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Lieberman May Face Primary Challenge in Conn.
Democrats in Connecticut are so disturbed by Sen. Joe Lieberman’s stance on the war in Iraq that some are calling for a primary challenge against him in 2006. What’s more, former U.S. senator and Connecticut Gov. Lowell Weicker says he’ll run against Lieberman as an independent if no credible anti-war Democrat or independent enters the race. Democrats were angered when Lieberman recently returned from Iraq and spoke of what he views as progress on the ground there – and suggested that Democrats should avoid harsh criticism of President Bush's Iraq policy. In an interview with FOXNews.com, Weicker, 74, said: "I'm not going to let [Lieberman] get a free pass on this. And that's what's going to happen if no one steps up to bat."
Story Continues Below Running as a Republican, Weicker lost his Senate seat to Lieberman in 1988. Two years later he was elected governor as an independent. Weicker said he was been against the war in Iraq "from the onset." Running as an independent, he said, "allows me the integrity of my position, which is, I'm not happy with either side. "As much as I disagree with the Republican policy, I couldn't disagree more with the deafening silence on behalf of the Democrats on the war." Gary Rose, a political science professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, said Weicker "has all the ingredients needed to unseat an incumbent. He has a sizable following in this state and he's right on the issue of Iraq" according to a majority of people in the state.
A letter with 55,000 signatures — mostly from out of state — was delivered to Lieberman's district office in Hartford last week urging him to stop "trying to stifle debate" on war policy and join "the majority of Americans in questioning President Bush's foreign policy,” according to FOXNews.com. The group circulating the letter, Democracy for America, is led by Jim Dean, a Connecticut resident and brother of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. Also last week, Democrats attending the regular State Central Committee meeting criticized Lieberman and called for support for a primary challenge against him at the party's convention in May. "It's at the point where he's no longer interested in his own party's opinion. He's really out of touch with reality," said Mitchell Fuchs, chairman of the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee. "For me, he's crossed the line a number of times." Keith Crane, who runs DumpJoe.com, one of a several anti-Lieberman Web sites, said Democrats see Lieberman as increasingly out of touch with his constituency, who voted against Bush in the last two presidential elections. This is not the first time Lieberman has bucked his party. In 1998, he was one of the only major Democrats to publicly criticize then-President Bill Clinton for his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Despite the recent grumbling, Lieberman still has supporters among the state party leadership. "Joe Lieberman has made a career out of acting in a bipartisan fashion,” Jim Diamond, a member of the State Central Committee, told FOXNews.com. "He's been the lead Democrat on fighting terrorism and homeland security and for that he gets a lot of support across both sides of the political aisle."
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