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Ärende: Lieberman
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/politics/10lieberman.html?ei=5065&en=b
ed6f87e352f420a&ex=1134795600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

December 10, 2005
Lieberman's Iraq Stance Brings Widening Split With His Party 
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
and WILLIAM YARDLEY

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 - Five years after running as the vice-presidential 
nominee on the Democratic ticket and a year after his own presidential 
bid, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut has become an 
increasingly unwelcome figure within his party, with some Democrats 
seeing him more as a wayward son than a favorite son.

In the last few days, the senator has riled Democratic activists and 
politicians here and in his home state with his vigorous defense of 
President Bush's handling of the Iraq war at a time some Democrats are 
pressuring the administration to begin a withdrawal.

Mr. Lieberman particularly infuriated his colleagues when he pointed out 
at a conference here that President Bush would be commander in chief for 
three more years and said that "it's time for Democrats who distrust 
President Bush to acknowledge that." 

"We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril," Mr. 
Lieberman said. 

Much of the open criticism has been from liberal groups and House 
members. But his comments have also rankled Democrats in the Senate. 
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, phoned Mr. Lieberman 
this week to express concerns with his views, Mr. Reid's aide said.

"Senator Reid has a lot of respect for Senator Lieberman," said Jim 
Manley, a Reid spokesman. "But he feels that Senator Lieberman's 
position on Iraq is at odds with many Americans."

An aide to another leading Democratic senator who insisted on anonymity 
said the feelings toward Mr. Lieberman could be summed up as, "The 
American people want to hold George Bush accountable for the failed 
policy in Iraq, and Senator Lieberman doesn't."

Mr. Lieberman, who remains immensely popular in his home state, is aware 
of the hornet's nest he has stirred.

"Some Democrats said I was being a traitor," he said in an interview on 
Friday, adding that he was not surprised by the reaction, "given the 
depth of feeling about the war."

Although some Democrats are upset with Mr. Lieberman, Republicans are 
embracing him, with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and 
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld singling him out, and his support 
for the war, for praise in speeches this week. 

"He is entirely correct," Mr. Cheney said on Tuesday at Fort Drum, N.Y. 
"On this, both Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree. The 
only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon our 
mission."

Concerns about Mr. Lieberman's coziness with the administration grew 
this week when he had breakfast with Mr. Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. 
Later, rumors spread that Mr. Bush was considering asking Mr. Lieberman 
to join the administration to succeed Mr. Rumsfeld next year as defense 
secretary. 

"It's a total fantasy," Mr. Lieberman said. "There's just no truth to 
it."

In the interview on Friday, he said the two sides were making too much 
of his comments, and he argued that the overreactions reflected how 
politically polarized the debate over the war had become.

Mr. Lieberman noted that his positions on Iraq had not changed over the 
years, dating from 1991, when he supported the first Persian Gulf war. 
In 1998, he and Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, proposed the 
Iraq Liberation Act, which made the overthrow of President Saddam 
Hussein official American policy.

"The positive and negative reactions may have less to do with the 
substance of what I said than with the fact that a Democrat is saying 
it," Mr. Lieberman said. "It reflects the terribly divisive state of our 
politics."

He has always been something of a maverick in his party. He was the 
first prominent Democrat to chastise President Bill Clinton openly for 
his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky.

More recently, Mr. Lieberman, a centrist, angered Democratic activists 
by expressing a willingness to work with President Bush to overhaul 
Social Security, an effort that ultimately stalled in Congress.

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, 
said the breach was deep.

"I completely disagree with Mr. Lieberman," Ms. Pelosi said at a news 
conference. "I believe that we have a responsibility to speak out if we 
think that the course of action that our country is on is not making the 
American people safer."

The question in some quarters now is whether the moderate brand of 
politics practiced by Mr. Lieberman, who is up for re-election next 
year, will hurt him when the electorate is so divided, particularly over 
some of the president's policies.

This week, for example, former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. criticized his 
continued support of the Iraq war and said that if no candidate 
challenged the senator on it next year, he would consider running.

In 1988, Mr. Lieberman, who was attorney general of Connecticut, 
narrowly defeated Mr. Weicker, a Republican senator. Two years later, 
Mr. Weicker ran for governor as an independent and won. He served one 
term before retiring in 1995. 

Mr. Weicker remains something of a fixture in state politics, well known 
for his independent streak. In 1999, Reform Party supporters encouraged 
him to run for president in 2000, but he ultimately decided against 
that. 

Mr. Lieberman faces trouble in other quarters in his home state. 
Although few elected Democrats would criticize him publicly, several 
Democratic activists promised retaliation at the polls.

James H. Dean, brother of Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic 
National Committee, lives in Connecticut and heads Democracy for 
America, a group that is gathering signatures on the Internet for a 
letter that criticizes the senator.

An aide to James Dean said he and others from the group would deliver 
the letter to Mr. Lieberman's office in Hartford on Tuesday. The aide 
said the letter had 30,000 signatures.

Other Democratic activists warned that they might try to organize a 
primary challenge against Mr. Lieberman, specifically because of his 
position on the war.

Tom Matzzie, the Washington director for MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy 
group with 10,000 members in Connecticut, said it would consider a 
challenge if the right candidate came along.

"It's like a betrayal," Mr. Matzzie said of Mr. Lieberman's stand on the 
war. "He is cheering the Bush Iraq policy at a time when Republicans are 
running away from the president."

But for all the criticism that Mr. Lieberman faces, few people say they 
believe that he is vulnerable to a challenge. 

For his part, Mr. Lieberman said he would run hard on his record.

"I'm not taking anything for granted," he said. "I know there are a lot 
of people in the party who disagree with me about the war."


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