MyDD :: CT-Sen: Weicker Will Not Challenge Lieberman... Right?

Color me disappointed. Liberal Republican turned independent Lowell Weicker will not be stepping up to challenge Sen. Joe Lieberman in next year's midterms, even though he thinks someone should take him on. Lieberman actually won his Senate seat from Weicker after challenging him unsurprisingly from the right. After losing the Senate seat, Weicker became an independent and was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1990. In 2004, he was an early and vocal supporter of Howard Dean's run for the Presidential nomination.

There had been some speculation that Weicker would return to electoral politics to oust Lieberman, and more than a few progressive Democrats expressed their hope that he would. After all, Weicker has been quite critical of the Bush administration, especially on the Iraq War.

"I have seen this country propagandized into war," said Weicker, a Republican-turned-independent. "It's now a second wave of propagandizing, with the president taking the stump, joined by persons like Senator Joe Lieberman."

Now, the interesting thing about Weicker saying that he won't challenge Lieberman is that he might not have to in order to get back into the Senate. Talk has ramped up once again that Lieberman may be tapped to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. Rumsfeld's Pentagon has found itself at the center of a number of controversies lately, and getting rid of him -- and replacing him with an ideological ally like Lieberman -- would make sense for the Bush administration.

But would Weicker get into the race if Lieberman wasn't running?

While Weicker, 74, said he will not challenge Lieberman, he did not entirely rule out returning someday to the Senate seat he held for 18 years.

"You're not going to tell somebody in politics for 32 years you have no interest at all," he said.

If Lieberman is tapped to join the administration, Governor Jodi Rell would appoint his replacement, probably a Republican Congressman like Chris Shays. While Weicker has said he's not interested in challenging Lieberman, it seems likely to me that he would take his chances in an essentially open race. If that's the case, unless they can come up with a stellar candidate, I'd suggest the Democrats get behind Weicker.

UPDATE: As a number of people pointed out in the comments, a very different story is running in this morning's Hartford Courant.

Weicker told reporters Monday after a speaking engagement before the Hartford Rotary Club that he reluctantly would consider taking on that role, but only if no other credible anti-war candidate stepped forward. . . . If he ran, Weicker said, his campaign against Lieberman would revolve around a single issue: Lieberman's support for invading Iraq and remaining there, a decision that has cost the U.S. 2,100 war dead and damaged the nation's credibility around the world.

This is of course quite at odds with the AP reporting:

Despite some speculation to the contrary, Weicker said he would not run against Lieberman, a Democrat who ousted him from the Senate in 1988.

And the closest thing to a confirmation of a run comes from the man himself. I'm sure you've noticed that none of the other stories actually quote Weicker directly, but instead report the gist of his comments. But The Connecticut Post does quote Weicker and it certainly sounds to me as if he's running.

"To me the issue is the war," Weicker told reporters after the speech. "I feel so deeply about how wrong this war is that I'd be willing to put my head on the line. I don't think I'd have much of a chance, probably."

Confused yet? I know I am.