Lieberman's options shrinking

When a Fox anchorwoman asked Joe Lieberman the other day why the Justice Department hasn’t charged WikiLeak’s Julian Assange with treason, the correct, if impolite, answer would have been, “Because he’s Australian, stupid.â€

But Lieberman, who has called the far-right Fox his favorite news channel and says he might run for re-election as a Republican, had a Fox-y reply:

“I can’t understand why it hasn’t happened yet.â€

He surely knows Congress — the one he belongs to — long ago said treason — warring with the United States and giving aid and comfort to its enemies — can be applied only to those “owing allegiance to the United States†— American citizens. Australians need not apply.

Lieberman might have been in a hurry to get to his other outrageous suggestion, an investigation of The New York Times for printing some of the leaked documents. He was good enough not to charge the newspaper with treason, saying instead The Times may have “committed an act of bad citizenship.†Bad citizenship is not a crime but the name-calling should please Times haters in his far-right constituency.

The senator needed to buff his conservative credentials after trying so hard to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell†legislation and allow gays to serve openly in the military. This commendable effort was helpful in his other self-ordained role, as a possible Democratic candidate, but it must have perplexed those on the right. Let me explain.

Soon after the last election, Lieberman generously assigned himself four choices for 2012: Run as an independent, go back to a welcoming Democratic Party, become a Republican because they love him, too, or retire at 70 as senator and still champion. At least, that’s how he sees it. Others differ, except in the matter of retirement.

The last time Lieberman ran, as an independent, Connecticut’s Republicans liked him enough to nominate Alan Schlesinger, who was best known for practicing the science of card counting, a skill that had gotten him barred from some casinos. Schlesinger amassed 10 percent of the vote and was an immense help to Lieberman.

But easy Republican pickings aren’t likely the next time. The party will probably give Linda McMahon another chance on the assumption that if $50 million could get her name recognition and 43 percent, another $20 or $30 million might put her over, especially in a three-way race with a Democrat and former Democrat. Republicans appreciate Lieberman’s abandonment of Barack Obama to support John McCain in 2008 and his convention appearance as a born-again Republican, but not enough to back him. At best, he’d face a primary and Linda’s millions.

 But the Democrats will not forgive 2008. Sure, they held their noses and put on happy faces as the party welcomed him back as a necessary Senate vote but they looked forward to the day the party no longer needed him. That day has come.

 Now that Dick Blumenthal’s finally taken care of, the Democrats won’t have a shortage of aspiring Lieberman successors to consider. There are already Congressmen like Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney. And — don’t laugh — there’s always Susan Bysiewicz. They could also turn to the quite electable Ted Kennedy Jr., the son and namesake of the late senator with a quarter century of Connecticut roots dating back to his student days at Wesleyan.

So Lieberman should cut those choices in half and concentrate on running as an independent or better yet, retirement. It may be the best course of all for someone who’s too liberal for the Republicans and too two-faced for the Democrats.

Dick Ahles is a retired journalist from Simsbury. E-mail him at dahles@hotmail.com.