As if he were not in enough hot water already with his party, Senator Joe Lieberman is now heading up “Citizens for McCain” to try to appeal to Independents and disaffected Democrats. The email which Lieberman sent out is a revealing look at the approach McCain is taking to snaring non-Republican voters. It is heavy on just the things that drive many in the conservative base crazy — praise for Hillary Clinton, emphasis on global warming, immigration and campaign finance reform, and reminders of his history of opposing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the war and his track record of Republican heresies. There is also plenty about patriotism and experience.

Certainly, McCain does not expect the majority of Democrats or even the majority of Hillary Clinton supporters to find this framework appealing, but it appears that he is banking that some mix of moderate to conservative non-Republicans who are concerned enough about Barack Obama’s experience and foreign policy judgment that they might flip to McCain.

Will it work? Several months ago I would have be doubtful, but Obama has helped McCain in this regard, even more than Hillary Clinton. It is fashionable and easy to blame Clinton, and she certainly helped sow seeds of doubt with efforts like her “3 a.m. ad.” But Wright/Pfleger/Trinity Church and Bittergate were all Obama’s doing. It is those non-Republicans who squirmed in their seats when they witnessed Obama’s facade as a post-partisan, non-ideological figure crumble and who get very nervous about his toughness and strength in foreign policy whom McCain is after. “Citizens for McCain” sounds better than “seat squirmers” but that’s who they are.