Here’s an interesting take on the whole Leiberman third-party gimmic, simply and honestly: a third party is supposed to have it’s own platform, and should not be an excuse for a politician to refuse to accept the will of his constituency:

courant.com | Lieberman’s Third Party An Election Year Sham

Mr. Lieberman may have violated Section 9-368c “Misrepresentation of Contents of a Petition.” He claimed to the secretary of the state’s office that he wanted to start a new political party called “Connecticut for Lieberman” within 12 hours after losing a Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. . . . He is trying to undermine our state laws about the creation of legitimate third parties by forming this fraudulent association. He has no party rules. He nominated, seconded and accepted his own nomination. He has no third party platform so his association cannot be about any new ideas. He is just trying to contest and challenge the results of a fair election on Aug. 8, 2006, on the grounds that he lost.

This might actually be one of those watershed moments when legislatures all across the country are pushed to change laws to prevent this kind of thing. After all, the author of this article does have an excellent point, possibly even on a legal standing: a person should not be allowed to bypass the will of his consituency (albeit the portion of the constituency contained within his party) by submitting a petition to become a third-party candidate. On the less-idiological and far more opportunistic side of things, parties aren’t going to want their legitimacy questioned or undermined by maverick politicians who go outside the party when the urge strikes them.

So, like Frank Zappa delivering four remixed versions of the same album to Warner Brothers at the same time to get out of his contract, this is one of those moments that will permenantly seal up the loophole that created it. I would say off-hand that this is one more way in which Joe’s actions can be taken as selfish and destructive. There are plenty of other reasons why changing from major party to third party might be appropriate, but depending on how laws get changed (which will undoubtably be a state-by-state change), this may not be possible thanks to Joe.

Technorati Tags: Leiberman, Democracy

powered by performancing firefox