When did it suddenly become acceptable, even de rigeur, to attempt to evaluate at a distance (but in a public forum) someone's religious worthiness? Isn't this one of the things the Wacko Right does that drives reasonable Americans crazy? Would Salon run an article "Is Ned Lamont a good [whatever he is]?"

OK, so Leiberman set up the spike by wearing his faith on his sleeve and attempting to curry points with his ostentatious faith-fulness. Shouldn't Salon have better sense (and taste) than to hit that spike?

My God, this country is sunk if we can't raise the level of discourse in its politics. I'm as mad as anyone but it isn't time to become the enemy. It's time to become better than him.

I personally think LIEberman owes all Democrats an apology for the way he shamed Clinton. It would have been more appropriate for him to have been shaming the Repukes for their six-year Whitewater Witch Hunt.

LIEberman was a traitor to the Democratic party and all the progressive principles for which that party once stood.

The actions of Connecticut's Democrats makes me proud again of my former party.

I meant to say, "Not Only a Bad Jew." My apologies to Jews everywhere for leaving out the word, "Only." I did not mean to imply LIEberman was a good Jew by any stretch of the imagination.

Hirsch got paid for this article. It comes at a time when Lieberman is likely to be particularly sensitive to criticism. Lieberman has made clear that he does not change course easily, and does not regret his past choices.

So isn't Hirsch's piece a self-interested, humiliating rebuke unlikely to change Lieberman's behavior? So doesn't that mean Hirsch is in trouble?

Since I am not observant in the religious sense, I suppose I can rebuke both Hirsch and Lieberman with impunity. Call it a perk of being an infidel!

He's what we call, a collaborator.

I am a secular person in what used to be a country ruled by secular democracy. I left monotheistic religion years ago because I was sick of all the ritual and all the holier than thou rhetoric. For several years I relished having been freed from all of this. Now its emerged everywhere in both foreign policy and domestic policy. Religion has become a major issue to evaluate politicians by. And the more religion becomes a part of politics the more corruption and incompetence take hold. Just look at the current administration with its born again president. I don't care what kind of Jew Joe Lieberman is. I don't want to hear about his religion, only about his politics and his performance in congress. Please focus back on the issues as hundreds of innocents die each day in wars around the world and climate change threatens us all. Religion does nothing. It is a dead end. So quit spending brain cells on it.

...the Lieberman is a bad Jew in a public forum where many aren't Jews in a way that violates most of the "laws" Hirsch only recently decided were worth following?

Maybe this is why I, too, gave up on any organized religion back when I became a teen. It's all such hypocritical bullshit. Rules for tying your shoes, but OK to bomb the shit out of innocent children. Rules against reproductive freedom, but OK to promote pedophilic priests who molest children. OK to call Jesus your savior while you hate everyone and anyone who doesn't toe your line of morality.

Please.

Now that you're observant, too, Mr. Hirsch, maybe you should invest more time observing yourself in the mirror.

The tefillin? Good place to hide your stash.

No he's just bad ju ju.

I wish Lieberman and his buddies would stop starting all the wars in the world.

It's pathetic enough the Republicans can't get over Clinton, but now Dems are re-hashing an 8-year old grudge? And quoting scripture while doing it? Pathetic. I won't miss Lieberman's sanctimonius Elmer Fudd impersonation one bit, but I certainly don't want it replaced with religious dogma-driven moralistic drivel like Hirsch's column. Please leave Sharia law where it belongs--Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Colorado Springs.

Karma always pays back and Joe Lieberman simply got his, Jew or not.

One can only imagine the Wheel of Life spinning around for W and the rest of those 'effing neocon bastards.

We've lost the war, when Salon is printing an article on the fact that Lieberman is a bad Jew. I don't care if Lieberman is a "bad Jew." All I care about is Lieberman's politics regarding the issues at hand. Focusing on "Bill's Penis" reminds me of the "Rush Limbaugh Show," where where the focus is constantly on Bill's dick (still, after all these years). Limbaugh's been bitching about the Clinton years for a long time. In the meantime, Bush has been wrecking things for years. Of all the things to complain about Bush's Buddy, why would you bring up Clinton's Blowjob?

Stephen Hirsch misuses the word adultery. Under Halakha, adultery applies only to married women. The Jewish Encyclopedia defines adultery here: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=865&letter=A

Sexual intercourse of a married woman with any man other than her husband.

Thus, under Jewish law, Clinton did not commit adultery with the White House intern.

Moreover, most legal and non-legal definitions of adultery specify sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse. By this definition, Clinton did not commit adultery with the White House intern.

Shame on Stephen Hirsch for writing a piece with such a flawed premise and flawed use of a Hakakhic and legal term. Shame on Salon's editors for failing to flag this blunder.

Hirsch also writes "for the observant Jew who just lost the U.S. Senate primary in Connecticut, it's hard to see how it will ever be a joyous day again." But a person with the faith that Lieberman has knows that "to everything there is a season" and that there will be many joyous days ahead.

Now it's an issue whether Joe Lieberman has been properly observant as a Jew? Eight years ago? Not to mention the hypocrisy implicit in the writer's words published here. For the love of god, can't we start to wean politics off its religion habit and get back to business? Render unto Caesar or whatever? This is embarrassing in the extreme. The more firmly people root themselves be the tendrils of their various religions the nearer the planet comes to turning into a perfect - yet somehow shoddy and pathetic - hell.