Lieberman goes to bat for McCain campaign

"I have an obligation to do what I think is best for our nation," Senator Joseph Lieberman said.

Former Democrat Joe Lieberman launched a new bipartisan grass-roots group yesterday to build support for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

In the solicitation for "Citizens for McCain," Lieberman, now an independent US senator from Connecticut, notes that he caucuses with Democrats in the Senate and was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000.

"But first and foremost, I am an American," writes Lieberman, who has been one of McCain's most active surrogates. "I have an obligation to do what I think is best for our nation regardless of political party. My love for this country and strong belief in John McCain's character, judgment, and willingness to work with leaders of both parties has convinced me to support him for president."

Besides vouching for McCain in the message, Lieberman reaches out to disaffected Democrats, particularly supporters of Hillary Clinton, quoting McCain's praise for her.

FOON RHEE

Civil rights figure exults

in Obama nomination

The historical coincidence of Barack Obama's formally accepting the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s storied "I Have a Dream" speech has been much remarked upon since the Illinois senator clinched on Tuesday night.

But John Lewis may be among the most entitled to draw that parallel.

Lewis, a Georgia congressman who supports Obama, was onstage for King's 1963 speech in Washington and also spoke that day. One of the heroes of the civil rights movement, he was savagely beaten at the start of the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to fight for blacks' voting rights.

On Aug. 28 in Denver, Lewis will see the first African-American nominated for president by a major party.

"It's going to be an unbelievable day, a day of great joy," Lewis said yesterday on MSNBC. "The dream of Martin Luther King Jr. is being realized."

"Sometimes I feel like shouting for joy, sometimes I feel like crying," Lewis added, wishing aloud that King and other civil rights veterans were still alive to witness history in the making. "We're in the process of laying down the burden of race."

FOON RHEE

Publishers planning

lots of Obama tomes

NEW YORK - Book publishers are planning several works about Barack Obama this summer and fall, including children's stories, photographs, and attacks from both the left and the right.

"Based on past election years, we anticipate strong customer interest in titles regarding the issues, candidates, and election process," Bob Wietrak, a vice president of merchandising at Barnes & Noble Inc., said yesterday.

Sales could be limited because Obama has written two books of his own, "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," both million-sellers.

"He tells his own story so eloquently I can't imagine a book about him selling so well," said Carla Cohen, co-owner of the Politics & Prose bookstore, based in Washington, D.C.

But Priscilla Painton, editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, which has at least two Obama books planned, said "there are two reasons why more Obama books might get traction: First, there's a market for a professional journalist telling the story drawing on all kinds of sources, not just Obama's version. But you also have to remember that lots of folks are only now waking up to the idea that he could be president, and so there's a second wave of buyers out there ready to read about him."

The conservative Regnery Publishing just announced two books for August: David Freddoso's "The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate," and Thomas Blood's "The Clinton Collapse: How Bill Clinton Lost Hillary Her 'Sure Thing' Nomination (And Might Even Make Obama Lose Too)."

"We intend to put him under the microscope, and we think readers will be very interested to learn what we uncover," says Marji Ross, president and publisher of Regnery, which in 2004 released "Unfit for Command," the best-selling attack against Democratic nominee Senator John F. Kerry.

ASSOCIATED PRESS