What happened to the idea of Meryl Streep running against Lieberman?

[Eric J in MN]

In a Democratic primary in CT in 2006?

Did anyone ask Meryl Streep if she would?

[LSparkle]

1. "The Seduction of Joe Tynan ... er, Meryl Streep"

[DemNoir]

2. Ralph Nader

If he ran a serious third party campaign I think he would have a good chance of winning.

Connecticut has a history of suporting such candidates.

[NewJeffCT]

4. winning what? 20% of the vote?

Maybe Nader would have a chance if he ran against Nancy Johnson or Rob Simmons, but even then I doubt it.

[DemNoir]

5. Yea thats what i meant

Thanks for the well reasoned response.

[NewJeffCT]

8. OK, how about this

Joe Lieberman has over a 70% approval rating from state Democrats. That's Democrats, not Republicans. He is equally popular among Independents & Republicans, if not more popular among them. While he is hated on DU, the generally moderate Democrats of this solidly blue state have found Lieberman very much to their liking. Because of this, any state Democrat coming at him from the left is pretty much tilting at windmills, which the professor from Fairfield admitted on the radio last week. The only person in the state that could possibly do that is not even Paul Newman... it's UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun, who is an old fashioned Boston liberal.

Lieberman is well funded and his name & popularity alone has kept Chris Shays & Nancy Johnson - two very popular Republicans - from running for the Senate seat. Republicans Shays, Johnson and Jodi Rell (as of today) are all more popular than any Democrat in the state save Lieberman & Dodd.

While I would love to see Lieberman replaced down the road by somebody more liberal, he is much more preferable than a female Newt Gingrich like Nancy Johnson and is at least reliably progressive on the environment and on abortion.

So, rather than throw money away on somebody trying to bring Lieberman to a primary, I would much rather try to unseat the very vulnerable 2nd district Congressman Rob Simmons. Every House seat we can get is a big victory, and Simmons barely beat out near political neophyte Jim Sullivan last time around, despite outspending Sully like 4 or 5 to 1.

[NewJeffCT]

9. and, to add

The only newspapers in the state that are saying that somebody like a Newman is considering a run for Senate are extreme RW newspapers like the Manchester Journal Inquirer... obviously trying to stir the pot.

[ProgressiveConn]

11. Lieberman has a higher approval rating from Reps than from Democrats!

I'd rather have Shays in that seat than Lieberman without a second thought. At least we could fight back against Shays through a general election. We have a Safe Democrat who is the Democratic strongman pushing the war and Talibanization of America. Joe can take his war and his faith based funding and stick them up his ass.

Lieberman can not be given a free ride to act like a Mississippi Republican. There are Democrats abound who can challenge him but won't.

What is the point of targeting Republicans when we have Democrats who side with them on the most important votes?

Further my Congressperson is a Democrat and I feel that I should be first and foremost working for those who are representing me. So while I will donate to Farrell, Sullivan, and whoever we manage to put up against Johnson. I want those representing me to be loyal to the progressive movement and Joe Lieberman is not.

There are many pro choice and pro environmental Republicans in the north east. Lieberman is free to go join them at least then we could run someone against him.

[ProgressiveConn]

13. Since we did so poorly last year against Johnson why not offer the seat

and our support to Nader? It is his home district right? At the very least it will cause the Republicans to fight for the seat while the Dems spend nothing. Johnson's numbers are inflated last year she is NOT that strong. We changed candidates much to late and our girl got no funding at all.

[JerseygirlCT]

19. Ick. No way

That meglomaniac? I think Ralphie Boy's time has come and gone.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. There's already an announced progressive; Orman is his name.

He's a poli-sci prof. With some campaign experience. I'm backing him unless someone better comes along.

Nader is not better.

[DemNoir]

6. Yea I guess your right

Somebody with no experience that nobody has ever heard of is much better.

What could I have been thinking!

[daa]

7. I thought Paul Newman was considering eom

[NewJeffCT]

10. No

The main sources of that are Far Right newspapers here in CT that are trying to stir up trouble.

[ProgressiveConn]

12. Let them stir up trouble.

As you've said yourself Joe is not vulnerable to a Republican challenger as he has a higher approval rating among Repubs. All them "stirring up trouble" does is help those who want to see a liberal holding the warmongering Senator's seat.

[NewJeffCT]

14. No, it does not

What it does it get liberals excited and pissing away their money supporting a candidate who is going to get 10-20% of the vote in a primary against Lieberman when all those tens of thousands of dollars in donations could have made a HUGE difference for whoever is running against Chris Shays or the very vulnerable Rob Simmons.

Simmons was only ahead by 4% going into the final weekend, but had a HUGE ad blitz the final 5 days with not only ads of his own, but also from organizations like the NRA and the RNC. His challenger, the liberal Jim Sullivan, hardly had any airtime that final weekend due to a lack of money. I mean, I was driving home one evening and the top AM radio station had 3 straight Simmons ads on the air during drive time the day before the election - and, this was on a talk show hosted by two guys that are fairly liberal... Just an extra $50,000 or so for that final weekend for Sullivan could have made a huge difference and at least gotten him on the air.

I don't want that to happen again.

[connecticut yankee]

15. I'd rather go after Simmons

He's probably more vulnerable, and further to the right than Shays.

