SENATOR JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: EVERYTHING
THAT'S WRONG WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

From the Hartford Courant courtesy of the Daily Kos:

I had remembered that, out of the eye of voters back home, Lieberman developed working alliances with the most hypocritical and dangerous right-wingnuts like Ralph Reed and Charles Murray and Bill Bennett. But I had forgotten just how extensive a record he had accumulated.

I had forgotten how he played the leading role in 1993 to thwart Democrats who tried to close loopholes allowing companies to cook the books on millions of dollars of stock options. Thus began the regulatory abandonment that spawned Enron and its sibling rip-offs.

I had forgotten how that same year, Lieberman joined with Republican Sen. Alphonse M. D'Amato of New York and against Democrats to "work the cloakrooms" of the Senate, in the words of a news account, to "line up unanimous support so that a tax break eagerly sought by the real estate industry could be passed without senators having to vote on the record."

How many Connecticut Democrats remember that their senator was one of only two Democrats who voted with Republicans in 1995 to kill a lobbyist-gift ban? Or that he called affirmative action "un-American?" Or that in August 1994 he voted in favor of a proposal by Republican Jesse Helms to cut off all federal money from schools that offer counseling to suicidal gay teens by referring them to gay support groups or in any way suggesting it's OK to be gay?

Click here for the rest.

Lieberman first came to my attention when Gore chose him to be his running mate back in 2000. I was disgusted by the choice: Lieberman, best described as Puritanical on sex issues, was picked to provide a stark contrast to President Clinton's Monica-Lewinskizing, thus, in theory, distancing Gore from his soon-to-be former boss. I never understood why so many politicians and pundits attacked Clinton for his affair, obviously a deeply personal matter, and to this day I still don't get it. The President's sex life is like everybody else's, none of your damned business. At any rate, Lieberman was particularly scolding and self-righteous about it all, which is what got him the nod. From that point on, the son of a bitch was on my radar screen as Democrat-scumbag, one of many to be sure, but probably the most famous once corporate favorite Clinton left office.

Turned out that sex wasn't the only thing Lieberman was conservative on. Like the President he excoriated, the Democratic Senator from Connecticut is a great friend to big business, usually at the expense of everyday working Americans like you and me. Indeed, the corporate campaign funding-well from which most Republicans drink is a happy haunt for Lieberman, too--that is, the guy's tainted by evil money, and clearly does his best to let his contributors know who he's working for. But that's not all. Lieberman, often described by Fox pundit and all around Nazi shit-head Sean Hannity as his favorite Democrat, continues to support the bloody and unwinnable war in Iraq, which makes no sense at all these days. Is he going down this crazy path on the war to shore up his credentials on defense in order to position himself for a Presidential run? Maybe, but he doesn't have near the chance that Hillary Clinton does, who's obviously doing the same thing for the same reason, and is losing national support in the bargain.

In short, Lieberman is a conservative in the Democratic Party, part of an ideological force that, by pulling the party well to the right, has essentially paralyzed its political effectiveness through meaningless infighting with the party's liberal wing. Old Joe should just quit the party, I think, because he has no business being there. Fortunately, Lieberman may not get the chance to quit: he's currently facing a very serious primary challenge from a liberal named Ned Lamont who's got a lot of internet cash and grass roots support in the state. Man, I'd just love it if Joe gets shot down by his own party.

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