Isolated by Democratic Party, Lieberman carves own path

MYSTIC, Conn. -- The political tightrope act that may save Senator Joseph I. Lieberman's career was on full display Thursday afternoon at Mystic Aquarium.

Lieberman, who's running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to an antiwar newcomer, had a former Bush administration Cabinet secretary at his side, touting his ability to work with Republicans. And he answered reporters' questions from inside a full-scale replica of PT-109, the World War II torpedo boat piloted by President John F. Kennedy -- a Democratic icon and Lieberman's political hero.

Asked to untangle the imagery, Lieberman thought for a moment, then offered a succinct response.

"Survival, survival," Lieberman said, with Anthony Principi, President Bush's first-term secretary of veteran affairs, beside him. "Survival, and service, and patriotism."

Lieberman is in fact thriving in his campaign to represent Connecticut in the Senate for a fourth term.

Isolated from his party over his support for the Iraq war and shunned by liberal colleagues who back the man who defeated him, Lieberman is forging his own path back to Capitol Hill. Polls suggest that he has a double-digit lead over Democratic nominee Ned Lamont in the campaign's closing days.

The election, however, has ramifications far beyond Connecticut.

If Democrats retake control of the Senate from Republicans, the margin will be extremely tight, making every vote crucial for conducting legislative business. If he wins, his famous -- and, to many in the party, frustrating -- independent streak may make it even harder for Democratic leader Harry Reid to get Lieberman lined up with the rest of the caucus.

Though Lieberman has promised he'll rejoin the Democratic ranks, he readily admits his independence will be more pronounced back on Capitol Hill.

"I do feel I will go back being as independent-minded as I've always been -- probably more so -- but also really committed to finding ways to make this experience help me be a more effective senator," Lieberman said in an interview at his Hartford campaign headquarters. "Coming back having been elected as an independent, I can really be a more effective bridge between the two parties."

Lieberman, 64, said he feels "liberated" by running without a party affiliation. If he's reelected, he wants to organize lunches for independent-minded senators of both parties in the middle of the week.

Lamont, however, contends that Lieberman's boasts of independence is cover for his misguided support of failed White House priorities -- most notably, the decision to invade Iraq.

"There's nothing independent or bipartisan about rubber-stamping the rush to war in Iraq," Lamont said in an interview. The president and vice president, Lamont said, "are traveling all over the country to campaign for Joe Lieberman. That's a vote they think they can count on, for the next Supreme Court justice, or for their war policies."

Though Lamont's assessment is a slight exaggeration, it's clear the White House wants Lieberman back in the Senate.

In his stump speech, Cheney has framed Lamont's primary defeat of Lieberman as Exhibit A of Democrats' weakness on foreign policy, citing Lamont's strong opposition to the war. The president and the Republican establishment, meanwhile, have kept Alan Schlesinger, the Republican in the race, at arm's length -- a tacit endorsement of Lieberman.

Lamont's latest campaign ad bluntly interprets that support: "A vote for Joe Lieberman," the ad intones, "means more war."

But Lamont's bid to make the Connecticut race a referendum on Bush and the war isn't working as well as it did in the Democratic primary in August. Last week's Quinnipiac University poll had Lieberman leading Lamont, 49 percent to 37 percent, with Schlesinger running a distant third.

Lieberman has cast Lamont, a millionaire businessman and political novice, as the divisive partisan, neutralizing some of the fallout from Lieberman's support for an unpopular war, said Kenneth Dautrich , a professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut.

In a year in which opinion polls suggest that voters are fed up with gridlock in Congress, Dautrich said, Lieberman has pitched himself as the much-needed voice of moderation -- even though he's spent 18 years in the Senate, bore the Democrats' banner as its vice presidential nominee in 2000, and ran for the party's presidential nomination just two years ago.

This time around, "Lieberman has run a brilliant campaign," Dautrich said. "He has redefined himself as an independent, a bridge between the two parties, someone who is above party politics. He makes the case that his own conscience is more important than party identification."

Though he touted his party credentials in the primary, Lieberman has strayed far from the Democrats' fold since then.

In the primary campaign, he lampooned Lamont as a closet Republican; now he portrays him as a lockstep Democrat. The senator, meanwhile, hasn't taken sides in the state's three high-profile congressional races, which are key to a Democratic majority in the House.

On Friday, Lieberman joked that he'd like Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrats' 2004 presidential candidate and a favorite target of the GOP, to spend the rest of the campaign at Lamont's side. When he talks about his political heroes, he mentions presidents Kennedy and Harry Truman -- both Democrats -- but also includes Republican presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

Before the campaign, Lieberman was among the more troublesome members to Democratic leaders.

Aside from the war, Lieberman joined Republicans to call for federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo euthanasia case, and ruled out joining a filibuster of Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s Supreme Court nomination. That blocked Democrats from using that extreme tactic to keep Alito, a staunch conservative, from joining the nation's highest court.

But having been stung twice by the liberal wing of his party -- first, when his 2004 presidential bid fizzled early without their support, and again when colleagues passed by him to help Lamont in the primaries -- Lieberman is more comfortable now that party loyalty isn't an issue, said Al From, a longtime friend and founder of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.

"Joe has always been somebody who has done what he thinks is right, but he will feel less party obligation than he ever has," From said. "The party will be better off with Lieberman getting reelected, because it will show that the majority is still on the political center, not on the noisy left."

If that's a bitter pill to swallow for Democrats who want to forge a strong, unified front against Bush and the GOP, Lieberman isn't concerned.

"If one party's doing something you disagree with, and you can rally people against that, then you should do that," he said.