Weicker to run as anti-war candidate

When Republican turned Independent (I think) Lowell Weicker is thinking of running on a platform to the left of Joe Lieberman, it's time for the state Democratic party to come up with another challenger to the Bush ally.

"When you've become the president's best friend on the war in Iraq, you should not be in office, especially if you're in the opposing party," Mr. Weicker, 74, said in a phone interview from his home in Essex, Conn. "I'm going to do everything I can to see that Joe Lieberman does not get a free pass."

He said that Mr. Lieberman, a Democrat, currently had no challengers, either from within his party or from Republicans, in his campaign for a fourth term. Mr. Weicker said he believed that no Republican would challenge Mr. Lieberman on the war.

"If he's out there scot-free and nobody will do it, I'd have to give serious thought to doing it myself, and I don't want to do it," added Mr. Weicker, an independent, who said he had been opposed to the war from the beginning.

It's highly unlikely Weicker could beat Lieberman in the general election; the only opportunity to unseat Lieberman is in the primary when a large number of angry Democrats could have a chance to boot Joementum out. If nothing else, a bruising primary could serve as a check on Lieberman's cozy relationship with the Cheney administration.