Why Should Joe Speak at the Republican Convention?

Word is out that the RNC will probably extend Joseph Lieberman an opportunity to address its national convention later this year.

That the Republican National Committee must dig so far into its bag of tricks to create a little lighting speaks much more loudly about the cracking of its conservative foundation than it does about about anything else.

Why does the RNC believe it needs Lieberman to deliver an address to a party in which he does not belong and to a group with whom he holds so little in common? This is not a Zell Miller who, despite membership in the Democrat Party, could personally and passionately point to the changing progressive tide of his own party. In fact, much of Miller's comments could have been directly aimed at one Joe Lieberman, a politician so progressive as to have a more liberal lifetime voting record (as judged by the American Conservative Union) than Harry Reid.

Joe Lieberman has been an outspoken advocate in our war against fundamentalist Islamic terror. He is an outspoken advocate of our support of Israel. His support of the war and of Israel found him no favor within the monolithic Democrats that will harbor no love for a prodigal son. When defeated in the Connecticut primary for the Senate seat he has owned for many years, Lieberman switched his party affiliation to Independent and won the general election quite easily.

While I can respect Joe Lieberman for speaking his mind and being right on at least one topic in the past few years, I have difficulty becoming very excited about the would-be speaker at the convention.

What does Lieberman have to offer?

As an article in TheHill.com pointed out a few months ago when the rumor became mainstream:

Republicans close to the McCain campaign say Lieberman’s appearance at the convention, possibly before a national primetime audience, could help make the case that the presumptive GOP nominee has a record of crossing the aisle. That could appeal to much-needed independent voters.

I'm sure that it could.

When will John McCain and the RNC begin to try and appeal to the conservatives?

We conservatives are out here and we would like to vote for someone we believe that also believes in us. Displaying once again (and this time in prime time) that John McCain and the Republicans are more than willing to dismiss us in the upcoming election isn't a particularly good way to fire me up for the home stretch.