Last night we reported that the McCain campaign blasted a telephone call with Senator Lieberman's appeal for Democrats to vote for Senator McCain in Michigan's Republican primary yesterday. According to reader Ronald Knott, the text of the message was as follows (emphasis added):

Hi. This Senator Joe Lieberman. I’m calling for John McCain.

As you may remember I was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2000. But this year I’m supporting Republican John McCain for President because he is the person best qualified to lead our country forward. He’s a straight talker who will always do what’s right for our country regardless of partisan politics and he’s the only candidate prepared to be commander-in-chief from day one.

There isn’t a competitive Democratic primary in Michigan this year and all registered voters are able to participate in a Republican primary. So I’m calling today to urge you to vote in the Republican primary on January 15 for Senator John McCain. He’ll break through the partisanship and make our government in Washington work for all the people again.

In a message to us last night, the McCain campaign acknowledged that it used a recorded message from Senator Lieberman, but denied that the message was targeted to Democrats or that it expressly invited Democrats to vote in the Republican primary. But that was nevertheless the obvious implication of the message, and Senator Lieberman expressly appealed for Democrats to vote for Senator McCain in the Republican primary during the day yesterday. Senator Lieberman, for example, appealed to Democrats in Ypsilanti to vote for Senator McCain in the Republican primary:

[I]n Ypsilanti, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., joined McCain on the stump and urged independents to vote for his friend.

“This is a tough and close fight here in Michigan here today. But Republicans, and I want to say specifically independents and yes, Democrats…...I urge them to come out today and stand for a man who is a great American patriot."

Senator Lieberman made the same appeal to Democrats in Ann Arbor as well. We invited the McCain campaign to comment on the text of Senator Lieberman's recorded message as reported above. It has so far declined to do so.

When Markos Moulitsas urges Democrats to vote for Mitt Romney in the Republican primary, it is a story worthy of coverage by CNN and others. When the McCain campaign urges Democrats to vote for Senator McCain in the Republican primary, however, it is a story that barely registers. Will anyone who does this work for a living ask Senator McCain about the propriety of inviting Democrats to participate in the selection of the Republican nominee for president?

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