If the loony MSM were viewing Joe Lieberman's primary loss to leftist, Ned Lamont, in any more a convoluted manner, they would be crosseyed, tonguetied, and hogtied. I mean, the backflips they are making to explain this story are so magnificent that it'd make any Circ de Soleil acrobatic clown green with envy.
Our intrepid Time/CNN political analyst, Mike Allen, has tried on his colorful leotards to spin Joe's loss into the newest GOP dirty campaign trick for the 2006 midterms in his titled, "Why the Republicans Are Loving the Lieberman Loss".
It is amazing how every article about politics seem to start with the emotional underpinning that the Republicans are somehow merely scheming, or are just capitalizers, dirty tricksters or looking for "weapons" to get votes. Could it be that a Republican here or there might actually be serving his true principles by highlighting an issue? Nah, don't be ridiculous. It's sure to be just some kind of angle or trick!
The defeat of Joe Lieberman fits this MSM template perfectly, as does the article here mentioned by Mike Allen.
Here is the very first paragraph of Allen's story:
From Washington State to Missouri to Pennsylvania, Democratic candidates found themselves on the defensive Wednesday as the Republican Party worked ferociously at every level to try to use the primary defeat of Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut to portray the opposition as the party of weakness and isolation on national security and liberal leanings on domestic policy. Doleful Democrats bemoaned the irony: At a time when Republicans should be back on their heels because of chaos abroad and President Bush's unpopularity, the Democrats' rejection of a sensible, moralistic centrist has handed the GOP a weapon that could have vast ramifications for both the midterm elections of '06 and the big dance of '08.
Notice the flavor of the story.
Lieberman's loss was only being "used" to reveal Democrat's "weakness" by that "ferocious" GOP even though those wascally Republicans should be down for the count because of "chaos abroad" and the president's "unpopularity". Even the statement that Lieberman is a "sensible, moralistic centrist" is coupled with Republican's weaponizing of the Senator's perceived status, casting that presumed centrism into a negative ... or even doubtful... light.
The story goes on to present the activity of the GOP election machine kicking into high gear to showcase this act of the Democrat's lurching wildly to the far left yet there is a curious lack of discussion in the story of what really happened in Connecticut to the Democratic Party itself.
The entire situation is cast in the light of the Republican spin machine without any focus on the fact that Lieberman is considered by many a "moderate"(but rarely by Republicans who have paid attention -- Lieberman's record is strictly liberal), and that his sudden and nearly complete purge from the Democratic Party by Party bigwigs such as DNC Chairman Howard Dean and veteran Party spokesman, Ted Kennedy, was so quick as to nearly prove the GOP's contention correct that the Democratic Party is dispensing with moderate views. The MSM are furiously downplaying the fact that the Democrats are trying to rid themselves of someone who might disagree with them in some few instances even as they offered that same candidate for the second highest office in the land but a few years ago.
No, it's worse than that. They are trying to rid themselves of a candidate who disagrees with them on only ONE issue; the war in Iraq! No one in the MSM seems to feel it is an interesting story that one issue is enough to get a former Vice-Presidential candidate mercilessly dumped from his own Party.
We have repeatedly seen this story in the MSM over the last week how Republicans are spinning Joe's loss, how GOP Party machine operatives are capitalizing on that loss, and how the MSM fears that the GOP is going to make it a winning election issue. But, where are the many stories about how the Democrats really HAVE begun to look like they intend to make a lurch to the left?
Where are the grave warnings that the "moderates" are being eliminated, marginalized, forgotten?
If the GOP had suddenly made a corresponding lurch to the right, wouldn't the MSM be wailing and gnashing their teeth over how the Republicans had forsworn the voice of the vaunted "Moderate"?
So, what we have been repeatedly treated to are stories focusing on the GOP's spinning of Lieberman's loss, but precious little analysis of just what it means to the Democrats. This softens Lieberman's loss and truly whitewashes Lamont's far left ideology, giving cover to the Democratic Party's wild lurch to the left.
But, what would we expect from the MSM, wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, George Soros, CEO?
