One State's Independent Streak

Weicker says it would never have occurred to him to run as a Republican first, then as an independent if he lost.

"I had been thinking about leaving the Republican Party for some time."

But Lieberman, Weicker says, "set himself up to take two bites of the apple. First to run as a Democrat and then, if that didn't work, to run as an independent."

Independents are rare in the Senate. There's only one, Vermont's Jim Jeffords, who was actually elected as a Republican.

In Connecticut, Weicker had become sufficiently liberal that in 1988, conservative Republicans like William F. Buckley Jr. supported Lieberman. Weicker, who was a member of the Senate's Watergate committee, had alienated many Republicans years earlier by criticizing Nixon.

Lieberman likewise alienated many Democrats with some of his policy positions when he ran as Al Gore's vice presidential candidate.

In 1982, a fellow Republican tried to unseat Weicker -- just as Lamont unseated Lieberman. Oddly enough, that Republican was Prescott Bush Jr., brother of the sitting vice president and uncle to the present president. Weicker, independent-minded even as a Republican, beat him handily.

Here's where the parallels end.

Lamont is against the war in Iraq; Lieberman has supported it. Weicker -- who is also against the war -- thought about running against Lieberman on that one issue, but Lamont entered the race and Weicker supported him.

Thomas D'Amore Jr. was one of those Republicans who encouraged Weicker to run as an independent.

D'Amore was once chairman of the state Republican Party and left it when Weicker ran for governor. He served as Weicker's chief of staff -- for the governor's one term -- and recently as senior adviser to Lamont. D'Amore says that he is a great supporter of independent candidates but that Lieberman's candidacy is not an independent one.

"It's all about Joe Lieberman," he says. Weicker is far less polite when talking about the man who defeated him a forever ago.

Weicker does not believe that Lieberman has the coalition necessary to win.

In the beginning of the race, Weicker says, Lieberman held a 50-point lead and there were many people -- Democrats, Republicans and independents -- who said they were supporting him. That lead evaporated, and, Weicker believes, so did much of Lieberman's multipartisan support. "When Lieberman says 'I closed fast,' that's [expletive]," Weicker says. "No doubt he's hanging onto the Republican right. I suspect his independent support has eroded."

Overland believes that people like Weicker, "who have been out of politics for a decade," have no business attacking Lieberman. Weicker, Overland says, "is not really criticizing the senator on the issues, he's taking cheap shots."

But Weicker, like Lieberman, is passionate about his politics.

There is a strong independent constituency in Connecticut, Weicker says, but "I suspect the public is going to see right through" Lieberman's party switch.

It's not the purpose of the U.S. Senate to provide Lieberman with steady employment, he says.

"He wants a job."