Mike Allen has a piece in Time arguing that Republicans are thanking their lucky stars and Democrats are shaking in their boots because of the cudgel Ned Lamont's victory in Connecticut has given them for November.One of the better bits from the GOP talking-points festival was Tony Snow shedding crocodile tears over Lieberman's loss: "It's a defining moment for the Democratic Party, whose national leaders now have made it clear that if you disagree with the extreme left in their party they're going to come after you." That's both factually wrong -- the DNC did support Lieberman, as did the biggest dogs in the party, including the Clintons -- and more than a tad ironic given the Schwarz/Walberg primary in Michigan and the upcoming primary in Rhode Island.
The piece runs down each of the key GOP players -- Mehlman, Cheney, Snow -- each bellowing out RNC talking points claiming that Lieberman's defeat means the Democratic party is beholden to the hard-left and ostrich-like isolationists.
Lieberman, as Mike explains, is now slated to become the martyr to isolationism whom Republicans will laud at every turn. "On television and in speeches in coming days," writes Allen, "party officials and strategists plan to talk about their respect for Lieberman as a distinguished public servant and argue that Lamont's victory represents the end of the long tradition of strong-on-national-defense Democratic leaders in the mold of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy."
This is sad.
Not because I think any of this is true or that it will resonate with the public. Not even because I'm surprised at how easily many of my press colleagues pen stories like this recounting GOP press offensives without questioning whether it really seems likely to succeed.
What's really sad is that the nexus of national press and political operative bigwigs really needs to get over itself a bit here. Because once they do, they may actually be able to get over Joe Lieberman.
[...]
The heart of the matter here is that everyone knows Joe in DC. They like him. They think he's a nice guy, which he is. His staff likes him, which also makes him seem like a nice guy. He's schmoozed the city for two decades.
But really he's just a pol who ignored his constituents, went into serious denial about a major foreign policy disaster, was more lockstep with the president's non-policy than many Republicans, and got bounced by his constituents.
That's politics. And that's accountability. And, really? It's not that big a deal.
Many Americans are not comfortable with the idea of just pulling out of Iraq. But the war is really unpopular. I think most Americans realize that the president thinks his Iraq policy is a rousing success and most Democrats don't. They get that. They see it. They understand it. If Republicans think the Martyrdom of Joe is going to be their killer issue, let them have at it. They're trying to knock the Dems off their stride but they're showing their desperation. The whole thing is, in both the most serious and frivolous senses of the word, a joke.
What's fun to watch is the flapping around of the Republicans trying to make the most of something that really bodes ill for them. Dick Cheney is saying that Lieberman's loss is encouraging to terrorists, as if Osama bin Laden stays up late reading the Hartford Courant on line. Mr. Cheney, of course, still believes there were WMD's in Iraq, that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, and the insurgency in Iraq is in "its last throes," so you know where he's coming from: some alternative universe. As Joe in DC notes at AMERICAblog:
Terrorists have benefitted immensely from the Bush/Cheney regime. Bush/Cheney have bogged us down in an unwinnable war. They've made us look weak to the world. They've created a breeding ground for terrorists in Iraq. They've undermined American values -- and destroyed our stature in the world. It's laughable to think that Joe Lieberman's loss is even registering with the terrorists.The Republicans are suddenly realizing they've got huge problems, and true to form, the only way they can deal with them is to find a scapegoat or demonize someone else; as if it isn't their fault that 60% of the electorate now oppose the Iraq war, and using the bullshit argument that if you're opposed to the war, you're supporting al-Qaeda. (For good measure, if you're in favor of gay people having the same rights as everyone else, you're a secular humanist who would serve stem cells as an hors d'oeurve at your next Wiccan ceremony.)
I'll go out on a limb here and say that we ain't seen nothing yet in terms of desperation from the GOP. My guess is the next line will be that the Democrats started the war with Iraq and that only by electing Republicans can we have peace, a balanced budget, and less government intrusion into our lives.
