Joe Lieberman Campaigns For McCain
Stumping with John McCain today in conservative central Florida were two of his colleagues: Mel Martinez and Joe Lieberman.
The first, of course, is Florida’s Republican senator and the former RNC chairman. Except among the most conservative elements of the party here — folks McCain was never going to get in the first place — there is only upside in being seen with Martinez, whose political base is in Orlando’s Orange County.
But that McCain had Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-Independent, stump with him is more puzzling.
The Connecticut senator raised cash and did some seperate surrogate events in Florida last week. But, a few days before a Republican-only primary and when McCain is trying to convince his own party of his conservative credentials, why would he want to draw attention to his support among non-Republicans in a key part of the state?
Perhaps it drives the electability message, but Lieberman himself had his own explanation when I caught up with him after their final appearance of the day at an Orlando pizza joint.
“I feel more welcome among Republicans,” he said, only half-joking when I asked what it felt like on the GOP trail.
To be sure, Lieberman is seen as a pariah among his party’s liberal base.
But they key question as it relates to McCain is how he’s viewed among Florida Republican activists.
Is he Al Gore’s running mate and a Democrat who ran against President Bush in 2004? Or is he a brave voice of conscience who stood up to his own party and supported the war when it threatened his political career?
For the typical red-blooded, W-loving, Fox News-watching Sunshine Stater, I suspect it’s somewhere in between.
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