Joe On The Front Lines

By KAREN TUMULTY

Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman has vowed that he won't run for President in 2004 if Al Gore is a candidate. But Gore's former running mate is acting a lot like a man looking for a promotion to the top of the ticket. This week alone he is set to make a round of fund-raising stops including Tacoma, Wash., and Tucson, Ariz.; will talk high tech in Silicon Valley and Latino issues in L.A.; and will spend two days in New Hampshire.

But what is really winning Lieberman cheers among dispirited party activists is his new assertiveness in Washington. While other Democrats have been exercising caution in speaking against the policies of a popular President, Lieberman has launched a frontal assault. Last week he called for delaying major portions of the Bush tax cut (prominent Democrats like Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt have criticized the tax cut but stopped short of taking action against it). The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which Lieberman chairs, issued the first congressional subpoenas to the Bush Administration, demanding records about its Enron dealings. Lieberman critics say the move was long overdue; it shook loose documents showing far more contacts than had been disclosed.

Lieberman's committee also called the Administration on its political ace card--its handling of terrorism--by passing legislation that would put the Office of Homeland Security under congressional oversight. And Lieberman's long-ignored proposal for a commission to investigate Sept. 11 became a rallying point for Democrats in the flood of revelations that the FBI had missed clues on terrorism. Within the party, all this seems to be playing well. In Arizona, an early 2004 primary state, Democratic spokeswoman Dianna Jennings says, "There's a sense among party activists that what he's doing on the 9/11 stuff is right on." --By Karen Tumulty