Why Democrats should consider a different election strategy

[burythehatchet]

Something Joe Lieberman has been doing promts me think that we, as a political party should consider employing a different election strategy. Holy Joe recently made some very stark statements regarding the white house's stonewalling of the Katrina investigation. Then today he came out opposing the Scalito nomination. I asked myself why?, why would he suddenly go against the white house which he has so loyally supported over the past 5 years. The answer lies in the fact that he is being challenged in his primary in CT. There were reports last week that he is very worried about this upstart challenge from within the party. He even asked the senate leaders to put a stop to the challenge. They refused. So now he starts to represent the people who voted for him.

It is abundantly clear to me that while we certainly have to support our candidates on election day, WE CAN NEVER LET THEM GO UNCHALLENGED IN THE PRIMARIES. With very few exceptions I do not trust our senators or congresscritters to "do the right thing". Time and again the Biden's and Lieberman's and Landrieu's have voted against the interests of their constituency. They do so simply because they are either bought and paid for by corporate money, or they believe they can go against the principles of the party as a safe political move. We cannot allow this to continue. The lesson of Lieberman should be closely considered. No elected democratic should ever go unchallenged in their primary. There is certainly a monetary cost, but if you think about it, a primary challenge will do more to energize the base and actually increase turnout.

[applegrove]

1. Lieberman has always voted very left.. except on issue of the middle

east. It is in keeping with his past votes. You just didn't notice him before.