Posted by olvlzl
It’s too late for the Senate election in Connecticut but the Democratic Party has to take measures to prevent another Joe Lieberman situation from happening.
A political party shouldn’t make demands on a person once they hold office, that’s the right of their constituents but the a party does have rights to impose some requirements on candidates who ask to run for the nomination of that party. The nomination of a party belongs to the enrolled voters of the party, not the candidate, not the leadership of the party.
The Democratic Party should require people who take out papers to run as a Democrat to sign a binding pledge that if they lose a nomination that they will not run as the candidate of another party or as an independent. What Lieberman has done is to insist on having it both ways, to insist that he is a Democrat but then to refuse to play by the rules of the Party and of democracy.
In the mean time, if I was a voter in Connecticut I’d do everything I could to pin Joe Lieberman down. I’d insist on his promise that if elected he wouldn’t jump parties and that he wouldn’t support Republicans for leadership positions in the Senate under any circumstances. I would make certain that his promise didn’t contain escape clauses or time limits. Nothing short of a clear and binding pledge for the length of the term would do. Democrats and independents who he is asking to vote for him have every right to demand that he make that pledge. They should know if they are voting for the stealth Republican candidate. I’m sure many of them wouldn’t want to be putting the fiftieth Republican in place and allowing Frist to remain in his leadership position.
Pin Joe Lieberman down. Make him promise to not betray the Democrats of Connecticut again. If he won’t promise, you’ll know what to expect if he wins next month.