Lieberman's White House plans don't include Gore
Posted on 05/04/2002 5:19:42 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Lieberman's White House plans don't include Gore
Former running mate looking to make presidential bid in 2004
05/05/2002
WASHINGTON - Al Gore plucked him from the sidelines where he was a junior senator and put him on the Democratic national ticket in 2000. They almost made it to the White House, in fact beating George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the popular vote.
So Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut would like to see Mr. Gore run again in 2004 and claim the position that eluded him. Right? Well, wrong.
Asked whether he thought his mentor should seek a rematch, Mr. Lieberman managed a hesitant reply: "It's a very big personal decision for him, so he's got to make it."
While Mr. Lieberman is grateful to Mr. Gore for choosing him in 2000, he leaves no doubt that he hopes the former vice president stays out of the race in 2004.
The senator has had a taste of the national limelight and wants the top slot for himself. He has begun assembling a team of strategists. He is bustling around the country on behalf of candidates, and himself. He is delivering a major policy speech each month. His political action committee has dispensed more money to 2002 candidates than has Mr. Gore's.
The predicament for Mr. Lieberman is that he has long vowed not to run if Mr. Gore does. And while Mr. Gore insists that he has made no decision, he has been so visible in recent days that many Democrats who once questioned his ardor are convinced that he is itching to take on Mr. Bush again.
"If I'm Joe Lieberman, I'm going to do everything in my power to prepare myself to run for president," said Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic national chairman. "However, he's got his commitment out there, and if Al Gore runs he will not run."
At no time in modern political history have a presidential nominee and his running mate both pursued their party's nomination for the next election. If Mr. Gore and Mr. Lieberman are headed that way, they will have company: Those most aggressively building Democratic campaigns include Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri.
Publicly, Mr. Gore and Mr. Lieberman profess only admiration for each other. At the recent Democratic state convention, Mr. Gore said choosing Mr. Lieberman was "the single best decision I made in that campaign."
But behind the scenes, there is sniping between advisers to the two. Some Lieberman loyalists interpreted that remark by Mr. Gore as an effort to make clear that he thought Mr. Lieberman was indebted to him.
Though Mr. Gore, Mr. Lieberman and their wives had breakfast together at the convention, Mr. Gore resisted entreaties from the Democratic state chairman, Bob Poe, to make a triumphal appearance on stage with Mr. Lieberman. Mr. Gore's camp cited a scheduling conflict, but more recently some Gore supporters expressed annoyance at a pitch by Mr. Lieberman to Silicon Valley and environmentalists, saying he was encroaching on Gore turf.
Mr. Lieberman's advisers, in turn, have not been particularly complimentary of Mr. Gore. After Mr. Gore's well-received speech in Florida, one top Lieberman adviser asked a reporter whether he thought it strange that the speech made no mention of the Middle East.
In his talk, Mr. Lieberman said the Bush administration was exercising too much restraint on the Israelis, whose sweep into the West Bank the senator compared to the American war on terror. Asked later whether Mr. Gore had erred in neglecting to mention the conflict, the senator said, "That was a personal judgment."
Though Mr. Gore's selection of Mr. Lieberman made for some memorable moments in the 2000 campaign, the two have not been particularly chummy. Asked how much he had been in contact with Mr. Gore since the election, Mr. Lieberman said: "Not a lot. We're both busy."
Until Orlando, the senator said, the Gores and the Liebermans had not been together in more than a year. And when they did get together, he said, no one dared touch the topic that was on everyone's mind.
"There was not a moment's discussion about politics," he said. "Perhaps intentional."
The only time it has come up with Mr. Gore, Mr. Lieberman said, was "in one casual conversation last year when he said he just hasn't decided, and I think that's where he is: undecided."
The thinking in the Lieberman camp is that even if Mr. Gore runs, the senator can only help himself by gearing up for a race. At the very least, raising his profile might put him in position to be picked again as a running mate.
Tom Nides, a Democratic strategist who volunteers that he is "totally in the tank" for Mr. Lieberman, said: "Joe Lieberman would be an asset to anyone. As a candidate for president. As a running mate. As a power broker. There's a reason why almost every Senate and gubernatorial candidate in the country wants him to campaign for them."
People close to Mr. Gore said he might be bemused but was not threatened by Mr. Lieberman's presidential ambitions.
"My guess is that Gore takes Lieberman at his word and is proceeding apace," said Carter Eskew, Mr. Gore's senior strategist in 2000.
In the end, their ambitions could lead Mr. Gore, 54, and Mr. Lieberman, 60, to team up again. People in both camps have floated the idea of their entering the primaries as what some have called a "we wuz robbed" ticket, presenting themselves as raring for a rematch.
"It would be a dream ticket for me," Mr. Eskew said, "as it was in 2000."
Others are not so eager. Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, D-N.J., for one, said Mr. Gore should have picked Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, the state where the election tilted.
"If his vice presidential choice had been Bob Graham," Mr. Torricelli said, "he'd be in the White House."
In any event, Mr. Lieberman is not interested in talking about the No. 2 spot.
"That's one that I honestly have not given a moment's thought to," he said, "because I'm getting ready to make a decision myself about whether I should run for president."
Hey, RC! You know how to make a guy's day! ! :O)
That's happy news to me! WOW ! !
And we are given the best (if not most obvious) reason on God's good earth for America to say "ba-bye" to Joe.
We're still waiting, Joe....
Why Libermann won't win.
1. Liberals don't like Liebermann. They think he's conservative.
2. Conservatives won't cross vote for him because of his flip flops after the convention.
3. Northeasterner(or as I say - Noreaster..) won't sell that well in the Midwest or South.
4. BORING. No fire. He can't fire up the troops except Jews.
Liebermann is a good VP pick for dems, but he can't carry a team to victory.
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