Vanishing Democratic Moderates

[Geee]

National Review:

Vanishing Democratic Moderates
Jane Harman and Joe Lieberman are part of a disappearing breed.

Political pundits of a certain stripe have been lamenting the disappearance of Republican moderates for years. It’s time now to lament the disappearance of moderate Democrats.

Last month, Sen. Joseph Lieberman announced he wouldn’t seek reelection. He lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut in 2006 because of his support of the Iraq war, but won in November as an independent.


The irony was that the 2000 Democratic nominee for vice president was reelected largely by Republicans who spurned their party’s little-known nominee. But Republicans seem likely to field a stronger candidate in 2012, leaving Lieberman little room in the middle.
Then last week, Rep. Jane Harman announced she would resign soon to become head of Washington’s Woodrow Wilson Center. Harman, who voted for the Iraq war resolution and supported robust foreign and defense policies, was conspicuously passed over by Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee when Democrats won control of the House in 2006.