Lieberman Letter

I agree with you on the disaffection with Lieberman from Democrats. But Connecticut is a strange state. According to the Secretary of State, the voter registration in 2005 was, out of 1,952,648 total active registrations, 427,803 Republicans, 653,055 Democrats and 867,761 Independents. That shows that any Connecticut politician needs to court many types of voters (it also suggests that an independent run isn't the suicide-path the pundits have been claiming).

Two things about Lieberman that I think need to be emphasized: his backing of the Iraq war, like many of his actions, comes from a sincere belief not from cynical posturing. He is wrong to support the war (and I've written him often about that), but I think he's a remarkably honest politician and that's a rarity.

Which means, actually, that he's a really *bad* politician. As we've seen with his commericials and his public behavior, Lieberman is uncharismatic, clumsy and a nerd. He is not very good at the politics game. Ned Lamont is much better at commericals and he'd make a very good politician for the state (and I hope he continues to be active), but I hate to see Lieberman get punished for not being slick. Maybe it's the nerd in me...

[Ed. note: My views on the Iraq war will be in a later post]

Posted July 26, 2006. Sent to the Editor of the TPM on Friday, July 14th.