Why Lieberman Is Lagging
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2003; 9:23 AM
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Above the roar of sewing machines churning out sweatshirts, the classic Joe Lieberman was on display.
A warm and friendly man, Lieberman strolled around the factory, schmoozing with the employees, reminiscing about his immigrant grandparents and generally acting as if he had nothing better to do while reporters waited for some action.
When the Connecticut senator finally took the makeshift podium, he gave a talk about the need to help middle-class families and pushed his plan to provide health insurance to young people under 25 and subsidize premiums for adults who lose their jobs.
When he got to the key sound bite that his staff had scripted for him -- and the cameras were rolling -- he couldn't deliver it straight. Lieberman shot a what-can-I-do look at the press, chuckled, apologized, and said of President Bush's response to the millions of uninsured Americans: "It looks like he's put his own administration under anesthesia."
That, in a nutshell, may be why Lieberman is lagging in the polls and in fund raising. He's enjoying himself and he understands what the game requires. But insiders believe he's not projecting much in the way of passion. He's Joe in the diner (as in his commercials), the Jewish uncle running for president, and his laconic style, they say, sometimes drives his staff crazy.
The contrast with Howard Dean is striking. By all accounts, Dean is firing up the base, beating up on Bush, jabbing his rivals and tapping into Democratic anger. He cracks a few jokes, but basically he's all business.
Another example: Lieberman has put out some tough statements about Dean as a tax-raiser (because the doctor wants to repeal all the Bush tax cuts while Joe2004 would roll back only those benefiting the more affluent). So I asked him why voters should prefer his health care plan (which doesn't extend insurance to everyone) to Dean's more expensive version, which would cover everyone, figuring that Lieberman would unload about raising taxes for the middle class. Instead, he blurred the differences, saying he and Dean are in the "same ballpark."
So much for a sharp line that might get replayed on local TV.
An hour later, I learned that Lieberman's office had issued a statement in which he slammed Dean for declining to unseal his gubernatorial records in Vermont. The staff is more aggressive than the candidate is. Which is why Lieberman and Dean are not in the same ballpark, at least for now, at least in New Hampshire.
There are other reasons, of course. Lieberman may prove too conservative for largely liberal Democratic primary voters. But with a round of more conservative states coming up on Feb. 3, maybe there's still time for him to get in the game.
On Sunday, I watched as Dean ripped the president for trying to cut combat pay for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The problem, as a phone call to the Pentagon made clear, is that just last week Bush signed a bill keeping such pay at the previously increased level. Dean was right that over the summer, the administration tried to roll back the increase. But he left out a key detail.
On "Good Morning America" yesterday, Dean was providing a fuller version:
"The trouble is, last August he tried to cut the combat pay of the troops. He just cut, he's about to cut 164,000 veterans off their health care. So, this is a president who is big on the flashy gestures, but when it comes to substance and really helping America's veterans and America's troops, I don't see it there.
"And I don't think it's right to treat our troops in Iraq by doubling their tour of duty and then trying to cut their combat pay. Now they've backed off and they've increased the combat pay but the thought was there last August when he tried to do that. I, I don't think this president really understands what it takes to defend America."
The Vermont papers controversy isn't fading, especially with Ed Gillespie going to the Green Mountain State to attack the ex-gov (the GOPers are sure acting like he's going to be the nominee):
"Presidential candidate Howard Dean, under attack from Democratic and Republican rivals alike for sealing many official papers from his tenure as Vermont governor, insisted Tuesday he had nothing to hide but brusquely referred questions about the matter to his lawyer," says the Chicago Tribune. " 'All I'm going to do,' Dean told reporters here in a heated exchange, 'is say things that I will be sorry I said later.'
"Before leaving office last year after 11 years as governor, Dean signed an agreement to keep more than half of his executive documents secret for a decade. Initially, the governor had sought to seal the records for 24 years, explaining to Vermont Public Radio at the time that 'we didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor.' "After a report in Newsweek, the issue resurfaced this week and dogged Dean on the campaign trail Tuesday."
