In a bid to add a dash of excitement and to outmaneuver his counterpart, Republican Dick Cheney, Lieberman dropped in unannounced at the third and final presidential debate at Washington University here. As spinmeisters go, he was far and away Tuesday's heaviest hitter.
Most reporters ignore campaign surrogates because they believe they know what they'll say.
Lieberman, however, attracted more than 100 journalists, and that was before the debate began. There were so many cameras and sound booms around Lieberman that most reporters couldn't hear a thing. Well, not exactly. Lieberman's official schedule had him flying to Wausau after appearances in Florida and Little Rock. But members of Lieberman's traveling press corps started getting suspicious early in the day, when rumors surfaced that he planned to go to St. Louis.