Today in the Star-Ledger, national political correspondent John Farmer joins many of his colleagues in the mainstream press and throws his support behind Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's primary, which takes place tomorrow.
Farmer's front-page story, "Primary a test for Lieberman and Democrats," is fairly middle-of-the-road in its reportage. You know, it's got the usual tropes -- it's a tight race between Lieberman and Lamont, who is a "little-known anti-war challenger," and, in case you hadn't heard it before, a "multimillionaire." Of course, we don't hear much about Joe's earnings -- and while they admittedly aren't as much as Lamont's, you'd think we might get to know (hint, hint, he makes a lot more than me, and probably you).
But the key to Farmer’s story, and to the media discourse around this primary in general, comes out five paragraphs before the end: “For prospective Democratic candidates, a Lieberman defeat will signal that sharp anti-war sentiment, similar to that of the Vietnam era, could dominate the nominating process in 2006 and push the party dangerously far to the left.” (Emphasis Added)
How something that 54 percent of the public has said they oppose represents the “dangerous” far left of the Democratic party is certainly beyond me. (CNN Poll, asking "Do you favor or oppose the US war with Iraq?" June 14-14, 2006)
But if we now turn to Farmer’s opinion piece in today’s issue, "The Search for Civility Endangers Lieberman," we are able to see a little more clearly where he’s coming from. He likes Lieberman, who he dubs “Mr. Nice Guy,” “the ultimate moderate,” and, most ironically, when his candidate is going down in flames because of his position in a war that is killing more and more civilians and soldiers daily, “a peace-making moderate.”
As for Lamont, Farmer links him to words like “obscure,” “poisonous,” “crass,” and “mindless.” Not to say that Farmer blames Lamont. Rather, he seems to be upset with the “newly aroused left-wingers,” who are running a “take-no-prisoners” campaign.
Memo to John Farmer: The war is real. It’s a fucking nightmare. It’s a big issue. People like Joe who make their own peace with the killing are going to piss people off.
When they seek to vote someone out of office because they're sick and tired of the killing, that’s called democracy.
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