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Leaving The Field With Honor
By Tim Siggia
February 10, 2004
He didn't win the Iowa Caucuses. He didn't win a single primary. But Connecticut senator Joseph I. Lieberman has left the 2004 Democratic presidential campaign a winner in a far bigger sense of the word. He has left with his soul. In this campaign he atoned for the sins of 2000, when, as Al Gore's running mate, he abandoned so many of his previously-held principles in hopes of becoming a heartbeat away from the presidency.
This time, as last, Lieberman knew what the Democrats wanted to hear. But he didn't say it. Instead, he stood by his convictions. Unlike candidates Clark and Kerry, who first supported the war in Iraq then didn't, Lieberman remained steadfast in his support for our president and our troops overseas. He continued to say that America had done the right thing by taking up arms against Saddam Hussein and removing him from power. It was not what Democrats wanted to hear, and no other Democratic candidate was saying it.
Lieberman was also the only Democratic candidate to publicly acknowledge that the Bush tax cuts, for which he had voted, had been good for the economy. It can be argued, of course, that this was merely a statement of the obvious. But if this is so, it is most significant to note that every other candidate, without exception, calls for the repeal of the Bush tax cuts -- as if higher taxes will somehow lead to higher prosperity, a canard still held as dogma in the Democratic Party.
Lieberman curiously was seen as the conservative in this race, a role which must certainly have been as uncomfortable for him as it was amusing for more avowed conservatives. It's not hard to figure out, of course, that even the blandest of moderates would look conservative in this crowd of left-leaners. But it should also be noted that while Lieberman is definitely not a Ted Kennedy or a Tom Daschle, he's no Zell Miller either.
While his fellow candidates were flipping and flopping like freshly-netted fish, Lieberman this time never retreated on a single issue. Naturally, he put his own spin on things: he would have done a better job of prosecuting the war, taken better care of the troops, implemented tax cuts more prudently, etc., etc. We expected that. He was, after all, seeking President Bush's job. But he never hopped aboard the anti-war, anti-tax-cut bandwagon -- and, arguably, it cost him his party's nomination.
I say arguably because there were other factors at work. Lieberman was astute enough to realize he would not gain the nomination by simply saying what everybody else was saying, but it might have made the choice a little more difficult had he done so. There was the Jewish factor, which has already gotten far more attention than it deserves. Though it might have raised concerns in some quarters that Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, would be too strongly pro-Israel in foreign policy, it should also be noted that the United States has been consistently pro-Israel since that nation's conception. Anti-Semitism in the electorate is a negligable, if not outright absurd, factor. John F. Kennedy's Catholicism did not prevent his election, as it was supposed to, nor would the overwhelming majority of today's Americans have reservations about a Jew as president.
A more compelling factor would be that Lieberman is the only candidate in either party who makes Gerald Ford look exciting by comparison. Yes, he's still Sleepy Joe, with all the inspiration and charisma of a leftover doughnut. He cannot help this, of course. Stan Simpson's sobriquet of "Joltin' Joe" never extended beyond his column in the Hartford Courant, and "Joe-Mentum" never materialized. In the end, however, this may be yet another testament to Joe Lieberman: despite the attempts of others to make him over into something he obviously was not, Lieberman himself never so pretended.
So now, at last, Sleepy Joe is once again free to be Sleepy Joe, and, after the long months of campaigning, a hot cup of Sleepy Time herbal tea, a comfortable robe with slippers, a quiet bedroom, and a freshly-made bed with clean sheets and a newly-fluffed pillow must look both inviting and rewarding to him. Well, sleep on, Sleepy Joe. You've earned your rest. Once your body becomes re-aclimated to its usual regimen, and you're back, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed -- or, at least, as close to that as your own constitution enables you to be -- in your Senate seat, we conservatives will get back to arguing with you over things like abortion, the Flag Protection Amendment, and so on.
No, he didn't get the coveted brass ring, but in his defeat for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Joe Lieberman finds himself leaving the arena with honor, and the well-earned respect of both supporters and opponents -- and this may well prove the biggest prize after all.
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