P.S. First Nightline, now this. What next, Maura?
It says a lot about Joe Lieberman's disrespect for the primary process. Many of us from DFV and RaisingKaine were involved in the Moran/Rosenberg primary, and as heated and negative as that primary got at times (on both sides) I can't imagine either candidate committing to leave the party and run as an independent if he lost. Can you imagine either of them calling the primary a "crusade or jihad"? And yet Lieberman says that with no mainstream media condemnation - in fact, David Brooks and other MSM pundits back him up in calling this a "lieberal inquisition". Ironically, Rosenberg was even closer to Moran than Lamont is polling on the incumbent Lieberman. Lieberman is by far still in the lead in both money and polling, and yet he's acting like he's a victim of something unfair called democracy.
The system is different in CT. There is a convention first, then a primary. So when Lieberman won the party's endorsement in the convention in May, he earned official party support from May till August. So all of the official party offices are phone banking for him, etc. And yet he still tries to pass himself off as the underdog victim. It's very strange.
Insane how a man can be a U.S. Senator for 18 years and still not understand the democratic process. Maybe next time you need to explain to him what a primary is and that it is actually Democrats making their will known about the candidates for their own party. You can even tell him about Virginia's success on June 13th and how the party rallies around the winner and doesn't make threats or throw a national fit.
Obviously, there is a lot to respect about Joe Lieberman's past (distant past that is) but his recent behavior these last several years is a sad end to what could have been a proud legacy. It's a shame that a man that was once less than 400 votes and a heartbeat away from being President is now so desperately subverting Democracy.
Say it ain't so Benedict Joe!
I am in awe!
I remember them well...especially kicking Black's butt on that stupid bill he brought up...
Oh well..
All the best,
Kathy
:)
I am sure that this post will not be very unpopular and will be criticized as being an echo of David Brooks. However, perhaps Brooks generated such howls of protest within DAILY KOS and other Left Wing BLogs (not including Raising Kaine here) precisely because he "hit a nerve" and was dangerously close to being true. Perhaps it especially hurt that Brooks compared the Leftist Bloggers to the most exclusionary elements of the Republican Party. Brooks specifically mentioned the anti-abortion crowd. However, one could just as easily mention the similarities to the Club for Growth, the Christian Coalition, and all of the Grover Norquist types.
Just look below for some examples. Yes, KOS sometimes talks about abolishing litmus tests and making room for Red State Democrats like Knowles, Carson, Chandler, Herseth, etc. However, he and other Leftist Bloggers just as often speak of their desire to purge the Democratic Party of DINOs, Republican-Lite Democrats, Vichy Democrats, and the hated DLC and TNR Democrats. Indeed, KOS has spoken of the need to emulate Karl Rove and concoct a left wing conspiracy to match the right wing conspiracy. He wants his beloved progressives to crash the gates like the Huns, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths and other Barbarians of old. Kos seems even more interested in destroying than he does in buidling. He wants to "euthanize" the DLC and bury The New Republic. Chris Bower wants to purge the Blue Dogs. The leftist Bloggers are frequently as obsessed with their hatred of the Clintons and Clintonites as are the right wing Republicans. If you are a Red State Democrat and are running for office, you are OK unless you get elected and suddenly "get in the way of" the Kossacks, Leftist Bloggers, Deaniacs and MoveOn.Org types. That also goes for any Liberal who steps out of line and does not faithfully follow what these denizens of the Left consider the politically correct doctrine of the moment.
I hate to agree with Brooks, but he is correct that the posts on Left Wing Blogs regarding Lieberman and whatever they consider the evil of the moment are often "laced with profanities." The only example that I have included here is the last, and I have excised the profanity. You can fill in the blanks.
Who would believe it? Even such a stalwart Liberal as Obama has been pilloried of late. Watch out, James Webb. You may think that the Leftist Blogs are your friends now, but if you are actually elected and step out of line, you will receive the same treatment that Ken Salazar and other Red State Democrats have received.
A few quotes:
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KOS: "The left is already working to build it's own version of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy -- the $300 million annual machine that developes the conservative message (think tanks), disseminates it to the public (Fox News, Rush), and trains their leaders in how to wield it."
KOS: "As for the DLC, it's time to euthenize the organization. ... As such, it deserves nothing but exclusion and ridicule."
KOS: "We need to make the DLC radioactive. And we will."
KOS: "House 'centrists' are about the whiniest sons of bitches you've ever seen."
Chris Bowers on MYDD: "The defections and anti-progressivism ... are actually the result of the Blue Dogs. Obviously, many of these Blue Dogs, and especially the Problem Children, come from pretty red districts. That, however, does not absolve them ..."
KOS: "This is what the once-proud New Republic has evolved into — just another cog of the Vast RIGHT Wing Conspiracy. If you still hold a subscription to that magazine, it really is time to call it quits. If you see it in a magazine rack, you might as well move it behind the National Review or even NewsMax, since that’s who they want to be associated with these days."
