An Open Letter To Joseph Lieberman

Posted on December 11, 2003 in Campaign 2004

Dear Joseph:

You’ve done your best to rock the Democratic Party with your temper tantrum in the wake of President Gore’s endorsement of Howard Dean. I think it is high time that someone tell you the truth: Al Gore didn’t lose the election. You did.

Remember how you criticized Gore for losing the election by running “too populist” a campaign? First, you need a reality check. You don’t get endorsements by ridiculing the man who placed his faith in you as his Vice Presidential candidate.

Second, Gore didn’t lose the popular vote. Bush is in office because his brother and the U.S. Supreme Court helped him steal the Florida vote. You, as a United States Senator, should have stood on your little hind legs and made an issue of this.

Third, Democrats win by conducting populist elections. They win by getting the unions and the “activist elite wearing sneakers” to write letters, make phone calls, and go door to door for the candidate. Many of us were turned off by the 2000 Gore campaign. Why? Because of you. Because of your stands about freedom of the speech, your positions which reflected Right Wing values more than those of the people who have helped elect Democrats in the past. You alienated us. And we thought less of Al Gore because he chose you to be his running mate. So we didn’t go door to door. We didn’t make the calls. We didn’t write letters to our friends. Some of us turned Green for Nader. All because we thought that Al Gore betrayed us by bringing you onto his team.

Gore seems to regained his conscience, his feel for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, by reaching out beyond the officially approved list of the DLC and endorsing Howard Dean over you. I’m a Carol Mosely Braun supporter, myself, but if Dean is the candidate, I will vote for him. If you are the candidate, I will vote Green. I want my vote to go to someone whose values overlap with mine. I want someone who will revive the Democratic Party around the values that FDR promoted and that you and the Republicans have been dilligently tearing down.

Christopher, you are our Dan Quayle, a boy who thinks he can play the big time. Sure the news says that you are getting more campaign contributions from the fat cats now. You’ve endorsed a war that most Americans hate. You’ve voted to censor free speech on the InterNet. You’ve shown little or no backbone in standing up to the man and the faction that has stolen the White House and possibly the Congress of the United States.

Please, be a good Democrat and drop out of the race. Or if you insist on acting the part of the Republican, join that party and run against Bush.

Either way, if you are one of the candidates in the General Election, I will vote against you.