TPM: Lieberman Begged For Obama Endorsement in 2006.
Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 01:55:36 PM PDT
Greg Sargent over at TPM Election Central has the scoop on a story that makes Joe Lieberman's recent apostasy on the subject of the presidential race even more disturbing.
Sargent is reporting on the revelation, courtesy of a top staffer on Lieberman's 2006 Senate race, that the Lieberman camp made a very specific and very sincere plea for Obama to endorse Lieberman shortly after Ned Lamont entered the Democratic Primary, and that Obama agreed to come to the aid of his politically embattled colleague.
Given recent events, it makes Lieberman out to be an even bigger backstabbing little weasel than we might have believed.
The money quote from the article, courtesy of the campaign staffer in question:
"We needed him to strongly validate us as a candidate that liberal Democrats should not desert," the official tells me. "We went to the Obama operation with a very urgent plea for him to come out for us."
Obama obliged, endorsing Lieberman in the Senate primary in March of 2006.
The staffer continued:
"It was a favor as huge as we could have gotten -- it was like a drowning man getting thrown a life preserver," the Lieberman official continued. "Just when Ned was trying to establish himself as a credible alternative on the war, Barack Obama came in and said, `Hey, I disagree with him on the war, but you should send him back to the Senate.'"
Furthermore, Obama obliged Lieberman to an extent in the general. While he formally endorsed Lamont as the Democratic nominee, he (like most Senate Democrats) refused to pull out all the stops against their once-and-future colleague.
And this is the thanks he gets. A pretty good lesson for the Senate Democratic leadership, as they ponder what to do with Lieberman next. His is a constituency of one. His greatest commitment is to his own entitlement to power, to say nothing of his ego. As a recommended diary by Chumley states today, and as my own diary stated back in December, he needs to no longer be part of the Democratic caucus.
