No Room For Lieberman in the Democrat Party?
Many may view me as a rightwing extremist, and that is o.k. Its not true, but I don’t mind. What I am is anti-far left. I am very open minded to different views. While I am very pro-life, I am open minded in the discussion of the death penalty. I share many views with the libertarians such as how seat belt, and helmet laws are intrusive to individual liberty. While I can’t accept extreme views such legalization of all drugs across the board, I can entertain the idea of legalizing marijuana.
Apparantly the Democrats, that pride theirself on dissent, can not accept dissent within their own party.
Five years after running as the vice-presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket and a year after his own presidential bid, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut has become an increasingly unwelcome figure within his party, with some Democrats seeing him more as a wayward son than a favorite son.
In the last few days, the senator has riled Democratic activists and politicians here and in his home state with his vigorous defense of President Bush’s handling of the Iraq war at a time some Democrats are pressuring the administration to begin a withdrawal.
Mr. Lieberman particularly infuriated his colleagues when he pointed out at a conference here that President Bush would be commander in chief for three more years and said that “it’s time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that.”
“We undermine the president’s credibility at our nation’s peril,” Mr. Lieberman said.
Much of the open criticism has been from liberal groups and House members. But his comments have also rankled Democrats in the Senate. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, phoned Mr. Lieberman this week to express concerns with his views, Mr. Reid’s aide said.
“Senator Reid has a lot of respect for Senator Lieberman,” said Jim Manley, a Reid spokesman. “But he feels that Senator Lieberman’s position on Iraq is at odds with many Americans.”
An aide to another leading Democratic senator who insisted on anonymity said the feelings toward Mr. Lieberman could be summed up as, “The American people want to hold George Bush accountable for the failed policy in Iraq, and Senator Lieberman doesn’t.”
Mr. Lieberman, who remains immensely popular in his home state, is aware of the hornet’s nest he has stirred.
“Some Democrats said I was being a traitor,” he said in an interview on Friday, adding that he was not surprised by the reaction, “given the depth of feeling about the war.”
Although some Democrats are upset with Mr. Lieberman, Republicans are embracing him, with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld singling him out, and his support for the war, for praise in speeches this week.
“He is entirely correct,” Mr. Cheney said on Tuesday at Fort Drum, N.Y. “On this, both Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree. The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon our mission.”
I thought Bull Moose summed it up nicely.
And now, some in the party, incredibly including the Senate Minority Leader are making it inhospitable for their former Vice Presidential standard bearer, Joe Lieberman. Here’s some news for them – they are not only telling Joe that the Democratic Party does not have room for his views, they are also communicating to millions of Americans who might support this war or not, but find defeat unacceptable, that they are not welcome in this exclusive political club. There are some progressive hawks in this country, but it is unlikely that they will pull the Democratic lever with the message that it is being sent by the leaders of the party.
One has to wonder why, under the circumstances, Lieberman hasn’t left the party that so obviously has left him. His dogged loyalty probably explains that, and that makes his latest stand all the more remarkable. Lieberman is no babe in the political woods; he understands perfectly what his statements did to the Democrats. Instead of openly wondering what motivated Lieberman to take this kind of action, Reid and other Democrats in party leadership should ask themselves why they made it necessary for him to do so.
Captain also states that Republicans should respect Lieberman as an honorable, and formidable political opponent. I agree. In the off chance that I were presented the choice between Lieberman, and someone like McCain, you can count on me to break party lines.
But breaking party lines is something that is not acceptable to the “tolerant” left.
Washington Post
The liberal antiwar group MoveOn.org is weighing whether to back a challenger to Lieberman. MoveOn Washington director Tom Matzzie called Weicker “a very attractive candidate” but added that “the easiest way to take out Joe Lieberman would be in a Democratic primary.”Weicker was a Republican when Lieberman ousted him from the Senate in 1988. Weicker is facing some pressure to enter the race as a Democrat but says he is not much happier with that party on Iraq.
“The Democratic silence has been deafening on this for the past two years,” Weicker said in an interview. “I have no more respect for them.” But if Lieberman doesn’t begin to distance himself from Bush’s war policies, he said, “that’s it — we go to the mat.”
Lieberman said the backlash against him deepens a concern that he has harbored for much of his political career: the lack of civility in Washington. In war matters in particular, he said, “politics should stop at the water’s edge.”
The Political Teen has a video of Howard Dean now backpeddling, saying that the Democrats plan for Iraq is better than the Republicans. Not only, have we not heard any kind of plan but cut and run, and defeatism, but didn’t Dean just say that we could not win in Iraq? I suppose he thinks our memories are really that short.
The anti-war, pro-defeatism has taken over the democratic party so much, that they can no longer allow any voice of reason to be tolerated.
Look, we need a two party system in America, but the left are destroying that option as they destroy their own party. They are now greatly concerned with one of the only senators they have that has stuck with his own opinion and not caved in to the special interest groups, or polls. They are publicly rejecting one of their own because he actually has guts to stand up for what he believes in. If you believe in victory and patriotism in a time of war, the democrats don’t want you. If you believe in standing on your own instead of following the pack, the democrats have no room.
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Posted by Justin Higgins on December 10, 2005 5:10 pm
» Filed Under News, War On Terror
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3 Responses to “No Room For Lieberman in the Democrat Party?”
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Syndicate Me
Of course not. Mr. Lieberman is a man of principle. Democrats don’t like that it seems. As you have stated the party of tolerance is tolerant only when you agree with them.
Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller in 2008! I’d vote for them.
Senator Lieberman shows himself to be a true American, i.e., one who places God, Mother and Country above politics, party, and even his own future as a Democrat.
Unfortunately, all too many including, most notably, Senator Reid, consider such loyalty to principle to be, somehow, in their own twisted minds, un-American.
It’s a sad turn, indeed, that “pro-American” has become, in the minds of all too many in leadership roles in the left wing of the Democrat party, “anti-American”.
This all, evidently, for the sake of politics over country.