Joementum joins the Straight Talk Express—to form the Momentum Express?
Joe Lieberman has endorsed John McCain today for the Republican nomination to be President of the United States. A Democrat endorsing a Republican for the Presidency is not unprecedented, but it is unusual. In 2004 Zell Miller, a Democrat from Georgia, not only endorsed George Bush but gave a major speech at the Republican National Convention in New York for the sitting Republican President. Lieberman’s reasons for supporting McCain are much different than Miller’s backing of Bush. Lieberman listed the War in Iraq and as well as other reasons in his support of John McCain. But it was one of the other reasons for supporting his fellow Senator that caught my attention and that was their ‘friendship.’ Wow! Talk about a loaded word. It has a history and a meaning for both him and his Democrat colleagues in the Senate.
In his 2006 reelection bid for the Senate in Connecticut, Lieberman was abandoned by the Democrat Party including his so-called ‘friends.’ These same friends supported and endorsed the ultra liberal one-issue candidacy of the dove Ned Lamont all because Lieberman would not turn against the War in Iraq and George Bush as most of the other Democrats had. Abandoning Lieberman included today’s Democrat frontrunner for the Presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, and 2004’s Democrat Party candidate, John Kerry.
So it is with interest that I heard Joe Lieberman use ‘friendship’ as one of the reasons for his support Senator McCain. This is an obvious dig at his fellow Democrats, the same ones who deserted him during his primary. And do you think the Dems are getting the message? You bet they are, all the way from the Democrat leadership on down, from Harry Reid to Kos to the Huffington Post and on. And boy are they ticked, but then again, who cares. They deserve every bit of this retribution for stabbing Joe Lieberman in the back. He is just making sure the Dems remember that desertion of friends carries a price, sometimes a hefty one.
The question is whether Lieberman’s support will translate into votes for John McCain. The jury is still out on this one. The only ones the Lieberman endorsement will likely influence are the independents and perhaps a few of the more liberal Republicans. Most of the more conservative Republicans still remember the McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act, his calling of waterboarding as torture, and his vote against President Bush’s tax cuts. All of these votes have helped John McCain to earn the label of a maverick. This is a name he has proudly held up for all to see, at least until recently. And now the Republican Party may just remind the maverick from Arizona what that name has truly cost him: the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
With that I come back to what Joementum joining the Straight Talk Express means—not much other than another cool nickname. You have to admit, the Momentum Express is kinda’ cool.
Tags: National Elections by Chuck
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