The Moderate’s Revenge

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The New York Sun

In 1630, John Winthrop lead an unusually wealthy group of English colonists to New England in search of religious freedom. Their descendants spurred the American Revolution, spearheaded the Abolitionist movement, and put forth idealistic rigor that defined 19th Century intellectual life in America. And when the great, largely Irish, immigrant wave poured into New England’s cities, the Yankees rallied behind the old, anti-slavery political organization, the Grand Old Party.

As late as the 1950s, the majority party in Massachusetts was the Republican Party; urban Democrats, meanwhile, were Catholic, socially conservative and dominated by machine politics. Leverett Saltonstall, Elliot Richardson, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. were the names of some of the more prominent relatively recent examples of this unique brand of liberal Republican.

One of the last remnants of this arcane breed won his senate primary fight in Rhode Island Tuesday night, Lincoln Chafee. And while he may not ultimately defeat his Democratic opponent, Sheldon Whitehouse, the bitterly fought over Senate may prompt a mini-resurgence for this unique regional anomaly, the New England moderate. It may be time to consider the following counter-intuitive possibility: The same election cycle in which many have forecast the disappearance of the unique, largely-New England oriented phenomena, may result in the empowering of this ancient caste.

The Democrats need 6 seats to recapture the Senate. Polls suggest a tight battle between the Democratic candidate, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Mr. Chafee with, perhaps, a slight edge to the former state attorney general. Even so, almost any scenario empowers the very faction generally considered an anachronism.

“The smaller the margin of majority, the larger the importance of the moderates,” says Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, in describing the “political paradox of the moment.”

Of the 12 Senators from the New England states, at least five can be considered ideologically unorthodox, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Mr. Chafee, all Republicans, and Mr. Lieberman, a Democrat running as an independent. A fifth odd-ball, Senator Jeffords of Vermont, left the Republican Party in 2001 and delivered the Senate to the Democrats. Congressman Sanders, a Democratic-leaning independent, is vying to replace him.

Both Maine and Connecticut have elected independents as governors. It is common for Green candidates to run and perform above expectations. New Hampshire’s reputation for being fiscally conservative is well warranted. Its current governor, a Democrat, has taken the prospect of statewide tax increases off the table.

“New England was always an exception,” says Garrison Nelson, a University of Vermont professor.

It is in this same bubbling cauldron that a bitter fight is brewing. In Connecticut the great-grandson of a partner at J.P. Morgan, Ned Lamont, has the Democratic nomination and is battling the incumbent a socially-moderate, hawkish, American Jew, Joseph Lieberman. Even though Mr. Lamont defeated Mr. Lieberman in the Democratic primary and immediately scooped up the bulk of institutional backing, current polls project Mr. Lieberman as a favorite to win in November. This sets up another unusual possibility.

The very people who have forsaken Mr. Lieberman and tried to end his political career could very much need his support in a new Senate. The August 16 edition of The Hill, raised the possibility of Senate Democrats, angry over his run as independent against Mr. Lamont, stripping him of his seniority should he defeat Mr. Lamont. If the Democrats fail to retake the Senate or if the result of the Senate elections is a tie, will the angry Democrats really want to eject Mr. Lieberman from the party? Even more intriguing, how will Mr. Lieberman, who has vowed to continue to vote with the Democratic caucus, react to all those who backed his political assassination?

“Joe Lieberman may be the most powerful member of the United States Senate come November,” asserts Mr. Wittmann.

There’s no question that the complexion of the Senate has changed over the years. David Luchins, the chairman of the political science department at Touro College, recalls his former boss, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, commenting on the transformation before he left office. In 1977 when Mr. Moynihan entered the Senate eight Republicans called themselves liberals, and thirteen Democrats called themselves conservative; when he left office in 2000, there were four moderate Republicans, and three conservative Democrats, Mr. Luchins remembers him saying.

Those numbers are even more pronounced now. But for the tiny portion of the Senate who are either liberal-moderate Republicans or conservative Democrats, the month of November could truly be a time of Thanksgiving.

Mr. Gitell is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.


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