Someone asked Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) if he planned on switching parties or becoming an independent like Joe Lieberman.
Nelson rejected such a move, saying he still feels very comfortable within the Senate Democratic Caucus.
“I’ll put it this way: I don’t think you leave your party, your party leaves you. And my party hasn’t left me,” he said. “My party gives me a great deal of latitude to do what I think is right on the basis of policy and interests, rather than just what party philosophy seems to be. So I’m very comfortable where I am.”
And, as if it needed to be said, he added:
The GOP, Nelson said, “doesn’t seem to be” a party with a very large ideological tent.
“Certainly, if you look at the partisan votes recently,” he said, “it’s been pretty much lockstep, and I’m not one who’s comfortable being that way.
It’s a kind of interesting set of quotes. At face value, Nelson is saying that he doesn’t believe that he would be allowed to exercise any real independence if he were to caucus with the Republicans. And I think that is an observation that touches on a recurring criticism that progressives have with the Democratic leadership. They don’t demand the same kind of loyalty that the Republicans do.
I guess the discussion should be on two topics. How do the Republicans manage to exercise this discipline? And is it worth it? Or, conversely, why don’t the Democrats exercise this kind of discipline? And what do they get out of their leniency?