Letters to the Editor
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His 'centrism' comes out of our hide
There are several points in this article where the reader is led to believe that it is irrational Lieberman-hatred that makes people fail to realize he is a centrist with a record similar to (get this) the 'octogenarian senator Byrd lionized by bloggers.'
I am not a blogger. I am not a political reporter. I am a citizen, for whom Senator Byrd's principled opposition to what I believe is the single greatest policy error--and tragedy--of my lifetime is worth a heck of a lot more than Lieberman's agreement with me over how the federal government funds sidewalks. Even on abortion--an important issue--I can't say that Lieberman's pro-choice position matters to me nearly as much as his pro-war stance. His vote against Alito got me nothing, while his support for the war has helped this commit this country to an open-ended military conflict that has killed thousands of people, bankrupted the treasury, and subverted the constitution.
And I won't forget, any time soon, that Lieberman has given as good as he's gotten, using accusations of America-hating and terrorist-loving to bash his critics right back--this despite the fact that this only feeds into the strength of the Republican party.
So I'm sorry that Joe Lieberman may feel he doesn't get enough credit for the good things he does. Neither was Nero praised for his fiddling in Rome.
PS: Watch the age-ism, as well! God forbid somebody belittles you as 'octogenarian' some day.
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The Senator from Tel Aviv
Forgive me for opening up the can of kryptonite again, but Lieberman's absurdly over-the-top allegiance to a foreign country is disturbing at best and treasonous at worst. Which foreign country? Israel.
Israel is not the 51st state. Israel is not any kind of "sister nation" -- Israel is a FOREIGN COUNTRY.
I hold that it is not too much to expect clear allegiance to THIS country -- the United States. Israel is a FOREIGN COUNTRY.
That PNAC > Neocon > Zionists have put a saddle on US foreign policy for their own ends will be something that history marvels at.
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Hating Clinton
Part of me gets that it's unhealthy to hate George Bush. But, for God's sake, Joe Lieberman is certainly not going to shame me into supporting him by comparing my rightful, honest anger and fear of the dangerous, incompetent and arrogant Bush administration to the cheap, erstaz morality of the Bill Clinton haters. Normally I hate pithy, bumper sticker politics. But, goddammit, when Clinton lied nobody DID die. And Lieberman should be, at the very least, poltically savvy enough to know it's the war, stupid. He hitched his pony to the wrong wagon. Man up, Holy Joe, and admit it.
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Spare Me
In the Democratic Party there are a lot of people who have the same kind of hatred -- which I find is self-defeating and almost certainly wrong -- towards Bush that a lot of Republicans had toward Clinton.
Yeah, that hatred towards Clinton sure didn't yield any dividends, like control of all three branches of government. Oh, wait.
I'm sure glad the Lieberman has helped the Democratic party form a clear and concise message that will help gain seats in Congress in the midterms. Oh, wait.
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He sells out other democrats
I wouldn't mind Lieberman so much if he wasn't constantly agreeing with Republican criticisms of Democrats and going on Fox news to share them. He'll support a Republican plan (say, social security privatization) and suddenly the GOP message becomes "the social security privatization effort is bipartisan -- except for some obstructionist Democrats!" and they trot out Joe Lieberman to "prove" it. He needs to stop giving the other side ammo just to get his face on TV.
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Incoherent
Didn’t Michelle Goldberg write an article not too long ago called “Jolting Joe” in which she reported that some observers see Lieberman as “a major source of incoherence in the Democratic Party.”
I also recollect that Goldberg reported that he had voted for the Bush tax cuts, whereas Shapiro’s article says he voted against them. I went to search the archives for Michelle’s article and got an error message. If anybody else that confirm that—either from the archives or another authoritative source, please share.
I have a “Dump Lieberman” sticker on my car, and it’s not solely about the war for me, and I resent reporters (as another did this morning on NPR) trying to turn the Connecticut Senate contest into an over-simplified one-note referendum on the war. Lieberman voted for bankruptcy “reform” and he told the Democrats to shut up and not criticize Bush for fear of damaging his credibility, after having jumped on the Clinton impeachment bandwagon in the 90s.
I used to think of Joe as Zell Miller of the North, but I noticed on the Dubai Ports Deal he bucked the Republicans as well as the Democrats to stand by his man Bush to support a state-owned company of a state that sent us two 9/11 hijackers, holds a population that is deeply anti-American, and that is boycotting Israel (imagine all the ports on the East Coast of the US being owned by a company that boycotts Israel).
And I deeply resent Lieberman’s Republican-style personal attacks on his critics, like when he indicts them for spewing “hatred,” instead of addressing the issues. There’s real reasons people are pissed at Joe (besides the war), and the reporter should be holding his feet to the fire about them.
Shapiro casually discards Lamont’s speech (“studded with Howard Dean-like rhetoric”), while breathlessly quoting Lieberman hack-talk at length (“It is something that speaks to this moment in our politics…”)
Shapiro’s losing credibility here. For a much better article on Lieberman, go into the archives and read Michelle Goldberg’s.
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The problem: Impeachment and the war
The problem with Joe is that he has shown that when the chips are down, he'll sell his party out every time -- from the impeachment of Clinton to the war. And he cloaks himself in the arrogance of self-righteousness.
I'm sorry. My country has been put through a constitutional crisis over a blow job, has been subjected to a coup d'etat, and now is being forced to endure a war without end based on lies and incompetence (not to speak of torture and the end of civil liberties as we know them) and there is Joe, backing all of it.
With that kind of friend, who needs enemies?