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After Lieberman lost his primary earlier in the week, we began hearing about how poor Joe was only the fourth sitting senator to lose a primary since 1980. I saw enough of one of these other races to offer a commentary to anyone who may be interested.
In 1991, George Bush Sr. put Clarence Thomas up for the Supreme Court. Everyone knew how unqualified he was, and the Anita Hill spectacle just reinforced what a bad choice he was. But Alan Dixon, a Democrat from Illinois, voted for Thomas and he was confirmed by a 52-48 vote. And so 20% of the next President Bush's votes on the Supreme Court were put into place.
The weeks after that vote were a funky time in Chicago. People were spitting mad at Dixon for going along with Bush. And into that space, I got a job gathering signatures for a multi-millionaire lawyer named Al Hofeld. You may never have heard of him. Nodody had at that time, either. But he was not Alan Dixon, and that was all that mattered.
I would walk up to people who were waiting for el trains in Downtown Chicago, asking them "Would you sign your name to help get Alan Dixon out of the Senate?" And just that one little act made people feel like they did something to avenge the Clarence Thomas vote. I haven't seen anything like it, either before or since.
Hofeld's money softened up Dixon on the airwaves, but the voters didn't quite warm up to him. That's when Carole Moseley-Braun came in and got elected. But she had no chance without Hofeld's campaign. Now she's out of public life, her replacement is also out of the Senate, and time has moved on. But the memory is still there for me.
So what's the point? Simply put, whenever a politician gets the people angry enough, and there is an alternative candidate with money, the incumbent will lose. Joe didn't think he could lose. But what happened to Alan Dixon happened to him as well. And so it goes.
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