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In his latest break from the Democratic Party, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is defending Republican Sen. Norm Coleman (Minn.) from Democratic attacks in one of the nation's closest Senate races. Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee who caucuses with Democrats and gives them their two-seat Senate majority, disputes partisan attacks that Coleman conducted inadequate oversight of the Iraq war as the top Republican on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). "Any suggestion Sen. Coleman stymied Democrats' investigations into Iraq-related matters is unfair and unfounded," Lieberman wrote this weekend in an op-ed in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Since he lost the Democratic Senate primary in 2006, and later won a fourth term as an Independent, Lieberman has increasingly grown distant from his Democratic colleagues. As a foreign-policy hawk, he has repeatedly criticized the Democratic Party for trying to mandate a troop withdrawal from Iraq and for taking a "weak" stance on Iran. He later alarmed his Democratic colleagues when he announced he would support Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) for president, and has increasingly angered Democratic leaders for becoming a leading surrogate for the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. After speaking in September at the Republican National Convention, Lieberman decided to skip weekly Democratic lunches because of the growing tensions between himself and his former party. While he has donated money to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, he also has given cash to the reelection campaign of another endangered Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. His advocacy for Coleman, who is locked in a tight battle with comedian Al Franken, may give Democratic leaders another reason to take away Lieberman's leadership position in the next Congress. Democrats expect that if they have a robust majority, the senator may lose the coveted chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In his recent defense of Coleman, Lieberman cites his chairmanship by saying that he worked closely with the Republican and praising his work on the panel. "To assert that Norm Coleman did anything less than a first-rate job on PSI demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the subcommittee and ignores the substantial positive changes that his investigations have caused," Lieberman wrote in the opinion piece. That follows a lengthy statement issued by Lieberman late last month, which Coleman posted on his campaign website, saying that the Republican has uncovered "$80 billion of government waste, fraud and abuse." "Norm has been aggressive in protecting taxpayers, and rooting out corruption," Lieberman said. |
