Lieberman/Party leaders failure

[PATRICK]

This, on a day when Lieberman is in the advance carrying water for the GOP general campaign this fall while openly betraying his party in the name of absurdities and lies, is about party leadership.

There are two intimate connections between Lieberman and the rest of the leading centrists, the foolishness of thinking political shackles are "wise" and plain dumb, weak politics. This is before we even get to the matter of crafting issues themselves, mind you. So right away the flaw, the fault line runs all the way to the Clintons.

Softness in the sense of political weak thinking and emotionally trying to please is perilous in the realm of contested power. I'm not an adherent of tough love, but the concept of untimely affection has no place in the serious arena, especially one now in a crisis aggravated immensely by the dampening of opposition even as a concept. Where all things truly American can be made illegal by simple fiat of the King and his courtiers. Where the Third Way Dems can be dragged down three ways(by the GOP, by their own blunders, by the anger of the people they represent) in thinking, like the neocons, that the world is the opposite of what it is with enough Tinkerbell dust and big money.

The point(finally): When the Dems loyally came out to stump for Joe there should have been the hardline agreement that if he lost he would not attempt a third party challenge. Instead he used this in the following ways. Saved money on TV(for the fall campaign). Accidental "brilliance of shortchanging on his web server that made a timely slur against Lamont "hackers". Got backing for his themes that could be later used against Lamont. Showed party divisions he himself would excoriate and use against ALL Democrats. Possibly decreased Lamont's winning margin to retain his viability. Enabled him to slip into the background, while saving dough for the fall, and blame everyone else.

Bill C. has always had a fatal flaw in weakness. As a core leader he never pushed or protected enough and was personally victimized because of it. No high leader backs an inevitable loser and gets nothing in return except damage to the party. NOW others are weighing in- on the high outside road- trying to "talk" Joe out of it. Face it, we have no practical political leadership unified at the top and the DLC leadership- ones that are very decent and popular- have displayed the fatal flaws in concept and execution with the most extreme, laughable result that hurts the entire party and bestows a gratuitous gift to the entire GOP in the process.

Hillary often- without much credit- has tried to rein in the bitter lunacy of left baiters and incompetents in the DLC crowd with little to show for it. More of the same loyalty and softness that bodes ill for any right-centrist presidency. Dean has had to tread the same fine line to keep the party together. That means, however, that no one is in control to the extent necessary in trying times.

Picking out the war issue for example or the symbolic kiss does not say it all by a long shot. Lieberman, like the neocons, wants the entire world to change, reality to shift, in obedience to his will and willful definition of principles and terms. Because he was also one of a self-styled "centrist" faction he pushed the logical fallacies to the max and by the principles of the "leadership" clique, they dutifully respected him. Many times to the detriment of party message and success. A recent BBC article billed this election on the Democrats simply getting on track to really fight. they had it absolutely right- and that lesson has been spoiled by the Lieberman endorsers getting suckered into hurting the party.

In the end, they weakly hovered around the abyss that Third Way politics never acknowledges, and hope no one noticed them. By a similar Democratic sense of good will and loyalty, the "left" cannot make it sink in that it is not issue parsing and theoretical outreach to the center they oppose, but bad politics and being fatally out of touch with the real center, now enslaved in ignorance and lies by establishment tyranny. A REAL left would have purged the softies who are still mangling the concept of opposition and efficient politics. So, in a sense, fighting Democrats have not been too hard on Lieberman, but too easy on all the rest- hoping- vainly- that they can extricate themselves from the black hole they call the light at the end of the tunnel.

Maybe there was an understanding and Lieberman has become our intractable Katherine Harris, but the GOP was not stupid enough to glowingly get behind her when the handwriting of doom was on the wall large enough to include everyone who got near.