Democrat seeks to dump Lieberman over Iraq

Questioning Dean's calmness
At a recent Lamont campaign event, an operative of the group Dean founded, Democracy for America, played host to Lamont.

Lieberman’s bid for the 2004 presidential nomination turned into a crusade to stop Dean. In September 2003, Lieberman even seemed to question Dean’s mental stability, saying the voters had to examine whether he had “the ability to calmly make decisions under pressure.”

Democracy for America hasn’t endorsed Lamont but he hopes it will.

Lamont has money, but when asked whether he’d be willing to spend the $60 million in personal wealth that Jon Corzine spent in 2000 to win a Senate seat in New Jersey, Lamont replied with a laugh, “Are you high?”

“There’s no way I can finance this thing myself,” he said. “But when you challenge an incumbent it’s tough to get started, so I’m going to do enough (in self financing) to get this thing off to a credible start, which we’ve done.” He wouldn’t commit himself to a specific dollar amount.

As of Dec. 31, Lieberman’s campaign had more than $4 million in cash on hand.  Lamont’s campaign has just begun its fund-raising.

Lamont has scant political experience: a stint as selectman (analogous to city councilman) in Greenwich, and service on the board of finance for Greenwich.

To get into the Aug. 8 primary he needs either 15 percent of the 1,400 delegates to the state convention in May, or 16,000 signatures of registered Democrats on petitions.

Open to censure of Bush
Bush may be on the Aug. 8 ballot in spirit just as much as Lieberman. While Lamont said he doesn’t favor impeachment of Bush, he is “open to” Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold’s resolution to censure Bush for ordering the National Security Agency surveillance program, which Lamont says is illegal.

In contrast, Lieberman isn’t keen on censuring Bush. He hints that he regards Feingold’s resolution as a worthless gesture.

And Lieberman takes a pragmatic approach to the NSA surveillance, saying, “Since nobody argues we shouldn’t be doing the surveillance and it’s critically important to our national security, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all got in a room together and figured out a way for it to be done according to the law?”

Asked about Lamont’s challenge, Lieberman said, “If his candidacy goes forward, this will be a choice for the people of Connecticut: my record of delivering for them over three terms and whatever he offers for the future.”

In contrast to Lieberman on Iraq, Connecticut’s senior senator, Democrat Chris Dodd voices a keen desire to pull out U.S. troops.

“By the next two weeks if they (the Iraqi factions) don’t come together and form a coalition government, then my view is all bets are off and we ought to get out.”

Support from Dodd
When Lamont’s candidacy is mentioned, Dodd wearily says, “I know,” then adds, “I’m a strong supporter of Joe Lieberman and will be working like heck for him.”

As for the Lamont challenge, “Joe takes it seriously and he should. You never know in this world: an August primary, it always has some potential for others. But I think Joe will prevail in all of this.”

Another Lieberman ally is Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who worked with Lieberman as a member of the group of 14 senators to prevent abolition of the judicial filibuster.

As he came off the Senate floor Tuesday, Salazar called Lieberman “an independent voice who always does what he believes is the right thing. We need more people like Joe Lieberman in the U.S. Senate so we can transcend the partisan poison of Washington D.C. I’m going to do everything I can to help him.”

As for some Democrats’ discontent with their old veep candidate on Iraq, Salazar said, “Sen. Lieberman has a sense of the strategic long-term importance of us succeeding in the Middle East and that’s why he’s taken the position he’s taken. It may not be in agreement with everybody else in the Democratic caucus or with Democrats in general, but I think he has a good foundation from which he is taking his position.”

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