My piece from New Hampshire on Dean's attack on the prez over defense has stirred considerable reaction, including this William Saletan analysis in Slate:
"Is Howard Dean nuts?
"According to the Washington Post, here's what Dean said about President Bush in New Hampshire Sunday:
"1) Bush has 'no understanding of defense.' 'Mr. President, if you'll pardon me, I'll teach you a little about defense.' "2) 'He's made us weaker. He doesn't understand what it takes to defend this country, that you have to have high moral purpose. He doesn't understand that you better keep troop morale high rather than just flying over for Thanksgiving.' "3) Bush lacks 'the backbone to stand up against the Saudis,' who are funding radical Muslim schools 'to train the next generation of suicide bombers.' "4) 'The president is about to let North Korea become a nuclear power.' "5) Bush 'cut 164,000 veterans off' from medical benefits and at one point said 'he was going to cut the combat pay' for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan . . . Let's recap. A guy who has no foreign policy experience, opposed the war in Iraq, and went skiing after he escaped the Vietnam draft because of a bad back is calling a wartime president soft on defense. And despite cries of outrage from Republican pundits, luminaries, and party organs, he isn't letting up."
After recounting Bush's National Guard service and the period where he didn't seem to show up, Saletan asks: "Was Bush chastened by his embarrassing history? Not a bit. On Feb. 3, 2000, he staged a rally in Sumter, S.C., to trumpet his support from veterans' groups. According to firsthand reports, Bush stood by smiling as Tom Burch, the head of the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Coalition, accused McCain of opposing health care for Gulf War veterans and efforts to locate POW-MIAs in Vietnam. Bush followed with a speech in which he warned, 'We must have a commander-in-chief who understands the role of the military.' "
Sometimes chutzpah is okay, Saletan suggests.
The San Francisco Chronicle explores yet another Dean issue:
"Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is widely regarded as a champion of gay rights after signing a pioneering civil union measure that he called 'the beginning of the end for discrimination against any American.' "Yet Dean, who speaks emphatically on the right of same-sex couples to receive the same legal privileges as anyone else, is hesitant to extend his demand for equality to the institution of marriage.
"'I think that's up to the people of each state,' Dean said Monday in an interview with The Chronicle. 'We did not do gay marriage in Vermont. When I had the chance, we chose not to do it. But I'm not going to make a value judgment about the rights of other states to do what they want.' "Dean, who has surged ahead of his Democratic rivals in his quest for the party's presidential nomination, defended his posture in favor of gay civil unions but not marriage, saying: 'It's not what it's called. It's the equal rights we need to focus on.'"
Could '04 be another three-way race? The Boston Globe picks up this LAT piece:
"Ralph Nader, the third-party presidential candidate many Democrats blame for their party's close loss in the 2000 election, is raising money to explore another run for the White House next year, one of his top strategists said yesterday.
"The liberal consumer activist and two-time Green Party presidential nominee has reserved a website for the Nader 2004 Presidential Exploratory Committee. But it is still unclear whether he would run as a Green or an independent or run at all. Theresa Amato, Nader's 2000 campaign manager and a director of his new committee, said Nader expects to make a decision by early next year."
This prospect can't make the Democrats happy. Just to remind you of Ralph's impact: "Nader took 97,488 votes in Florida, a state where Bush prevailed over Gore by 537 votes after a contested recount."
The New York Times has sunk a GOP plan for Big Apple fun and games:
"Under intense pressure and mounting criticism, Representative Tom DeLay said today that he will not go forward with his plan to use a luxury cruise ship as a floating entertainment center for members of Congress and their guests during the Republican National Convention next summer.
"Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader, had insisted that he was moving forward with the plan to dock the 2,224-passenger Norwegian Dawn in the Hudson but ultimately backed off saying it was not worth fighting for . . . "The decision marks an abrupt reversal for Mr. DeLay, who first proposed the idea to Republican members of Congress in November, saying it would allow Republican members of Congress and their guests to stay in one place. He stuck by his plan to use the ship even as criticism mounted, with Democrats pouncing on the plan as evidence of Republicans' disdain for New York.
