Remember when Lieberman dissed Gore last year at the DLC convention

[Larkspur]

Well I have the column from Michele Jacklin, the Hartford Courant's political columnist, scolding Joe, and it was published exactly one year ago yesterday. The link is no longer existent, so I'll publish some of the key paragraphs.


No One's Clamoring For A Pro-Business Democrat, Joe

Dear Sen. Lieberman:

I've been watching with amazement while you and your erstwhile pal, the Big Dawg from Tennessee who rescued you from near obscurity and plunked you down on the national stage, engage in a heated war of words.

Senator, what amazes me most is how you, a politician with such finely tuned political antennae, could so badly misread the political climate and could practice revisionist history with regard to the 2000 presidential campaign.

With all due respect, you need to linger in those Connecticut diners you love to visit. Take a few minutes to actually listen to the plaints of middle-class Americans. It wasn't so long ago that you prided yourself on being the People's Lawyer. You won a ticket to Congress in 1988 talking about the bread-and-butter issues folks cared about every day of their lives.

And now you scold Al Gore for abandoning the New Democrat dogma in 2000 and embracing a populist message. You said last week in New York City that Gore, who selected you as his running mate, erred in taking the side of "the people" at the expense of the "special interests." And you argue that only a pro-growth, pro-business Democrat can be successful in this political milieu.

Senator, your memory is faulty and your thinking misguided.
<SNIP>

In case you've forgotten, Senator, Gore trailed George W. Bush by up to 16 percentage points in the days leading to that mid-August bash. No sooner had you and Gore left Los Angeles for your Mississippi boat ride than a Newsweek poll had your team up by 6 points.

Gore didn't lose the Electoral College because he failed to play kissy-face with corporate America. He tied himself in knots when he couldn't decide whether to stick to his populist theme or follow the ill-conceived advice of his inside-the-Beltway handlers. After a while, voters didn't know who Al Gore was or what he stood for. And let's not forget that he made a jackass of himself in three nationally televised debates. Despite that, he still won the popular vote.

<SNIP>

Voters are angry. They don't see a scintilla of difference between the national Democratic and Republican parties. Both have spent the past 30 years coddling fat cats, courting the monied interests and cozying up to Wall Street. You say you're pro-growth and you exalt in the '90s. The 2000 Census data show that Connecticut's middle class grew smaller and poorer in the decade that you so fondly speak of.
<SNIP>

[joeybee12]

1. Great article

Shows in an indirect way why Dean is catching on--Rethugs and the DLC try to paint him as liberal, but his message is more populist than anything else. Holy Joe and just about everybody else in Washington is so insulated from the real world, they don't have a clue as to what "the people" want.

There is a direct correlation to the moments in the campaign when Gore stayed on his populist message and his rise in the polls., Can't get mroe scientific than that--Holy Joe and the DLC are basing their ideas on God-only-knows-what.

[Kolesar]

2. Not a great article

Jacklin's memory must be faulty or he was doing a bit of revisionist writing. Gore did not make a "jackass" of himself in the three nationally televised debates. Gore did well, he blew away the competition, but it was misreported as him displaying three personalities or some other such nonsense. That was the worse that his opposition and the press could come up with against him, and I don't think it matter a whole lot to the voters anyway.

[Larkspur]

3. True, that part of her column was off the mark

but the rest was pretty on target.

[joeybee12]

4. Have to disagree about the debates

Don't agree that Gore made an ass of himself, but he really was tentative. One example was ANWR drilling--he simply made some comment about how he was against it--it was an issue he should have been passionate about it, because it really is an issue that would have won him support. I think his handlers were afraid he would come across as too vicious--but he needed to be more agressive because Dumbo really falters when challenged. They didn't exploit this.

[DemDogs]

5. Remember when Gore dissed the DLC last year

When he was eating lunch at a nearby hotel after he told DLC he could not attend because of a conflict.