Posted on 12/09/2003 4:59:22 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
It ain't easy being a presidential candidate. Pundits generally agree that Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean hurts Lieberman the most of any candidate in the race. Yet the morning after the shocking news of the endorsement emerged, there was Joe Lieberman on The Today Show, smilingly explaining why this doesn't harm his candidacy in the least.
You had to hand it to Lieberman. He whistled past the graveyard with nary a dropped note.
Interviewed by Matt Lauer, Lieberman took the high road. No, Gore wasn't being disloyal. In fact, Lieberman would be "forever grateful" to Gore for giving him the opportunity to run for Vice President.
No, insisted Lieberman, this doesn't hurt his candidacy. "Al Gore only has one vote," and "we've got something going in New Hampshire."
Eventually, though, Lieberman was willing to raise some pointed questions. Lauer showed footage of Gore in 2000 annoucing his selection of Lieberman as his VP candidate and extolling him as fabulously qualified, etc., Lauer asked: "what has changed since then?" Lieberman said he didn't know and that you'd have to ask Gore.
Asked by Lauer how he explains this "shocking announcement," Lieberman said:
"I can't explain it. Al Gore will have to explain why he is endorsing someone who will take our country backward not forward, why he's endorsing someone who's against everything that Al Gore and Bill Clinton stood for: middle class tax cuts, strong foreign policy, values.
Lieberman pointedly mentioned that he spoke with Bill Clinton last night. He said that all his conversations with the ex-Pres. are private, but went out of his way to mention that they've known each for 33 years, that they had a good laugh, perhaps talked about the vicissitudes of campaigns, etc.
The interview ended on a note of humor and candor. Lauer quoted a recent statement from Lieberman to the effect that Al Gore was an "immensely principled, capable person who I would consider him for a high position in my administration." Asked whether he would still be consider Gore for a high post in his adminstration Lieberman admitted with a laugh: "That's less likely now." Lauer congratulated him on his frankness.
Then in was on to an interview by Katie Couric of NBC political analyst and Meet the Press host Tim Russert.
She began by observing that "you live for this," meaning that Russert is a political animal who enjoys dramatic political developments such as Gore's surprise endorsement.
The most telling moment of the interview came when Katie said: "some have called Dean too liberal. Does the endorsement by Gore, who is more centrist, help establish Dean in the mainstream?"
Notably, when Couric pronounced the words "too liberal," she drew quotation marks in the air (a la Chris Farley in some of his trademark Saturday Night Live sketches).
In other words, Couric wanted to disassociate herself from, and even poke fun, at the notion that Dean was in fact too liberal. That kind of thinking, she effectively was making clear, was something held only by (less enlightened) others.
Russert wasn't really buying Couric's notion that Gore's endorsement inoculated Dean against charges that Dean was too liberal. Russert made the case that Gore himself has veered left since 2000. He pointed out that Gore had endorsed the first Gulf War but has been a bitter critic of this war, and even plays footsie with the far-left Moveon.org.
Asked to explain Gore's decision to endorse Dean, Russert did so both in psychological as well as political terms. On the psychological level, Russert asserted that after the 2000 campaign, Gore expressed the wish that he had "let it all rip, and to hell with the pollsters." Dean's in-your-face, internet-based campaign is the kind of approach that Gore wishes he had adopted.
On the political level, Gore is thinking that his endorsement might position himself as the alternate candidate (instead of Hillary) at the 2004 convention should the current crop of candidates falter, and also might make him the standard bearer in 2008.
Then it was on to Gore's frosty relationship with the Clintons. "Is it symbolic that this announcement will be in Harlem, where Clinton has his office?"
Russert: "Dean has a problem with black voters, there are few in Vermont. Also, his statement that he wanted to reach out to southerners with Confederate flag decals on their pick-up trucks hurt Dean with some black voters." Beyond that, yes, Gore's relationship with Clinton can only be described as "formal."
Russert then mentioned that the other Dem candidates are "off the wall" with anger at Gore's endorsement.
He made particular mention of Lieberman and Gephardt. In the past, Gephardt had apparently had gone out of his way to endorse Gore.
As for Gore not giving Lieberman a heads-up that the axe was about to fall: "I'm surprised, yes, yes, as a matter of courtesy that Gore didn't advise Lieberman that he was doing something."
Did Russert mention that Al Gore traded his vote FOR the Gulf War for time to make a speech on the Senate floor?
Gore's endorsement effectively sews things up for Dean. It is a very big slap in the face to Bill Clinton, and an attempt to take control of the Democrat Party away from the Clintons.
The only way the Clintons can now keep control of the party is for Hillary to enter the race. Otherwise, the party apparatus is handed over to the far leftists and Dean. I am certain Gore extracted some concession in this regard from Dean's camp in exchange for the endorsement.
Gore wants to run in '08. He has no chance if Hillary runs. So he is effectively defanging the Clintons now, trying to draw Hillary in early. The Clintons' lapdog Clark is going absolutely nowhere, so it's Hillary or nothing if they want to retain control over the party and its pursestrings.
The Clintons' response has been to withdraw and form shadow organizations for collecting soft money. I think you can take this as a sign that Hillary will not run, and that they will marshall the resources for their '08 campaign from outside the party establishment.
Still, the Dean nomination is a setback to the Toons' future ambitions.
You've got to admit that the sheer scope of his wild imagination is awesome.
Lieberman spent the rest of the day nursing a blister on his tongue and sticking pins into an effegy of Gore.
(He probably never liked Gore in the first place.)
That's why the designation Conscience of the Senate fits him so well. It couldn't be more appropriate or more loaded with irony.
Can you blame him? The two things you look for first of all are a sense of loyalty and consistency. Gore has neither.
Al is such a strange man.
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