Posted on 02/25/2005 5:36:31 PM PST by KidGlock
Lieberman facing primary challenge?
By Don Michak, Journal Inquirer February 12, 2005
State Democratic Party officials say that despite a great deal of Internet "chatter" that the renowned actor and philanthropist Paul Newman is considering a 2006 primary bid against U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, they don't expect the 80-year-old Westport resident to actually make the run.
Several party sachems, however, say they wouldn't be surprised to see another prominent liberal challenge Lieberman, who's widely considered one of the more conservative Democrats in the nation.
Although Lieberman has enjoyed an overwhelming popularity in state polls, they say, a challenger could easily capitalize on increasingly widespread dissatisfaction among liberal party activists smarting from the Democrats' disastrous showing in last year's election.
They also say a challenger could easily find himself, like 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean, bankrolled by thousands of small contributions generated through the World Wide Web.
One member of the Democratic State Central Committee even sketched out an obviously well considered scenario for a primary challenge, which he suggested had a "50-50 chance" of happening. He estimated that a "lefty" candidate with a high public profile could raise as much as $1.5 million and sway as many as 40 percent of "angry Democrats" voting in a primary.
Newman did not return a call to his home seeking comment.
But newly ensconced Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo of Trumbull, a big Democratic fund-raiser who helped Westport First Selectman Diane G. Farrell come close last year to unseating U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th District, said Thursday that she could "not imagine Paul would be interested" in running against Lieberman.
"Paul and his wife, Joanne Woodward, have had numerous opportunities prior to this, if they ever wanted, to run for Congress,'' she said, "and they never expressed an interest."
Liberal "blogs" and other political Web sites have in recent weeks made much of speculation about a possible challenge to Lieberman.
Mentioned most often were Lieberman's votes in support of President Bush's nominations of Condoleezza Rice for secretary of state and Alberto Gonzales for attorney general.
Just typing "Newman" and "Lieberman" into an Internet search engine, moreover, turns up photographs of Bush warmly embracing Lieberman on the night of the president's State of the Union address, some of which have been doctored to look like a movie poster for "The Godfather."
One liberal blog even offers a proposed script for an "attack ad" on behalf of anyone who might challenge Lieberman. The ad would intersperse shots of the Republican president calling in his speech for the privatization of Social Security and "going after Iran" with Lieberman as "the lone Democrat giving Bush a standing ovation" and the senator kissing Bush after the speech.
"With Democrats like this, who needs the Republicans?" the suggested tag line reads. "Support (fill in the blank) with a Real Democrat as challenger."
DiNardo, meanwhile, acknowledged that she already had received "several e-mails against Lieberman" and that she herself expected to be "expressing my concerns about some of his votes" when she attended a Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington this weekend.
"I know people are very upset, certainly with having a Republican kissing our senator," she said.
But DiNardo added, "I would still have to contend that his popularity is still very high."
"There's always the possibility that somebody could be primaried, but what's important is that you have a good candidate," she said. "I don't seen any name that's coming forward that is as popular as Joe."
Lieberman's spokesmen in Washington were not immediately available for comment Friday.
A three-term senator, Lieberman, 62, was the Democrats' 2000 vice-presidential nominee. He also campaigned for the 2004 presidential nomination, withdrawing last spring after about a year on the hustings during which he spent nearly all of the $17.9 million he had raised.
Federal Election Commission records show that Lieberman's Senate campaign committee had a cash balance of $432,059 as of Dec. 31.
A Quinnipiac University poll last month showed that 73 percent of registered Republicans in Connecticut approved of Lieberman's job performance, one percentage point higher than his approval among registered Democrats.
As much as I like Newman as an actor, we cannot afford to have the NE lose its only moderate to a wild-eyed lefty.
They wouldn't want too many sane people serving as Democratic officeholders.
Paul Newman is 80 years old? Wow!!!! If Newman lives as long as Strum Thurmond, he could be in the Senate a long time.
My wife just told me rumor has it Rob Meathead Reiner is mulling a run against Arnold for California governor.
If the Dems are going to offer up sacrificial lambs, they might as well be Hollywood has-beens.
Rob Reiner can not even see his toes.....when he stands in the Shower..NO WAY!
Heck, they trotted out Walter Mondale. Maybe Jimmy Carter's next...
Not all has-beens come from Hollywood ;)
Going after Lieberman would only drive the last of their moderates over to us.
Leiberman is the one Dem I am going to endorse...well, I suppose that wouldn't be true.
I want Bloomberg out. I'm tired of a Democrat using the Republican Party. Better a Democrat with the courage to admit to being one be blamed for policy, than a Democrat take down our parties' reputation from the inside.
I'm also on the fence about Hagel. I wouldn't be upset if he lost at any rate. Some of the others I wouldn't mind experiencing a tough primary but Liberal and weak tendencies even under consideration I'd probably hope they were elected.
Leiberman has one consistency. The WOT.
As far as I am concerned that overrides every other consideration and he needs to be re-elected. In a General election I have no fear he would be. If the Dems are insane enough, they are, to go after him in a primary...that is concerning. He'd probably still win but I'd break ranks to vote for this one Liberal.
Heck, Mondale is a youngster at only 77. Lautenberg is 81. Not that age means anything since the Dims have been known to run dead men for the Senate.
Conservative compared to who - Truman, Kennedy? Who?
But the wacked-out libs have the strategy, now. They found it in WA. Just stuff the ballot box, and the GOP will slink away with their tails limp behind them. This is the future of electoral politics in the good ole USA - THE DEM STUFFING THE BALLOT BOX. It's been done for generations. But it was always rumored, whispered by the 'insiders'. Now it's blatant, public, for all to see, for the LM to openly defend in tv, print and lecture halls, because the GOP has enabled them to do this - by standing by and doing nothing.
Because of the failure of the Republican Party to stand for freedom and the idea of representative voting in the US, the future is going to be grim. The Dem will cheat. And they will get away with it. And they will win back the Presidency and the Congress, as the GOP slink away into the night, with no care, no concern, except for themselves and how they might be made to look in the LM.
Frankly, Lieberman is more reliable on this subject that your run-of-the-mill NE RINO.
I agree. I'd support Lieberman, too. In the primary...and the general.
Paul Newman and software designer Peter Norton are the two of the biggest, if not THE two biggest, supporters of the far, far, FAR-left NATION magazine and its snarling Wicked Witch of the East, Katrina vanden Heuvel.
Hmmm. I think it would've been more fun to say "the super-collectivist NATION magazine and its Wicked Witch of the East, Katrina vanden Heuvel, snarling of super-libs everywhere. ;^D
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At least Newman is better looking than Lieberman. Why not, trade one democrat for a better looking old democrat, who can make salad dressing, and races cars....I might be getting use to the idea.
Paul Newman (L) rides on a golf cart to the garage with his team manager Chris Hall (C) and Mark Brockman (R) after trouble with the number (79) Pixar/Newman Ford Crawford car in Daytona, Florida on February 5, 2005. Concerns with the car cause his turn at the wheel to be delayed during the running of the 24hr race at Daytona International Speedway. REUTERS/Rick Fowler
I'm deciding whether or not I want to know how you know that.
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