Connecticut’s two independents, Sen. Joe Lieberman and former Gov. Lowell Weicker, managed to avoid each other today at a fiscal forum co-sponsored by “No Labels,” an efort to break partisan gridlock.
Lieberman made introductory remarks at the forum also sponsored by the Comeback America Initiative, then left. Weicker is scheduled to participate this afternoon in a panel discusison on the state’s fiscal situation.
The two indpendents are inextricably linked, seldom happily, in Connecticut political history. Democrat Lieberman unseated Republican Weicker in 1988, leading to Weicker’s comeback in 1990 as an independently elected governor.
Lieberman lost a Democratic primary in 2006, but won re-election as an independent.
Their common status as independents have not thawed a chilly relationship. Weicker was an enthusiastic backer of Ned Lamont’s challenge of Lieberman over the war in Iraq. Lamont took his place in the audience before Weicker’s remarks.
Linda McMahon, a likely contender for Lieberman’s seat next year, originally was scheduled to participate in a panel discusison on federal fiscal issues, but she withdrew.