[JerseygirlCT]

21. Absolutely

I think he should be number one priority in CT. Johnson's too firmly entrenched, and Shays has his good days. There's a glimmer of hope there.

Simmons is just a loser. Let's make that the reality next time!

[ProgressiveConn]

16. Pissing money away?

Well we will have to just agree on having different opinions because I don't see attempting to remove the warmongering collaborator as a waste of time or money.

I guess you don't have friends dieing in Iraq today. Cause if you did you would realize the importance of removing collaborators such as Lieberman.

Oh and I will gladly place a bet with you on http://www.longbets.org/. That a single anti-war candidate will get over 20% of the vote as you suggest.

[NewJeffCT]

17. I would love to remove Lieberman, but

I see it much more important to win back Congress than it is to lose another Senate seat, which very well could happen if Lieberman went down in a primary.

If a good liberal ran against Lieberman, I would vote for him or her in the primary, but even in a primary, that candidate wouldn't get much support from most Connecticut Democrats.

[ProgressiveConn]

18. I'm telling you differently man.

January 2006 in a middle class suburban neighborhood going door to door targeting registered democrats.

Knock Knock.
Hello Sir I am with John Doe running for United States Senator from Connecticut and I was wondering how you felt about the war in Iraq.

a)Oh you are against it? You know me too. Thats why I support Mr. Doe over Mr. Lieberman for senate in the upcoming primary. Did you know that Joe Lieberman has been apart of the effort to Invade Iraq LONG before 9/11 ever happened? Do you know that a greater percentage of Connecticut Republicans approve of his warmongering than Democrats?

b) So you support it? Okay that is fair... Do you support it under any means necessary? I'm sure you've heard how the neo-cons like Bush and Lieberman have asked selective services to be ready to have a draft within 70 days notice.

And leave them with a single page of Lieberman's follys including his ANWR vote to stop discussion, his bankruptcy vote, a picture of the kiss, etc. "A vote for Lieberman is a vote for the war and against social security."

I'm telling you man that if ANY candidate in the entire country is vulnerable in a primary it is Lieberman.

I do understand your worry about replacing a Democrat with a Republican in the Senate but I think your worries are unfounded. The last Republican Senator from Connecticut was Wieker who was more liberal than Lieberman. Before him it was Bush's grandfather who was an Eisenhower Republican and who really doesn't count since he was in office prior to the Dixiecrat Revolt and the resulting changes to American politics. Let us assume that a COMPLETELY unelectable candidate beats Lieberman in the primary which is very possible IMO. So in reply Shays runs for the Senate seat and wins... I can only say so what? At least our best candidates will run in six years instead of having to find someone with the balls to run against Joe in the primary. I don't think Nancy Johnson has a chance to win if she goes after that senate seat. Her numbers are greatly inflated and as a Republican she wouldn't get away with the things that Lieberman does as a democrat.

Either way if one of the Republican HoReps challenges the grassroots replacement for Lieberman it allows us to plug in a Democrat into their house seat. No other Republican could win Johnson's district she is a Pole from New Britain and sadly that is why she is in the House. We got 38% of the vote in 2004 and we ran the worst campaign in history against her. We can get an additional 13% with just an average candidate with decent funding. Simmons and Shays will have to fight for their jobs REGARDLESS of what they do assuming our candidates run again.

Joe is only invulnerable in a general election because of his support from Republicans. I feel you are greatly exaggerating his support amongst Democrats. I don't feel Joe is assured of winning his home town let alone the state in a primary. A couple people going door to door talking to black and Hispanic registered dems about Lieberman's stance on the war (read: draft + the targeting of minorities in the current enlistment effort) and how he attacks the poor to favor the rich (read: bankruptcy bill)would cost him New Haven and likely every major city.

If Lieberman is defeated in a primary and the person who defeated him loses to a moderate Republican in the general election it would be unfair to blame the primary's victor. The real blame would lay on the feet of Joe for his unacceptable views that led to his challenge and our stronger democratic candidates who chose not to stand up to Joe and run themselves.

Again I will bet that a single anti-war candidate will receive well over the 20% you suggest. Even at 20% it will make Joe rethink his warmongering.

Even if a major democratic candidate does not emerge there is no reason why we can't pull a Wellstone here. I'm sure there will be progressive groups beating down the door to help replace Lieberman.

I seriously believe that it isn't an impossibility that we sweep in 2006 if we can get a great candidate to run against Johnson. We won't lose any seats for damn sure and who knows if we cant remove Johnson electorally maybe we redistrict her out of a seat assuming a Democratic Governor. IMO we should come out immediately and say that if they partisan redistrict Georgia we will partisan redistrict in Connecticut. I mean what good is our super majority if we don't wanna use it to counter the insane right? =)

[JerseygirlCT]

20. Amen.

Let's focus on ridding ourselves of the Simmons types and not spin our wheels on Lieberman. I'm no fan, and I'd be happy to vote for another candidate, honestly. (Ah, the good ole days of Lowell Weicker)

But let's not eat our own while the real bad guys continue to hold power.

I'm still pissed at Johnson for being Newt's gal years ago. Thankfully she's no longer my rep., but I'd be happy to see her go. Not going to happen, but I'd still be happy!