You know, I respect what Howard Dean has been able to do. It's good for our party. But I've got to tell you this: If money alone decided presidential nominations, Phil Gramm would have been nominated in '96.

In the 2000 presidential election Gore and Lieberman won the popular vote by a margin of more than 500000 votes but lost the deciding Electoral College to the Republican George W. S. But since his speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention in which he endorsed John McCain for president Lieberman no longer attended Democratic Caucus leadership strategy meetings or policy lunches.