Lieberman

There's been a growing movement on the left to try to find a Democrat to replace Joe Lieberman (D - Conn.) Now, maybe he wants to present himself as a centrist, look at some of his recent positions with Bush against other Dems, but to me, this smells funny.

(There never was any Joementum.)

Two prominent Republican lobbyists, Craig Fuller and H.P. Goldfield, hosted a fund-raising dinner Thursday evening at Goldfield's Washington home for Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, seeking re-election in Connecticut this year.

Fuller was President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet secretary and later Vice President George H.W. Bush's chief of staff. Goldfield, a Reagan White House aide and later assistant secretary of Commerce, was a fund-raiser in the two Bush-Quayle campaigns.

While Lieberman is a major voice for lobbyist reform, three of his dinner's five hosts were registered lobbyists. Fuller represents the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Goldfield lobbies for Airbus and for energy companies (ConcocoPhillips, Dynegy International and Gulfsands Petroleum). Co-host C. Michael Gilliland, a partner in the Hogan & Hartson law firm, represents a variety of clients.

Also, there seem to be more and more Al Gore sightings recently. He's really raising his presence. He was in Manilla talking about the environment, then at a Saudi gig where the headline is that he was talking about US abuses. I don't know if this is prepresidential, but he has certainly been raising his profile.