LIEBERMAN - asked not to show

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Uh, Joe? Please Don't Show

By DAVID LIGHTMAN
The Hartford Courant
April 25, 2001

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, riding high as he explores a first-out-of-the-blocks bid for president in 2004, suffered a major embarrassment Tuesday when fellow members of Congress asked him to stay away from a significant press conference on a top issue of the day - energy prices.

Lieberman, a co-sponsor of a major bill that would bring federal oversight to roiled electricity markets, and a 30-year veteran of energy and environmental matters, was shunned after Sen. Gordon H. Smith, R-Oregon and a co-sponsor of the bill, said he would stay away if Lieberman showed up.

"I believe he's running for president," said the usually affable Smith. "If we inject presidential politics into this, we could defeat the passage of needed legislation."

Smith described Lieberman as a "friend and a colleague," but thought he had just gone too far. "I'd really like to put off getting presidential politics involved in this," Smith said. Lieberman, who said the incident "disappointed" him, continued to insist Tuesday that he is not running for president. "I'm not a candidate," he said.

But in Washington, where perception is akin to reality, Lieberman is widely viewed as a candidate. A money-raising trip to California last week cemented that view for many.

With his recent activities - setting up a mechanism to collect money for national political travel, for example - Lieberman has been headed for a showdown between his political activities and his role in the Senate.

Smith's staff began discussing Lieberman at a staff meeting Monday. On Congress' first full day back Tuesday from a lengthy spring recess, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., planned a news conference to urge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to take swift action to ease the power shortages and price problems that have plagued the West Coast.

Scheduled to attend were senators from West Coast states, as well as Lieberman. Smith thought that made Lieberman's appearance look political, since Connecticut has not suffered the West's crises.

Smith contacted Feinstein's office and said it was urgent. "He said I have a deep concern [about Lieberman]," said Feinstein communications director Howard Gantman, "and our staff relayed that concern to Sen. Lieberman."

Lieberman was told by his Democratic colleague's office that the bill in question was Smith's as well as Feinstein's. Worse, said others, if Smith did not appear Tuesday, Feinstein would lose any claim to bipartisan cooperation, something she could hardly afford.

Like so many Western politicians, Feinstein and Smith are trying to survive a politically difficult situation, one where many voters appear inclined to blame incumbents for the mess, regardless of party.

Smith is up for re-election next year in a heavily Democratic, even liberal state. He won in 1996 with 49 percent of the vote, and he can hardly afford to alienate his Republican base by appearing to be too cozy with a partisan Democrat like Lieberman.

What bothered Smith was not only Lieberman's ambition, but his constant criticism of Bush; Lieberman last week held a heavily attended press conference at the California state Capitol in Sacramento, surrounded himself with fellow Democrats, took center stage and blasted away.

There was some mild Republican-bashing at the Washington press conference Tuesday, but it was gentle; Democrats called on the FERC, which has a Bush-appointed chairman, to put some temporary caps on rates.

"We are bringing this legislation because FERC has not fulfilled its responsibility," said Feinstein.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she has twice written to FERC's chairman to ask for the price caps. "So far," she said with disdain, "these requests have been rejected in favor of pledges to produce more energy."

Smith countered that the energy crisis has "been a decade in the making. For years, we've had an energy policy hostile to energy making."Lieberman was also under fire Tuesday from another group that's been on his side. The Violence Policy Center, which promotes gun control, was outside the Capitol passing out literature comparing what it called a tough anti-gun measure that has Lieberman's support with a weaker one also backed by Lieberman.

Its members were upset that he was joining Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in backing 24-hour background checks for gun show purchases. Lieberman has supported a three business day wait, which the gun control groups want, and Tuesday still was behind that idea.Center officials were astounded. The McCain plan, they said, weakens current law.

"We just don't understand what Joe Lieberman's doing," said Joe Sudbay, public policy director for the center.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001


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