Liebermania
The New Republic, as per this cover, considers itself as defending the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, John F Kennedy (or is that Robert Redford?), Harry Truman, Woodrow Wilson, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. having been a qualified Socialist, I imagine the magazine would have, by the late 1960s, ran editorials citing him as a a bit irresponsible under the current editorial board.
They found the man who embodied their magazines’ political hopes and dreams in 1992 in the guise of the “New Democrat” Bill Clinton, and endorsed him heartily. All the while running op-ed pieces by Fred Barnes and others advancing George H W Bush’s cause. Make of it what you must.
I am told that if I go back to Joseph Lieberman’s first bid for the Senate seat from the state of Connecticut, I would find that he was a man who ran to the right of the seating Republican Senator, endorsed by Pat Buchanan of all people. See here:
Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat in 1988, scoring the nation’s biggest political upset that year by a margin of just 10,000 votes after being backed by a coalition of conservative Democrats, allied with conservative Republicans who were upset with Republican incumbent Lowell Weicker’s liberal voting record.
I suppose that this has to be considered the deathknell end of the “Rockefellar Republicans” that the Goldwaterite and Reaganite(*) Republicans were at war with… a group of Republicans that may well its soul from Robert La Follette, but for the most part were just standard political hacks. Pity the political party or political party faction that finds its base in the Northeastern United States! Today, you have Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island, and that’s about it. He voted for Bush’s father in the 2004 election, considers himself Republican to the core, and does not like the current party all that much. And, he’s found his poll numbers dissipate quickly, as Rhode Island Republicans wonder: You couldn’t vote for Bush?, and Rhode Islanders in general wondering You’re caucusing with these freaks?
The New Republic endorsed Joseph Lieberman for the Democratic Nomination for Presidency. Lieberman is currently the weak point for the Democratic Party’s attempt to claim a cohesive party Legacy: Roosevelt and Kennedy hang over us all. The effect of Joseph Lieberman is to ponder whether he’s a Skull and Bones plant of some type.
Murmurs abound about throwing up a primary challenge to Lieberman, ranging from a sort of token “conscience” choice of Paul Newman to some more credible politician. Actually, defeat Lieberman and perhaps it’d be the same as deflating the Rockafellar Republicans…
The two most recent credible primary challenges of note… New Hampshire in 2002. Pennsylvania in 2004. New Hampshire’s Republicans wanted to get rid of Bob Smith for quiting the party in 1999, and thus backed John Sununu to oust him. Movement Conservatives consider Arlen Specter Enemy #1, and backed Pat Toomey to oust him… Arlen Specter was then backed by the Republican Party — including Bush and the other Pennsylvania Republican Senator, Rick Santorum, who gave him enough cache amongst Pennsylvania’s Right Wing Republicans to win the danged race.
So, with Lieberman… it sadly depends on whether the Democratic Party particularly gives a damned.