Morris Says Lieberman Will Lose

Political Wire asked Dick Morris for his thoughts on the U.S. Senate race in Connecticut:

"I think Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) will lose the primary and will be so crippled by the defeat and Ned Lamont (D) so empowered, that he will lose the general election as an independent. Sen. Jacob Javits (R-NY), in 1980, could have avoided defeat by not fighting the Republican Primary against Sen. Al D'Amato (R-NY) and running as an independent. But D'Amato was so empowered by the primary win and Javits so disempowered that he won the general election with Javits running a poor third.

"Lieberman's correct course of action is to withdraw from the primary and run as an independent. It is the only way he can get re-elected."

Meanwhile, the Norwich Bulletin says that if Lieberman decides to to petition his way onto the November ballot as an independent "he will publicly announce his plans prior to the Aug. 8 primary."

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Of course he will. In order to run as an independent, Lieberman will need 7,500 verifiable signatures from registered voters. Before he can start collecting them, he needs to file with the Secretary of State. Once his filing is made, it's public record. The Democrats will know.

So if Joe Lieberman decides to collect signatures, he'd be well advised to announce it publicly BEFORE he files.

So here's a question for the State Democratic Party:

Nancy DiNardo (Chairwoman of the Connecticut Democrats), if you find out that Senator Lieberman is collecting signatures for an independent run, will you demand that he either stop immediately or resign from the party if he wishes to continue?

Because it's clear that you can be either a Democrat or an independent...you can't have it both ways!