Matt Yglesias

20 Responses to “Today’s Joe Lieberman Fact”

1. Raymond Says:
   December 27th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

   When Evan Bayh was thinking about running for president his voting record moved a bit to the left (for example voting against Rice for SoS) but it seems he went back to the center.

2. Stephen Myles St. George Says:
   December 27th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

   I thought Nancy Pelosi said that the Democrats are “going to govern from the center?”

   Whatever happened to that? Bayh is actually practising what Pelosi promised, and instead of being lauded, he is being criticised for doing the very thing the Democrats promised to do.

   Do as I say, not as I do.

3. joe from Lowell Says:
   December 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

   “The center,” of course, being “not the Democrats,” despite the results of the past two elections. Have I got that right, Myles?

4. wiley Says:
   December 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

   Perhaps the senators will start to take into account that their constituents’ opinions have been based on lies and start influencing them with the truth. Opinion might start to look even more different than a red Indiana voting for Obama.

5. BlackMage Says:
   December 27th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

   “Whatever happened to that? Bayh is actually practising what Pelosi promised, and instead of being lauded, he is being criticised for doing the very thing the Democrats promised to do.”

   Well, it could be argued that the Republicans are MUCH further to the right than Democrats are to the left. So if Pelosi was referring to the political centre and not the congressional centre, then a ‘centrist’ agenda would be ‘moderate Democratic’. It’s just a theory.

   Thoughts on the CQ scores:
   -Why did Bobby Rush only vote 25% of the time this year? That’s abysmal. He wasn’t running for anything. He didn’t die. I’m genuinely curious what could lead to such a paltry score.
   -Lieberman’s ranking indicates why he would have been such an insanely risky choice for McCain; he makes Palin look like Pawlenty. That McCain actually DID choose Lieberman (only to be vetoed) indicates why, while he’s sometimes an effective senator, we didn’t want him to be president.
   -I believe Bayh is basically an opportunist: he goes with the political winds, rather than following any deep fervent belief in the positions he espouses. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: he’s a career politician, he has young children, he wants to keep his job so he can provide for his family and contribute to society. But as the centre moves leftward, so will he.
   -Democrats really need to poach Olympia Snowe.

6. Another Chris Says:
   December 27th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

   Stephen writes:

   I thought Nancy Pelosi said that the Democrats are “going to govern from the center?”

   Pelosi has been getting kind of a bum rap on this one. Look how she went on to define “the center” in that same press conference.

   Nancy Pelosi, 11.5.2008:

   Here’s the thing, the country must be governed from the middle. Country must be governed from the middle. I say that being a progressive – proud progressive Democrat in the Congress of the United States and as Speaker of the House. The point is, you have to bring people together to reach consensus on solutions that are sustainable and acceptable to the American people.

   What is interesting about the last couple years, in my view, when we say, “from the center,” we’re talking about what we did in a bipartisan way: to raise the minimum wage, first time in ten years; to make college more affordable, the biggest package for college affordability in the 44 – since the ‘44 GI Bill was passed; honor the service of our veterans, the biggest package in the 77-year history of the Veterans’ Administration; end our dependence on foreign oil, first new CAFE standards in 32 years.

   So, all of these things that were initiatives of the Democratic Congress, I don’t know if you call them “progressive.” They are, I think, but they were – had strong bipartisan support because they meet the needs of the American people from right to left.

   This is similar to a point that liberal icon Paul Wellstone used to make in speeches, interviews, and his book, albeit with a lot more passion.

   From a speech to the CWA, on 7.16.2001:

   People in our country, they long for a politics in the center, but it’s not the center that the media talks about or the pundits talk about. You know what it is? People want a politics that speaks to the center of their lives. And you know what the center of their lives is? The center of their lives – you know, as good labor people – the center of their lives means affordable child care, good education, health security, and living wage jobs! [Applause.] That’s what people are interested in in our country, and that’s what Democrats have to stand for and fight for over and over and over again!

   You know, so, Tip O’Neill, he once said that all politics is local. I would add, all politics is personal. I could take you to coffee shops right here in Minneapolis or St. Paul, I could take you to coffee shops around the state, in what we call greater Minnesota, farm country. We’re a rich agricultural state. And nobody will ever come up to me or to you, and say, “Are you left, right, or center?” People don’t talk in that language.

   It’s like this: “Senator, I have a monthly income of $700-a-year, and I’m now paying $300-a-year for prescription drugs, I’m 70 years of age, I can’t afford it.”

   It is: “Senator, I worked for this company for over 30 years, I’m now 56. They let me go. I have no health care. I’m terrified.”

   “Senator! We worked for LTV company, they let all 1,400 workers on the Iron Range [go], and what we’re most terrified about is that if we’d worked just a few years, after six months, no health care coverage, after one year, no health care coverage.” And now, retirees are saying, “We hear they want to go to court, file for bankruptcy, and abrogate their contract to provide us, the people who built this company on their backs, with any health care benefits.”

   “Senator! My husband and I, we both work. We’re 35. Our combined income is $40,000-a-year, and it costs us $12,000-a-year for child care for our 2-year-old and our 3-year-old. Is there any help?”

   I will tell you, I could go on and on. But that’s what people focus on.

   In the end, labels like “center” are relevant only as packaging. It’s the substance of what the Democratic Congress does, and where people like Bayh are in relation to that, that matters.

   Look at it this way. If someone had told you in in 2003 that five years later, the Democrats would run a black man named Barack Hussein Obama on a platform of universal health care, withdrawal from Iraq, and an $850 billion package of infrastructure projects, that he would win a comfortable victory over John McCain, and that pundits would be labelling Obama a centrist figure, wouldn’t you have felt, well, happy? The center shifted markedly to the left.

7. Stephen Myles St. George Says:
   December 27th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

   wouldn’t you have felt, well, happy? The center shifted markedly to the left.

   I would have hardly felt happy, although it seems like you would have.

8. Doug T. Says:
   December 28th, 2008 at 10:34 am

   Evan is no Birch Bayh. I agree with Blackmage on his opportunism (then again, who isn’t?). I also agree with Matt’s basic point. But, not to totally give Bayh a pass, Indiana may have gone to Obama this time, it is much more in the game than Connecticut is.

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