Few look back as they step across the aisle
DENVER -- When he appears Monday before the Republican National Convention, former Democrat Joe Lieberman will be reprising the role of turncoat attacker that Zell Miller played so effectively against his party four years ago.
But unlike the Georgia senator, who retired shortly after the 2004 GOP convention, Lieberman has a political future — at least in the Senate if not in a McCain administration. And Democrats here are saying good riddance.
"I think he would be the least welcome here of any Democrat I could think of," former president Jimmy Carter said Thursday about Lieberman, as Democrats wrapped up its convention nominating Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Carter's remarks were part of a newsmaker session with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service.
Although he was re-elected in 2006 as an independent, Lieberman was the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000 and enjoys his post as chairman of a major Senate committee by continuing to meet with Senate Democrats. In return, Democrats get his decisive vote, allowing them to hold a 51-49 voting majority. Democrats are favored to pick up Senate seats this fall, meaning Lieberman may not be needed to keep the Democrats in power.
Miller's speech attacking Democrat John Kerry in New York four years ago was tough and bitter. Lieberman, his aides say, wants to make a positive case for McCain but will also be critical of Obama's positions.
Lieberman isn't the only public heretic this year.
At the Democratic convention, some Republicans with gold-plated credentials stepped away from their party to embrace Obama.
Former representative Jim Leach, a moderate Republican from Iowa who spent 30 years in Congress, delivered an endorsement of Obama. Hardly as memorable or hard-edged as Miller's convention speech, Leach lamented the loss of bipartisanship in Washington as "America's political and economic standing in the world has been diminished." He said Obama offers a renewal of "time-tested American values that tap Republican as well as Democratic traditions."
Popular Reads
ABC News Live