Independent Lieberman calls Democratic Party 'hyperpartisan'

March 31, 2008

Senator Joe Lieberman blasted the Democratic Party yesterday as protectionist, isolationist, and hyperpartisan.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, said it is not the same party that made him its vice presidential candidate in 2000.

"It's not the Bill Clinton-Al Gore party, which was strong internationalists, strong on defense, pro-trade, pro-reform in our domestic government," he said. "It's been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist, and very, very hyperpartisan. So it pains me."

Lieberman, who won reelection to the Senate as an independent after losing the 2006 Connecticut Democratic primary, still caucuses with Democrats. But he has endorsed Republican John McCain's presidential bid, and said yesterday that McCain reflects the legacy of John F. Kennedy.

McCain, he said, is "a reformer, somebody who understands ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country and remembers the other part of the Kennedy inaugural, which said that we will bear any burden, pay any price to assure the survival and sustenance of liberty. That's John McCain."

Lieberman also blasted Senator Barack Obama for voting against a resolution to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group and gave Clinton credit for supporting it.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, a supporter of Barack Obama who was the Democrats' losing presidential nominee in 2004, said yesterday that superdelegates should make up their minds early so the party can organize to beat John McCain.

"As a former nominee, I will tell you, this time right now is critical to us," Kerry said on ABC's "This Week." "I think every day does give John McCain an ability to organize nationally."

Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee has proposed that the superdelegates get together after June 3 and make their choices so the party can start going after the Republicans.

Kerry also said he would prefer that superdelegates be allocated before July.

REUTERS

Call her a Honky Tonk Woman: Hillary Clinton is a big fan of the Rolling Stones.

Speaking to reporters aboard her campaign plane yesterday, Clinton said she was eager to see "Shine a Light," the new documentary about the rock band that opens Friday.

Clinton said she attended her first Stones show as a high school senior in 1965, and has been a few times since. The film, which depicts a Stone performance in New York in 2006, includes a clip of Keith Richards meeting Clinton's mother, Dorothy Rodham. Clinton said her mother is an even bigger fan of the Stones. "I thought she was going to just levitate," Clinton said of introducing Rodham to Richards and Jagger.

ASSOCIATED PRESS