Still time to start mending fences

2/08/09

It was not a good way to start a campaign.

Former state Rep. Jim Amann made news not long ago by agreeing to take a newly created job with the state Assembly. As an adviser to the House speaker, the Milford resident was slated to earn a six-figure salary while he began his campaign for governor. In the midst of a budget disaster, the move didn't go over well.

Amann quickly reconsidered, reasoning (too late, it turned out) that voters wouldn't take kindly to this sort of thing during a recession. His "everyone does it" defense didn't win him any converts.

The Democratic primary next year will be among people most state residents have never heard of, and Amann can safely assume all this will blow over before anyone gets around to thinking about it. But he might want to start before then dealing with another nettlesome issue -- the left wing of his party can't stand him.

It dates back, as does so much else, to the 2006 Senate race. After Joe Lieberman lost the Democratic primary, most of the party's leadership decided such matters were best left up to the voters, and duly supported their chosen candidate. But a number of high-profile Democrats, like then-state Sen. and current Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, stuck with their man. Amann was part of the second group.

No one needs to relive that campaign, but it's worth remembering what is was and was not about. People weren't mad at Lieberman because all his views didn't match their own; it was not an ideological purge of centrists; it did not prove there is no room for Iraq war supporters in the Democratic Party (there shouldn't be, but that's beside the point).

Lieberman was targeted and eventually lost his party's support because he refused to acknowledge his opponents had a point of view worth considering. He said people who disagreed with him were helping "the enemy" or "the terrorists." He took demagoguery to Dick Cheney-ish levels. And he used dishonest arguments to push his support for the war, all the while defaming his opponents as being insufficiently concerned with Americans' safety.

That was why the Senate primary attracted nationwide attention. There were and continue to be centrist Democrats in both houses of Congress, many of them far to the right of, say, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican. They have not been targets of any "purges."

This was all more than two years ago, so it should have sunk in by now. At the time, Amann was among Lieberman's most vocal Democratic supporters, making appealing comments like, "Shame on all of us if we allow a shrieking minority to hijack the primary." That's how you win people over!

When some Ned Lamont supporters floated the possibility of taking on Lieberman backers in primaries of their own, Amann was just as accommodating, vowing to "crush" any challenger.

Unfortunately for him, Amann shows no signs that his comprehension has improved. "When I hear fellow Democrats trying to punish another Democrat just because he has differing views," he said in a recent interview, "I realize why we haven't won the governor's office in 20 years. We should remember that our strength is our diversity; our weakness is division."

Punishment for divergent views. Can he still think this is what it's about? If he does, who would want him as governor?

With Attorney General Richard Blumenthal out of the picture, the Democratic nomination is wide open. Amann has plenty of time to prepare his campaign, though with Rell's popularity it might all be pointless anyway.

And though the core of Lamont supporters isn't large enough to decide the primary by itself, its members can have a serious impact. They proved that in 2006.

But this time, if the primary doesn't turn out right, no one should expect relief from the Connecticut for Amann Party.

Hugh S. Bailey is assistant editorial page editor at the Connecticut Post. He can be reached at 203-330-6233 or at hbailey@ctpost.com.