The National Journal's "insiders poll" this week focuses on two hot-button issues - President Bush's veto of stem cell legislation and the Lieberman-Lamont race. On the political impact of Bush's stem cell veto, there's a HUGE difference between Democrats and Republicans. Among Republican "insiders," only 34% believe that Bush's veto will help Democrats this November, while 29% believe it will help Republicans and 37% that it will have "no significant impact." Two typical Republican comments:
*"Voters are clearly more concerned with terrorism, the war in Iraq, and the U.S. economy."
*"Base would go nuts if he hadn't, but it'll take more than this to get them fired up for the midterms."
Among Democratic "insiders," it's not even close, with a whopping 86% saying that Bush's veto will help Democrats, just 3% saying it will help Republicans, and only 9% saying it will have "no significant impact." Two typical Democratic comments:
*"Protecting discarded embryos while opposing cures for deadly diseases is the definition of bad politics."
*"I can see the Democratic commercials quoting Nancy Reagan."
On another subject, the Lieberman-Lamont race in Connecticut, most people seem to agree that if Ned Lamont defeats Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary on August 8, the smartest response for Democratic leaders will be to back Lamont or at least endorse him. Almost nobody (19% of Republicans, 8% of Democrats) thinks that Democratic leaders should actively back Lieberman even if he loses the primary.
Three interesting comments from Republicans:
*"If Lamont wins fair and square, Democratic leaders have no option unless they want to start a civil war -- over the Iraq war."
*"On the one hand, they cannot anger their Jewish financial base; on the other hand, they cannot anger their anti-war grassroots base."
*"Democrats will suffer significant damage to their national image if they throw Lieberman over the cliff. Reinforces their weakness on national security, and he will win anyway."
Three interesting comments from Democrats:
*"How can we preach voter disenfranchisement in Ohio and Florida, but ignore the will of the electorate in Connecticut?"
*"Last I checked, this is a democracy. And the Democratic Party had better stand behind the winner of the Democratic primary in Connecticut. If Joe Lieberman wants to go off and do something else, good riddance."
*"If Lamont wins, it is because of the bloggers and his own money. That will be a winning combination in the 21st century."
Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign. The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.
...clearly has not been to Connecticut in a while.
Most Democrats who are backing Lamont have never heard of a blog. For pete's sake, Lamont's now a 51% in the polls. You think even 5% of those people have ever even heard of blogs? It's ridiculous.
Secondly, Lieberman has outspent Lamont at more than a 3-to-1 ratio. He's the one who refuses spending caps. Lamont has many more individual donors and many more in-state donors than Lieberman.
I sympathize with those for whom it might be a matter of conscience or loyalty to support Lieberman. But if he runs as an independent, then they should support him as fellow independents.
Democracy is about coming together in support of the winner of the primary because the winner is the peoples' choice. After a primary, the leaders and even rank and file Democrats should unite behind the candidate who won the primary because that is what democracy is all about.
Lamont didn't just write a big check or pay volunteers to gather x number of signatures to get on the ballot, he had to get a certain percentage of delegates to openly support him in the State Convention to even force a primary (I believe the requirement was at least 15%, a number which he doubled).
To ignore or refuse to support the winner after all of this process is to openly declare that you don't genuinely support democracy, just power.
If Democratic Leaders don't support Lamont if he wins the primary they are going to face a backlash the likes of which they haven't seen before and the stage will be set for a true third party to emerge.