"Republicans, too, were pressing Mr. DeLay to back off, growing concerned the cruise liner controversy would overshadow the purpose of the convention, the renomination of President Bush."
The Times is being modest. It was the paper's front-page story that rocked the boat.
Meathead going negative on Wes Clark? Salon's Tim Grieve reports on the Hollywood fundraising battle and the role of Dean supporter Rob Reiner:
"Robin Williams, Helen Hunt, Rene Russo, Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Paul Newman and a host of other Hollywood types have given money to Dean. And while Clark is picking up endorsements and contributions quickly, Reiner ascribes a certain 'flavor of the week' quality to his Hollywood support. Some of the people who 'jumped on the Clark bandwagon,' he says, have done so 'without doing their due diligence first.' He points in particular to Norman Lear, the legendary television producer who founded People for the American Way. Lear initially backed Dean -- he gave $2,000 to his campaign in April -- then jumped ship when Clark officially entered the race in September.
"Lear is a fierce defender of First Amendment rights, and in Clark he appeared to have found a useful ally -- a soldier whose sharp critiques of the Iraq War have undercut any notion that you can't be a patriot and a protester at the same time. But Reiner said that Lear ought to feel -- and is feeling -- some concern after Clark said last month that he would support a constitutional amendment banning the burning of the American flag.
" 'I know Norman is upset about that, and he's going to talk to Clark about it,' Reiner said. "It's like if [pro-choice advocate] Kate Michelman supported a candidate and then found out he was pro-life. This is Norman's big issue, First Amendment rights and freedom of speech and all that.' "Attempts to reach Lear were unsuccessful. A source close to him said that he was 'disappointed' by Clark's endorsement of the flag-burning amendment but will not withdraw his support over the issue."
Slate's Chatterbox columnist, Tim Noah, wants to follow the money:
"Rep. Nick Smith R-Mich., says that sometime late Nov. 21 or early in the morning Nov. 22, somebody on the House floor threatened to redirect campaign funds away from his son Brad, who is running to succeed him, if he didn't support the Medicare prescription bill.
"This according to the Associated Press. Robert Novak further reports, 'On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father's vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith never came to Congress. After Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed, [Rep.] Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him that his son was dead meat.
"Speaking through Chief of Staff Kurt Schmautz, Smith assured Chatterbox that Novak's account is 'basically accurate.' ...
"Obviously Smith doesn't want to alienate the GOP establishment by hurling criminal accusations at whoever this phantom bribe-giver may be. But it's a little late for that. If Smith witnessed an attempted bribery, he has an obligation as a citizen -- and even more so, as member of Congress -- to make that person's identity known to law enforcement officials. Marc Miller, a Washington attorney who advises clients on ethics issues, told Chatterbox that what Novak described not only looked like 'a slam-dunk violation of the bribery law' but probably also included 'a smorgasbord of other criminal violations.' Rep. Smith, Miller said, 'should really be sharing the specifics with the Justice Department.'
"So, Congressman. Enough with the guessing games. Who tried to bribe you?"
Most new governors, needless to say, don't get this sort of piece:
"Arnold the bodybuilder, the actor, the governor and now . . . the fashion plate?" asks the Los Angeles Times.
"The nipped, tucked, Mystic-tanned and designer-dressed of the navel-gazing state have spoken: They have elected a governor in their fleckless image.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger is a voracious consumer of fashion, from his quartet of chunky rings to his collection of monster-sized watches. And he could well be the first civil servant to have pledged to rescue a state from financial ruin while wearing Prada.
"More Kennedy than California, Maria Shriver is less style-conscious than her husband. She favors classic shapes in nautical colors. Although she's an anchorwoman, you won't find her in a power suit; she prefers dresses -- sleeveless if possible -- to show off her bronzed, buffed biceps." |
