Lieberman's Standards

Joe Lieberman sure has found a unique way to celebrate Independence Day.

He's not the first to buck existing systems and seek office outside of a party that rejects him. Teddy Roosevelt did it in 1912 when the Republican Party stopped representing progressives and turned back to the big business interests T.R. had steered it away from. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina fled a pro-Civil Rights Democratic Party in 1964 to become a Republican. Richard Shelby of Alabama switched to the GOP the day after the 1994 election that has come to be known as the Republican Revolution. In 2002, Republican Jim Jeffords of Vermont switched his affiliation to Independent after the elections.

But for an 18-year incumbent to announce that since he's having trouble in the primary in his state, he's going to set himself up for an independent run, well, that's a tough position to put voters in, isn't it?

The Post article quotes Lieberman as saying, "No one really knows how many Democrats will come out to vote on what may be a hot day in August," which puts him in the odd position of using turnout figures as a measure of electoral legitimacy.

Which brings us back to Lieberman's biggest problem: his love affair with George Bush. If a low-turnout primary election within his own party is insufficient to provide Lieberman with a sense of legitimacy, how did he grow to revere a president who lost the popular vote in 2000?

Firedoglake is having a ball with this.