Out of State, Out of Minds

Of all the absurdities about the misguided campaign to purge Joe Lieberman from the Democratic Party, the most striking of the moment is how many bloggers and activists from outside Connecticut authoratatively proclaim to know just what Democrats in the state believe.

For example, over the July 4th weekend, the Hartford Courant published an op-ed from a young operative and blogger named David Sirota, who told Connecticut Democrats like me that Lieberman didn't represent us. In fact, Sirota went a step further, and ludicrously argued that Lieberman was not just outside the mainstream of the Democratic Party, but of the American people.

Now what standing and credibility does Sirota have to make either claim? Well, he spent most of his limited adult life working in Washington -- including a stint with the lone socialist in Congress -- before moving to Montana. To my knowledge, the closest he's come to spending any meaningful time in Connecticut is interviewing for a job in Joe Lieberman's Senate office (with yours truly) and in his Presidential campaign in 2003.

Yes, that's right: the same guy who is viciously attacking Joe Lieberman as the great Satan of the Democratic Party actually sought not one but two jobs from the target of his hatred, and did so at time when all of the supposed sins that Sirota is attacking Lieberman for now were well known. The polite term for that would be chutzpah. Some one less charitable might call Sirota a fraud.

But in fairness to Sirota, he isn't just attacking Lieberman. He has accused Bill Clinton and Barack Obama of being bad Democrats as well. That alone should resolve any question about Sirota's qualifications for discerning what a mainstream Democrat is, be it in Connecticut or anywhere else.

Then there's the Harold Meyerson column in yesterday's Washington Post, which similarly argues that Lieberman is out of touch with his constituents, and not just on Iraq. As best I can tell from his online biography, Meyerson, an editor at the liberal American Prospect magazine, has never spent any meaningful time in Connecticut either -- he grew up in Los Angeles, and now splits his time between L.A. and D.C. So on what basis is he reaching his judgment about my fellow Nutmeggers?

Well, as best I can tell, his evidence consists of:
1) Lieberman has consistently supported the war in Iraq;
2) Lieberman doesn't have as liberal a voting record as other Northeastern Democrats;
3) beyond not reflecting the majority views of his constituents 100 percent of the time, Lieberman "leads causes many of them find repugnant"

Let's dispense with Iraq, and stipulate up front that the majority of Democrats in the state now think the war was wrong.

So what about the other two pieces of supporting evidence Meyerson cites?

On the comparison of voting records, let's first consider the source -- the liberal advocacy group Americans for Democratic Action. Since when did this once great but now obscure national interest group become the benchmark for the views of Connecticut Democrats?

More importantly, most independent long-term voting comparisons -- which are much more valid than any one-year, one-interest group measure -- show that Joe Lieberman's voting record is pretty close to that of his Connecticut colleague Chris Dodd. In fact, they have voted the same way about 90 percent of the time, and that would be even closer without Iraq as an issue. Is Meyerson now saying that Dodd is out of touch with his constituents?

(For more myth-busting evidence about Lieberman's voting record, check out this article from last year in the Manchester Journal Inquirer, in which American Prospect writer and progressive pundit Matthew Iglesias affirmed my point by concluding that Joe Lieberman is "a pretty orthodox Democrat.")

What's left, then, is Meyerson's contention that Lieberman leads causes "many" Connecticut Democrats find repugnant. And what examples does Meyerson cite? "Trade, Social Security, and other key issues."

Setting aside the loose use of the term "many," Meyerson presents no evidence to suggest that the majority of state Democrats, or even a large minority, are opposed to Lieberman's position for free trade -- which happens to be the same as Bill Clinton's, that other bad Democrat -- let alone that they find it repugnant. The reason for that just might be that Connecticut's economy is heavily driven by exports -- in fact, one out of every four jobs in the state is dependent on trade.

Then there's Social Security. Contrary to the lies that the Lieberman-haters continue to spread about his record on this issue, Joe Lieberman has voted against Social Security privatization every chance he could. So I would respectfully ask Meyerson to explain exactly what repugnant cause Lieberman has led there.

Once you strip away these flimsy arguments and faulty claims, what you see is that Meyerson and Sirota and their comrades-in-anger are simply projecting their own views and biases, not those of Connecticut's Democrats. THEY think Lieberman is wrong on trade and Israel and other pet issues of the angry activist base, most everyone they talk to in the blogosphere thinks Lieberman is wrong on these same matters, and so of course most Democrats in Connecticut must agree -- which ipso facto makes Lieberman out-of-touch with his constituents.

But here's the best evidence to debunk that flawed conclusion. The non-Iraq positions that the Lieberman-haters object to, when they are not distorting his record, are not new. Lieberman's independent streak was quite evident to his Democratic constituents in 1994 and in 2000, and on both occasions they chose to renominate him unanimously. And even into the first few years of the Bush Administration, Lieberman maintained the highest approval rating of any politician in the state, with strong support from Democrats. (His numbers only started to slide after the war, and in particular, after the Lieberman haters launched their vicious purge campaign.)

That just goes to show that, contrary to the desperate assertions by Meyerson and Sirota that this isn't about Iraq, it really is about Iraq. That's the new variable here. That's the only the issue that is really agitating Connecticut Democrats who don't subscribe to the extreme Sirota agenda in this primary. And that's the only reason that Ned Lamont's candidacy even exists.

Now, if the Lieberman-haters want to have an honest debate about Iraq and the other issues they are upset about, that's great. I'd happily put up Joe Lieberman's principled, consistent stand on the war -- along with his exceptional record of integrity, experience, and results for the state on other issues -- up against Ned Lamont's confused and confusing six positions on Iraq, his record of opportunism and inexperience, and his idea-less campaign.

But for that to happen, the out-of-state Lieberman-haters need to stop pretending they speak for the broad range of Connecticut Democrats, and even more importantly, they need to stop lying about Lieberman's record.