Russert called Lieberman a “Democrat ... who agree[s] with the president”

Written by Brian Levy

Published


On the January 14 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host and NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert referred to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (CT) as a “Democrat ... who agree[s] with the president,” despite Lieberman's reported statement just two days earlier that he would prefer to be called an “Independent Democrat,” or, failing that, an “Independent.” Russert also called Lieberman a “fellow Democrat” of Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT).

In a January 12 Congressional Quarterly article posted on The New York Times' website, Congressional Quarterly noted that Lieberman's “office made clear that, if the compound modifier [Independent Democrat] that the senator prefers was not going to take hold, then Lieberman's second choice is to be described as an Independent” as opposed to be being described as a “Democrat.”

From the January 14 edition of NBC's Meet the Press:

RUSSERT: What now? With us: the president's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley. Congressional reaction is swift and divided -- a Democrat for and against.

LIEBERMAN [video clip]: It's a plan to win in Iraq, and I believe we still can.

DODD [video clip]: This is a tactic in search of a strategy, in my view, and it'll not bring us a more stable Iraq.

[...]

RUSSERT: Next up, a Democrat and a Republican senator who agree with the president, a Democrat and a Republican who disagree with the president, after this station break.

[...]

DODD: We need to move to a different strategy. The emphasis needs to be on robust, muscular diplomacy, deal with regional leaders, insist upon the kind of political leadership inside the country, and then ask our military people to do the border kind of security, the training that can be done, the counterterrorism activities, but get them out of these major urban areas and insist that the 300,000 Iraqis, those -- those 10 divisions, those 36 brigades and 118 battalions, which we've trained, to assume that responsibility in their own country.

RUSSERT: Senator Lieberman, you're a fellow Democrat, fellow Nutmeg [State] resident with Senator Dodd. You disagree with him and you agree with the president.