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| In this April 8, 2008 file photo Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., addresses the Vets For Freedom on Capitol Hill in Washington. Connecticut Democrats are considering whether to ask Sen. Joe Lieberman to leave the party for speaking at the Republicans' convention and backing GOP presidential nominee John McCain. |
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Connecticut Democrats are considering whether to ask Sen. Joe Lieberman to leave the party for speaking at the Republicans' convention and backing GOP presidential nominee John McCain.
The party scheduled a debate Wednesday night on a resolution that would censure Lieberman and ask the veteran politician to resign from the Democratic Party.
Lieberman was re-elected to the Senate as an independent after losing the Democratic primary in 2006 to businessman Ned Lamont, but while he calls himself an "independent Democrat" in the Senate he remains a registered Democrat and has said he has no plans to change his affiliation. The four-term senator nearly became vice president in 2000 as Al Gore's running mate.
One of several Democrats pushing for the resolution, 30-year party veteran Audrey Blondin, said Lieberman's very public support of McCain over Democratic nominee Barack Obama is hurting the state party.
"If you have someone who says they're a Democrat, who is registered as a Democrat and is a national figure supporting a candidate who is opposed to all the ideals and beliefs and positions that we hold as Democrats, he's diluting - in my opinion - the meaning of our party," she said.
Lieberman's staff did not respond to a call from The Associated Press seeking comment Wednesday, but he said on a radio show that the move toward censure surprised him.
"Honestly, I thought that was the kind of thing that happened only in the former Soviet Union," Lieberman told WICH-AM.
"I understand that people are unhappy, but, you know, I'm doing something that I really believe," he said. "I thought in this country you don't get punished for that. So, I hope that in the end, my colleagues will understand and life will go on either way."
Blondin said Lieberman's speech at the Republican National Convention, in which he praised McCain and criticized Obama, convinced her that the state's Democrats need to take a stand.
"Our point is not that Joe should in some way be prohibited from supporting McCain or speaking at the National Republican Convention. That's not the issue," Blondin said. "The issue is, he's a Democrat. And Joe, in our opinion, needs to reconsider membership in our party."
The resolution says Lieberman's actions exhibited "extraordinary disloyalty to countless Connecticut Democrats without whom his career as an elected official would never have been possible."
It calls on the party to "publicly censure and repudiate" Lieberman's words and actions and ask him to resign.
Lieberman and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, have been caucusing with Democrats in Washington, giving them control of the Senate with a 51-49 majority, even though each party has 49 members. Democrats, in turn, have made Lieberman chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
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