The Significance of Joe Lieberman

There was a time when Joe Lieberman Democrats dominated the Democratic Party. Presidents such as Harry Truman, labor leaders like George Meany and Lane Kirkland, intellectuals such as Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Irving Kristol and senators such as Stuart Symington and Henry “Scoop” Jackson combined economic populism with a hard-line foreign policy that focused on fighting America’s enemies wherever they could be found. That was before the party became a captive of feminists, public-sector unions, trial lawyers and ultra-leftist bloggers. As Ronald Reagan, a former Democrat, used to say, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the party left me.”

So Sen. Lieberman (I-Conn.) has crossed party lines to support Republican Sen. John McCain’s (Ariz.) presidential bid. Lest my liberal friends think Republicans don’t ever return the favor, please remember that it was Michigan Republican Arthur Vandenburg who noted that “Politics stops at the water’s edge” and joined to support many of President Truman’s measures to counteract Soviet aggression during the Cold War.

Lieberman’s support for McCain is potentially pivotal in that it strengthens his appeal to independents, especially New Hampshire independents. It also underlines McCain’s ability to reach across party lines and potentially break the partisan deadlock in Washington in a way that the leading Democrat, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), could never do.

Everyone TALKS about change, but Joe Lieberman’s gutsy move offers a real road map forward to change the tone and debate in the nation’s capital.