Lieberman Rejects Strategy Of Running to the Left
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 19, 2003; Page A01
washingtonpost.com
Presidential candidate Joseph I. Lieberman is testing an unorthodox -- and some Democrats say suicidal -- strategy: attacking the core beliefs of many party activists he needs to win over to win his party's nomination.
Lieberman, whose lead in national polls belies his precarious political standing, is increasingly taking aim at the other eight Democratic contenders and throngs of activists who want to repeal future tax cuts, limit global trade and provide expensive health care coverage to millions of Americans.
The Connecticut senator also is ripping into opponents of the war in Iraq, hitting Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) for showing "ambivalence" about the conflict and calling former Vermont governor Howard Dean unelectable for opposing it outright.
In appearances before crowds of Democrats looking for sharp attacks on President Bush's tax cuts, trade pacts and foreign policy, Lieberman is sounding a bit like a Republican as he laments the "old" and "outdated" solutions advocated by many Democrats. "It's right out of [Bush political director] Karl Rove's playbook," said Dean's spokeswoman, Patricia Enright. Some Democratic voters seem to agree -- he was the only candidate booed at recent candidate cattle calls.
By openly challenging the political adage that a Democrat must run to the left to win the nomination, Lieberman is pressing the case that only an unapologetic centrist strong on national defense such as him can beat Bush. Although many Democrats agree with much of his analysis of what it will take to defeat the president in a nation divided almost evenly between the two main political parties, others are angered by his decision to run hard against key Democratic constituencies. Some fault him for hurting the party to help himself.
"It's a bad strategy in a primary where Democratic activists are sort of on a shopping spree for someone who will fight and defend party principles in 2004," said Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Gore-Lieberman in 2000. Brazile is not backing any of the candidates. "Alienating a large segment of the Democratic Party base will not bode well for the future. How do you bring [liberals] back [if] during the primary you made them feel like they were unwanted and unneeded? It's terrible for Joe."
Democratic strategist Joe Lockhart, President Bill Clinton's former spokesman, said it is "not good for the party," either. "I don't think anyone finds it helpful to be painted as an extremist," he said. Lockhart, who is not affiliated with any of the presidential campaigns, said many Democrats he has talked with consider Lieberman's recent string of attacks "over-the-top and counterproductive" to their efforts to oust Bush. "This can be calibrated a little softer," he said.
These Democrats worry that Lieberman is essentially doing Bush's bidding by painting the party as soft on security and stale on domestic policy. They contend the senator can run as a "New Democrat" without undermining the rest of the party in the process.
Some Lieberman supporters are privately complaining that the candidate's critique of the party has come off as too harsh and divisive, too, overshadowing his policy ideas, which they see as the strength of his candidacy.
In an interview, the former vice presidential candidate continued his broadside on the party. "I don't think they are intentionally trying to take the party back to where it was before Bill Clinton. But that's the effect of the policies they are advocating in this campaign," Lieberman said Thursday evening. "I have got to be true to what I believe and what is best for my country and my party. This is not personal. This is just a good, healthy debate the party needs about its future and what it stands for."
At the very least, Lieberman has accomplished one of his chief goals: drawing attention to his otherwise lackluster campaign. Indeed, Lieberman is doing better on paper than he is in the field. He leads in most national polls, enjoys widespread name recognition thanks to his stint as Al Gore's running mate in 2000 and remains near the top in fundraising.
Yet many prominent Democrats don't see the senator as a top-tier candidate in the league of Kerry, Dean and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.). He is struggling for a top-three showing in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two earliest testing grounds. His centrist ideas of supporting Bush on Iraq and shying away from the costly health care proposals offered up by the other candidates might be prudent general election positions, but they are generating little excitement in the primary. His outspoken support of free trade is likely to hurt him in Michigan, Iowa and other early primary states where union passions run high.
His advisers expect him to take his lumps in some union strongholds and liberal states but insist two-thirds of the party, and most of the key states, respond favorably to his centrist message. His strategy is backed by what many of his rivals see as sound polling findings: Republicans are winning elections of late because they are seen as strong defenders of the country, families and values, especially by white men and married women. The key to winning back the presidency, Lieberman contends, is copying Clinton by advocating a strong national defense, balanced budgets, robust foreign trade and tax cuts for the middle class. If that means offending many Democratic activists, Lieberman believes, it's a risk worth taking. A top adviser said he can assuage many party activists stung by his criticism by touting his strong support for abortion rights and the environment.
Lieberman's advisers see a clear if complicated path to victory. They are banking on a third-place or better finish in New Hampshire to wash out what they anticipate will be a poorer showing in Iowa, where Dean and Gephardt are running strong. They see the senator making his big move on Feb. 3, when the fight moves to more conservative territory in the South and out West. By that point, the field will be narrowed, and voters will take a closer look at which candidate is best positioned to win a matchup with Bush, a top adviser said.
A campaign official said Lieberman's most recent polling showed him winning 23 percent of the vote in both South Carolina and New Mexico, far ahead of the eight other candidates. Not coincidentally, Lieberman's feelings are shared and amplified by the Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist organization Clinton rode to power in the 1990s. Lieberman's recent attack on the Democratic Party was designed, in large part, by Mark J. Penn, who does polling for both the DLC and Lieberman. He was the key architect of Lieberman's most expansive critique, a speech called "Fighting for the Future of the Democratic Party," which the senator delivered on Aug. 4.
Penn has rankled some Democrats closely affiliated with the DLC, who worry he is leading a "left-versus-right" war instead of stressing "New Democrat" ideas, several Democrats said.
"The party has come much further than the DLC gives them credit for," said Elaine C. Kamarck, a former adviser to the Gore-Lieberman campaign who sits on the board of the DLC's main publication, Blueprint magazine. "To attack on a left-right dimension strikes people as a little stale." Kamarck, a Harvard University professor, agrees the party's candidate must be strong on national defense, but she contends the party already has moved to the center by advocating a balanced budget and some tax relief. "This is not 1992," she said.
Dean, whose opposition to the Iraq war prompted Lieberman and the DLC to warn he would lead the party into the "wilderness," can't be easily pigeonholed as a traditional big government liberal. He advocates balanced budgets, gun rights and, despite his opposition to the war in Iraq, a strong national defense. "We contend we are in the center and will be in the center," said Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi.
But Lieberman and Penn are right in their analysis of the direction most leading Democrats are heading, party strategists said. Every major candidate, save Lieberman, has offered expensive plans to expand the government's role in providing health care, been highly critical of Bush's handling of Iraq and rolled out new spending programs that would make their claims of balancing the budget difficult if not impossible to achieve.
Ralph G. Neas, president of the left-leaning People for the American Way, said the debate over the soul of the Democratic Party is healthy, especially now, when few people other than the most committed of Democrats are paying attention.
"But my instinct is if the level of rhetoric in recent days remains high over time it would be more difficult [for Lieberman] to win the primaries. The progressive base, in the end, will determine who wins" the nomination.
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