A Connecticut Yankee in the Athenian Court
The politician said, "I am the same man and do not alter, it is you who change, since in fact you took my advice while unhurt, and waited for misfortune to repent of it; and the apparent error of my policy lies in the infirmity of your resolution, since the suffering that it entails is being felt by everyone among you, while its advantage is still remote and obscure to you all, and a great and sudden reverse having befallen you, your mind is too depressed to persevere in your resolves" (The Landmark Thucydides, 2.61, translated by Strassler).
Was that the speech of defeated Senator Joe Lieberman? No, but today Old Joe woke up and must have thought that Pericles got it right when Athens was fighting Sparta in a war for survival. The people of Connecticut, like their spiritual Athenian kin, had had enough of this silly conflict, and now it was time to get the bum out who supported all this icky violence. Amazing how quickly all of Joe Lieberman's former allies jumped onto newcomer Ned Lamont's Democratic yacht and sailed for calmer waters. Sure, alliances in politics are fickle, and Senator Lieberman cannot expect to have support when he has been voted a has-been.
If you believe MoveOn Poltical Action Committee executive director, Eli Pariser, you would conclude that Lamont's victory begins the end for the Republicans. In his column in today's Washington Post, Pariser states that the Lieberman, etal.'s policy of triangulation, "the policy of seizing the middle ground no longer makes sense in an era when any attempt at bipartisanship is understood as a sign of Democratic weakness and exploited accordingly." Never mind that Lieberman carries more credibility with both parties than any other senator because he actually has conviction. Never mind that Lieberman is trying to work from the position of the minority with an administration and Congress dominated by Republican idealogues. Never mind that Lieberman does not sway, neither in his support for liberal Democratic policies nor in his calculated understanding that we have serious foreign policy concerns that cannot be simply mended with a cursory "just bring 'em all home." Never mind that Pariser and his ilk predict a metastasizing cancer of Republican defeat due to the primary loss of one of the only Democrats with actual power in Washington. Never mind logic while you're at it.
If you believe the lead editorial of the Washington Post, you won't buy MoveOn's assumption, and you won't believe that Old Joe is a has-been. Here, the Post editors make the correct argument that statesmanship, Lieberman's ability to reach "across the aisle in an effort to cooperate," made him a "sap" in the eyes of voters. In fact Lieberman's defeat yesterday may be an enormous mistake by the Democrats. Imagine Old Joe triumphantly returning to Washington with no strings attached to his golden chariot. Woe to you who abandoned him if you don't capture control of Congress.
Senator Lieberman understands that, like Pericles, he has not changed but the resolve of 300,000 primary voters has. Irony abounds when we hear the Democrats call for bi-partisanship in the age when President Bush refuses to compromise, and then the Democratic leadership turns on the one man in the Senate whom people believed could work with the other side. More irony and some healthy servings of humilty on the way for Senator Clinton and her band of merry Lamont Who? supporters. Maybe they should figure out a way to reach "across the aisle" before November.
Was that the speech of defeated Senator Joe Lieberman? No, but today Old Joe woke up and must have thought that Pericles got it right when Athens was fighting Sparta in a war for survival. The people of Connecticut, like their spiritual Athenian kin, had had enough of this silly conflict, and now it was time to get the bum out who supported all this icky violence. Amazing how quickly all of Joe Lieberman's former allies jumped onto newcomer Ned Lamont's Democratic yacht and sailed for calmer waters. Sure, alliances in politics are fickle, and Senator Lieberman cannot expect to have support when he has been voted a has-been.
If you believe MoveOn Poltical Action Committee executive director, Eli Pariser, you would conclude that Lamont's victory begins the end for the Republicans. In his column in today's Washington Post, Pariser states that the Lieberman, etal.'s policy of triangulation, "the policy of seizing the middle ground no longer makes sense in an era when any attempt at bipartisanship is understood as a sign of Democratic weakness and exploited accordingly." Never mind that Lieberman carries more credibility with both parties than any other senator because he actually has conviction. Never mind that Lieberman is trying to work from the position of the minority with an administration and Congress dominated by Republican idealogues. Never mind that Lieberman does not sway, neither in his support for liberal Democratic policies nor in his calculated understanding that we have serious foreign policy concerns that cannot be simply mended with a cursory "just bring 'em all home." Never mind that Pariser and his ilk predict a metastasizing cancer of Republican defeat due to the primary loss of one of the only Democrats with actual power in Washington. Never mind logic while you're at it.
If you believe the lead editorial of the Washington Post, you won't buy MoveOn's assumption, and you won't believe that Old Joe is a has-been. Here, the Post editors make the correct argument that statesmanship, Lieberman's ability to reach "across the aisle in an effort to cooperate," made him a "sap" in the eyes of voters. In fact Lieberman's defeat yesterday may be an enormous mistake by the Democrats. Imagine Old Joe triumphantly returning to Washington with no strings attached to his golden chariot. Woe to you who abandoned him if you don't capture control of Congress.
Senator Lieberman understands that, like Pericles, he has not changed but the resolve of 300,000 primary voters has. Irony abounds when we hear the Democrats call for bi-partisanship in the age when President Bush refuses to compromise, and then the Democratic leadership turns on the one man in the Senate whom people believed could work with the other side. More irony and some healthy servings of humilty on the way for Senator Clinton and her band of merry Lamont Who? supporters. Maybe they should figure out a way to reach "across the aisle" before November.
posted by Henry Plantagenet at 8:09 AM
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