing after everything they''''ve thrown at him.

It hasn''''t even started for McCain and he''''s already sticking his foot in his mouth more than Jerry Ford and losing his temper like *** Nixon. Whether he has the stamina or the temperment for conducting a full scale marathon campaign is an open question.

The Repubs have been throwing out the same crapola at Obama since last fall and it''''s getting old and tired.

If they think flag pins and preachers, or even tapes from Osama are going to pull their cookies out of the fire I say leave them to their delusions.
Posted by realpatriot1 at 02:10 PM : Mar 24, 2008

I used to believe there was an age limit for contesting - only to find out, the limits'' for as young as you could be ..... IMO, i believe there should be a cap on it and my memory of my Grannies at 70 was enough to do that. Cheers!

[tawpdawg1]

OOPS, I forgot ot put in a "YES WE CAN!"

[tawpdawg1]

Trapbreak - Here''s hoping the Supers are paying attention to the ground-up organization of Obama, the size of the crowds, the MONEYRAISING ability, the SPIRIT of his campaign. It''ll rear up like a tidal wave come November.