Geitner Simmons has a fascinating post (Blogger links still misbehaving, but it’s there) about how the post-Lott heightened obligation on parties to denounce, er, “insensitivity” in their ranks will play out in Joe Lieberman’s impending campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 2000 the the Amsterdam News, a black paper in New York, published some viciously anti-semitic editorials against him that elicited … waves of silence from the Democratic establishment and black Democrats. What, Simmons asks, will happen this time around?
Simmons quotes New Haven Register article that discusses Lieberman’s prospects, especially in light of his support of Bush on a number of issues. Asked about that, Lieberman replied “I am what I am.”
Yes, but what’s that? Many who have followed his career will wonder about that. In 2004, they will wonder, will Lieberman be the pre-2000 Lieberman who opposed affirmative action (“You can’t defend policies that are based on group preferences as opposed to individual opportunities”) or the Lieberman as Al Gore’s running mate who groveled before Maxine Waters and the Black Caucus (
