A Republican Leak...

Joe Gandelman:

The Moderate Voice - Guess Where Joe Lieberman Got Some Of His Primary Funding?: In terms of imagery as an independent candidate, Joe Lieberman is now in big trouble due to this:

The White House funneled millions of dollars through major Republican Party contributors to Sen. Joseph Lieberman's primary campaign in a failed effort to ensure the support of the former Democrat for the Bush administration.

A senior GOP source said the money was part of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove's strategy to maintain a Republican majority in the Senate in November. The source said Mr. Rove, together with Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, directed leading pro-Bush contributors to donate millions of dollars to Mr. Lieberman's campaign for re-election in Connecticut in an attempt that he would be a "Republican-leaning" senator.

"Joe [Lieberman] took the money but said he would not play ball," the source said. "That doesn't mean that this was a wasted investment."

The last statement reeks of a CYA statement that a source gives a journalist to short-circuit and protect someone who is being mentioned in a quote that could spark an outcry against the person being mentioned (yours truly knows this because as a full-time journalist he was faced with lots of statement such as this on sensitive stories).

But Lieberman probably did indeed say that and believes it: just because he took the money doesn't mean he has been bought by people with an agenda at odds with what has been his party for many years.

A clever leak by the Republican political machine: lower Lieberman's chances of winning in November, but these revelations greatly raise the chances that Lieberman will convert to the Republican Party if he does win.