by Taylor Marsh
As we saw before the Senate went on recess, having Reid as the majority leader doesn't mean much when it's this slim of a majority. It also doesn't count when you have a Senate that doesn't have the spine to actually debate, but instead gets caught up in whether they should debate.
Well, Mr. Lieberman is threatening to make it official. As far as I'm concerned, I hope the door doesn't hit him on the way out of the Democratic Party. He's not doing us any good on Iraq and foreign policy, which includes the brewing Israeli - Palestinian - Lebanon crisis.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut told the Politico on Thursday that he has no immediate plans to switch parties but suggested that Democratic opposition to funding the war in Iraq might change his mind.
Lieberman, a self-styled independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has been among the strongest supporters of the war and President Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 combat troops into Iraq to help quell the violence there.
"I have no desire to change parties," Lieberman said in a telephone interview. "If that ever happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a direction that I don't feel comfortable with." ... ..
It's time to let Joe go. Don't feel beholden, babe. Take the leap. You're most of the way there anyway, especially on foreign policy. As for this question, I could care less. I just want Mr. Lieberman to quit invoking John F. Kennedy's name every time he talks about being more like him than the current Democratic Party, because Lieberman doesn't know what he's talking about.
John F. Kennedy was strong on national defense, but before his murder he was planning for a way to get out of Vietnam. He also never fired a shot at Khrushchev, but yet got the old man to blink during the blockade. There is no way JFK would have condoned pre-emptive war with Saddam Hussein. I won't get into what Joe Kennedy's advice would have been on the 2002 Iraq war resolution, because it would likely be the same as Bill Clinton's. He would have voted yes in the Senate, but never gone to war in Iraq himself. Lieberman and most others do not understand Kennedy's mind when it came to war. He hated it. That's because he'd been in one and almost died getting out alive.
Joe Lieberman is just another chickenhawk who no longer belongs in the Democratic Party. You other James Webb Democrats out there know what I'm talking about. So let me close by saying, good-bye, Joe. You've gone from the riches of the civil rights movement and the 2000 vice president's slot, to the shame of thinking Iraq was more important than Afghanistan. That Saddam Hussein was more important than Al Qaeda, and now we've got those thugs with a stronger base, terrorism at an all time high, a coming spring offensive in Afghanistan, and an Armed Forces that is falling apart due to negligence, constant stop-loss, not enough troops, while our National Guard is in shambles, with the families of all our forces falling apart and PTSD at historic highs. If that's your idea of "strong on national defense," progressive Democrats want no part of your plans.
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