Party Girl

For reasons we can guess, Hillary Clinton felt constrained to issue the following at this early juncture:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a longtime supporter of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, said Tuesday she will not back the Connecticut Democrat’s bid for re-election if he loses their party’s primary.

“I’ve known Joe Lieberman for more than thirty years. I have been pleased to support him in his campaign for re-election, and hope that he is our party’s nominee,” the former first lady said in a statement issued by aides.

“But I want to be clear that I will support the nominee chosen by Connecticut Democrats in their primary,” the New York Democrat added. “I believe in the Democratic Party, and I believe we must honor the decisions made by Democratic primary voters.”

There was no immediate comment from Lieberman.

Not even Harry Reid or Chuck Schumer have made such statements. But they’re not running for President (as far I know). Further on in her statement, Clinton writes: “The challenges before us in 2006 call for a strong, united party, in which we all support and work for the candidates who are selected in the Democratic process.” Don’t you love the capital D in the “Democratic process”? (I assume it was deliberate.) One of the reasons I can no longer engage in party politics is that I find the language so embarrassing.

UPDATE: This AP column on Lieberman’s petition drive to run as an independent has the usual banana-brained quotations from “selected” (by whom?) voters, but is interesting nonetheless.