Classic Joe

A little flashback to look at the Joe Lieberman we all know and--well, want out of office, at very least...

From December 2003 after the capture of Saddam Hussein...

Lieberman, D-Connecticut, tried to dub the physician and former Vermont governor "Dr. No."

"In this campaign, I've put forward a strong, positive vision for America, and that stands in sharp contrast to what Howard Dean offers America today," Lieberman said in a speech at an electronics company in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

"He seems to believe if you are just against everything, that's enough -- against removing Saddam Hussein, against tax cuts, against knocking down walls of protection around the world so we can sell more products that are made in America by Americans."

Lieberman warned Democrats not to let "our well-justified anger toward George W. Bush for protecting the special interests and yielding to ideological extremists" lead them "to fall back on the failed policies and positions of the past -- weakness on defense, silence on values, raising walls of protectionism around our country, and raising taxes on the middle class."
...
And Lieberman said that if Dean doesn't think Americans are safer with Hussein in custody, "he has climbed into his own spider hole of denial."

Lieberman said the former Vermont governor "has made a series of dubious judgments and irresponsible statements in this campaign." Those statements, he said, "signal he would in fact take us back to the days when we Democrats were not trusted to defend America's security."

Whether or not Lieberman has really "voted with the Democrats 90% of the time", he sure knows how to *talk* like a Republican, doesn't he?

From Cliff Schecter at Huffington Post:

In August of 2000, accompanied by three-card Bennett, Holy Joe attended a confab to an audience consisting of members of (who else?) The Heritage Foundation and Progressive Foundation (we'll discuss them in second) glitterati. You can really feel the love for Democratic party here:

...Lieberman criticized his own party as much as Republicans...

He got his biggest applause -- and laughter -- when he called himself a Democrat "who is not ashamed to embrace a purportedly Republican idea like cutting the capital gains tax to spur economic growth -- and I'm not hesitant to say we shouldn't spend the peace dividend on new social programs."...

After the cheers, Lieberman paused. "That doesn't happen when I use that line on a Democratic audience," he said. (Hartford Courant, August 9, 2000)

I've heard Joe Lieberman apologists spout some nonsense that Joe is failing some Democratic litmus test simply for not "hating Bush" enough. Nonsense. But it is rather telling that he seems to reserve his harshest words for members of his own party, as we saw with his attack on Howard Dean above, and also in his call for censure of Bill Clinton in 1998. It would be a different matter entirely if he were *also* willing to sign on to the censure of George Bush that Russ Feingold called for. But noooo...

But Sen. Joe Lieberman, D- Conn., voiced some misgivings and hinted that he'd vote no on the Feingold resolution.

"Frankly I'd prefer to spend our time on figuring out ways to bring this very important program of surveillance of potential terrorists here in the United States under the law... I disagree with the Bush administration's legal judgment on this one... But this is a critically important program to the prevention of terrorist acts here in the United States."

Again with the appeal to fear. Karl Rove must be proud.

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