At Last, IOP Lands Lieberman To Play Hardball

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Joseph I. Lieberman has announced that he will appear on MSNBC’s “Hardball” with Chris Matthews at Harvard next Monday, after months of scheduling negotiations and just a day after Lieberman’s 2000 running mate—former Vice President Al Gore ’69—endorsed opponent Howard Dean.

Lieberman, D-Conn., will reveal tomorrow whether or not he will appear prior to the show in the Kirkland House JCR for an informal gathering with students as most other Democratic candidates have done, according to Joseph M. Hanzich ’06, spokesperson for the Harvard College Democrats, which has organized the Kirkland events.

Spokespersons for both the Lieberman campaign and MSNBC said that any uncertainty as to his appearance was due to difficulties in scheduling, with both sides saying that they had always hoped for the senator to appear on the show.

“We wanted to make it all along and it’s really been an issue of finding a date to schedule it on,” said Adam R. Kovacevich ’99, Lieberman’s deputy press secretary. “We’re really thrilled we’ve finally been able to nail down a date.”

And Paulette Song, spokesperson for MSNBC, emphasized that another “Hardball: Battle for the Whitehouse” episode had been planned all along.

But in last week’s installment, which featured retired General Wesley K. Clark, Matthews seemed much more uncertain that Lieberman’s campaign would resolve its scheduling issues with the network.

“It’s our last night here, unless Lieberman gets his act together,” Matthews said.

Lieberman’s decision to appear on the show came the day after Gore, on whose ticket he ran as the vice presidential candidate in the Democrats’ failed bid for the White House in 2000, instead endorsed Dean.

The Connecticut senator had also sought Gore’s backing and complained that he not had been informed as soon as Gore’s decision had been made.

“That would have been the right thing to do,” said Lieberman, adding that Gore’s phone call to him on Tuesday was “too late.”

President of the Harvard College Democrats Andy J. Frank ’05 said that he believes Lieberman is “trying to be seen as the underdog against the establishment.”

“Although this is only speculation,” he added, “He is trying to capitalize on some ironic momentum from former Vice President Gore’s endorsement of Howard Dean.”

Director of the JFK Jr. Forum Bill White said that Lieberman was likely also attracted to Hardball because the show gave him more time to articulate his platform than would debates with other candidates.

“All these candidates have participated in these debates with nine candidates where they get only about three minutes to articulate their views; this venue gives them about 45 minutes on a national television cable program to give a more in-depth description of their ideas,” White said. “The programs have been getting good ratings and creating quite a bit of buzz in the political world”

Lieberman will be the eighth candidate for the Democratic nomination to appear on Hardball; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio—the ninth candidate seeking his party’s nod—has declined to appear on the program.

Interested students can enter a lottery for tickets at www.iop.harvard.edu. The lottery is now open and closes tomorrow at 5 p.m., with ticket pick-up on Friday.