Chait Chokes

Jonathan Chait admits that he had a hard time writing about the primary challenge to Joe Lieberman.

WATCHING the left wing of the Democratic Party trying to take down Joe Lieberman has been a deeply confusing experience for me. The lefties say the Democratic senator from Connecticut is a self-righteous suck-up who lends President Bush undeserved credibility. Lieberman’s allies say the lefties are a pack of crazed, ignorant ideological cannibals.

They’re both basically right. So how am I supposed to deal with this?

He was right. He did have a hard time, and it showed, as in the following howler:

There is a sound political rationale for picking off Lieberman. Republicans only tolerate political moderates if they hail from states or districts that won’t elect staunch conservatives. It’s a pure strategic calculation. The GOP supports Republican moderates such as Arlen Specter and Lincoln Chafee because they represent “blue states.” Those who come from “red states” are expected to toe the line.

Perhaps Chait doesn’t think of Nebraska (Sen. Chuck Hegel) or South Carolina (Sen. Lindsey Graham) or, for that matter, Virginia (Sen. John Warner) as reliably “red” states, not to mention Arizona (Sen. John McCain).

Chait asks how he was supposed to deal with his difficulty? I’d say he should have tried another draft, or selected a better editor. (“Oh wait,” as Mickey Kaus would say, “he couldn’t have done that; the article appeared in the Los Angeles Times.”)

Say What? (3)

  1. Chetly Zarko May 10, 2006 at 3:08 pm | | Reply

    Chait was a writer back in the mid-90s for the Michigan Daily on the U-Michigan campus. Having met him several times, I can say he’s bright, but your right about this piece. The conclusion that (both) Parties push candidates to a certain line is certainly correct (to an extent), but his evidence for that argument here isn’t compelling, and it backfires because it applies to the Dems equally.

  2. Alex Bensky May 11, 2006 at 8:00 am | | Reply

    So much for the vaunted goal of diversity in the Democratic Party. I guess the party is for diversity as long as it isn’t diverse…another reason why I’m no longer much of a Democrat. If there were a feasible alternative…but all there is, is Republicans.

  3. keypusher May 11, 2006 at 1:47 pm | | Reply

    Virginia is getting less red all the time. But you’re right about Hagel, Graham and McCain.

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