William B. Fuckley, aka William F. Buckley, has given an interview to CBS news in which he deplores Bush's pseudo-conservatism on foreign and domestic policy, decrying the Iraq war in particular. Buckley is simply one more of the Paleo-Neo-Con rat pack jumping off the sinking Bush boat. This could hurt Joe Lieberman even more. Since even conservative Republicans are abandoning Bush, what is Joe doing still backing him??
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
What makes this defection particularly significant is the effect it could have on the current Connecticut US Senate race. Buckley was one of St. Joe's patron saints. So hostile was this Sharon Connecticut mouth piece for Goldwater to the man Lieberman defeated, Republican Lowell Weicker, that he practically endorsed the Democrat. He was a key figure in Lieberman's initial victory. Buckley's early sympathy for Joe contributed to the bipartisan aura which he has tried to cast over his senatorial career. Now Buckley is retreating from one of Joe's signature so-called bipartisan conservative issues and it leaves Joe's support for the war in Iraq with even less cover, now that his right flank has abandoned him.
While Buckley's defection from the war camp will have little influence on the Democratic primary, it will undermine St. Joe's appeal to Republicans when and -- increasingly if -- he runs as an independent. The Buckleys have been a significant eminence grise in Connecticut. After brother James was defeated for reelection to the US Senate from New York, he ran unsuccessfully from Connecticut, much to Weicker's chagrin since he had previously tried to prevent Buckley (elected as a member of the NY Conservative Party) from joining the Republican caucus in the US Senate.
A few weeks ago brother Bill fessed up to his Lieberman connections,
http://article.nationalreview.com/...=
"In October, we threw a great big party in Washington celebrating the 50th anniversary of National Review magazine, which I founded--well that's easy: 50 years ago.
At celebratory events, one invites celebrities, not merely fellow cultists. So in the morning, the White House gave us a special seminar, and then lunch with the president for a few of us. That evening at the grand reception pre-dinner, Condi Rice was there, and assorted congressmen and journalists. When I reached the head table I found Senator Lieberman there, two or three seats away from Rush Limbaugh.
I don't actually remember having a personal hand in deciding who sat at the head table, but I was not surprised to see Joe Lieberman. We have a few ties.
Ten years after I served as chairman of the Yale Daily News, he was elected to that position.... This brought on several meetings, amiable, but without any dissimulations: He was a rising young Democratic star, I a risen conservative star. But we had a common role in effecting the fall of a Republican star, incumbent Senator Lowell Weicker.
Senator Weicker aroused such animus among alert conservative citizens of Connecticut that a few of us took solemn oaths to work against his reelection in 1988--when he was opposed by Joe Lieberman.
Members of my family were no doubt influenced by Senator Weicker's reluctance to admit brother James Buckley, elected U.S. Senator from New York, to membership in the Republican caucus in the Senate.... A committee was formed (BuckPac) arguing that a vote for Lieberman was a vote for ideological decontamination of the Republican Party, Lowell Weicker having, by 1988, emerged as the weepiest liberal willow in public life. [Does not all of this sound familiar?? Does Buckley not see that the shoe is now on the other foot, with Lieberman playing the Weicker role?]
In any event, though Lieberman did not move one inch rightward, [SIC!!!] we of the Connecticut Right made common cause with him in the defeat of Weicker."
Despite Buckley's protests, the ideological differences he claims with Lieberman are hollow, particularly now that Lieberman is running to the right of Buckley on Iraq. Buckley's defection on that issue could undermine Lieberman's appeal even for some CT conservatives, despite the sympathy WFB claims to have for this Democratic senator. Is he damning him with his praise?
As Buckley admitted, "So I said to myself, thinking back on our celebration in October, "Thank God I didn't kiss Joe!" Down Joe, down!"
If even Buckley bucks Bush, how can Joe hang on?