Bob Johnson at DAILY KOS: "We have the likes of Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton and her surrogate campaign manager/mouthpiece, Bill Clinton, running around backing Bush with 'stay-the-course' rhetoric. Nevermind Joe Biden. His assholishness speaks for itself."
KOS: "[Steny] Hoyer is minority whip. He's obviously unsuited for the job, as he seems uninterested in doing it. Ask him to resign."
KOS on a Mary Landrieu speech: "The ocassion was the New Democrat Network annual conference ... This was a vintage Democratic Leadership Council approach to intra-party disagreements -- turn the guns inward, attack internally. Without a doubt, the DLC is the most fundamentalist organization within the caucus, the most ideologically rigid, and the most destructive to the progressive cause."
KOS: "[Hillary Clinton] is part of a failed Democratic Party establishment -- led by her husband -- that enabled the George W. Bush presidency and the Republican majorities, and all the havoc they have wreaked at home and abroad."
Armando at DAILY KOS: "[Sen. Ken] Salazar is an empty suit. Well Kenny Boy, we know who you are now. You'd rather kiss La Raza's butt than stand with Democrats on the most important moral issue before us. ... Salazar, the pro-torture Democrat from Colorado." (Imagine. Armando was supposed to be the house moderate.)
KOS: "As if we needed another excuse to further mock Chris Dodd's 2008 aspirations."
KOS: "Biden is just giving people more reasons to laugh away his presidential ambitions."
Armando at DAILY KOS: "Throughout his career, Max Baucus has been kissing Republican rings and can not seem to break that habit, even with George Bush at the nadir of his Presidency. ... Max Baucus can't say no to Republicans and George Bush. ... [Baucus is] a gutless, unprincipled political coward with not an ounce of loyalty to your Party or respect for your Leader. What a useless tool you are."
KOS: "[Tim] Roemer is not a Reform Democrat, and, beyond that, is clearly outside the party's mainstream."
Chris Bowers of MYDD: Tim Roemer "is utterly unacceptable as DNC chair. Mark my words: if Roemer becomes chair without doing this, I will actively encourage all progressive activists to donate and volunteer to third-party groups instead of and at the expense of the DNC. The Fainthearted Faction has no place in the Democratic leadership. This must be made clear to all involved."
DAILY KOS Diary Article that appeared on front page and had over 800 responses: "Is Barack Obama the next Joe Lieberman? When one reviews Obama's comments, though, such as MyDD did back in March, one begins to see a consistent pattern of undermining the Democratic position on various issues, whether it be his ignorance on Feingold's censure motion or on discussing the use of filibusters. In the end, this is what harms our party the most - by publicly undercutting the party ... [Obama] does nothing to improve our standing - except his own, perhaps."
Typical response to this DAILY KOS Diary article: "[It's,] as your title suggests, that he is just one more public voice of dissent within the Democratic Party... INCLINING FURTHER TO THE RIGHT than to the left. ... We do not EXPLETIVE DELETED need a MORE CENTRIST Democratic Party. We do not need more chiding from within the party of those of us on the left to move further to the EXPLETIVE DELETED right -- we need more LEFTWARD leaning Democrats WITHIN the party chiding those RIGHTWARD leaning Democrats. And threatening them with EXPLETIVE DELETED expulsion."
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Thus, I must dissent. Unlike most of you, I liked Lieberman before the invasision of Iraq. I still like him on most issues not involving Iraq. I will back him, however, because it all does rather sadly remind me of the end of the Vietnam era when the Left was obsessed with jettisoning all of the traditions of the Wilsonianism, Cold War Liberalism,et. and any politicians associated with them, including stalwart Liberals such as Hubert H. Humphrey. Yes, Vietnam was a mistake, especially the dramatic escalation of troop leveles. What did we end up with after the purges of the late 1960s and early 1970s. We ended up with a party that was weak on defense and had largely abandoned the traditions of progressive or liberal democratic internationalism associated with Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman, and JFK. We also ended up with a party that was almost incapable of building successful national electoral,
Go ahead and criticize me. That is more than fair. I have done my critique here. However, before you do, read my comments on an earlier such article. It was there that I assessed both Lieberman and Lamont. The left can purge Democrats like me if it wants to do so. However, it will have difficulty taking and/or holding the Congress, winning the White House and keeping the Far Right from taking the Supreme Court permanently out of play. That is especially true since elements of the Leftist Blogosphere evidently are obsessed with wanting to purge much of the Democratic Party anyway, including the Clintonites, the New Democrats, the Blue Dogs, etc.
Here are some of the things that Howard Dean said about his opponents in race for the 2004 nomination, including about nominee Senator John F. Kerry, who eventually received Dean's endorsement.
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Howard Dean on John F. Kerry
"President Kerry. Please, spare us."
"He's going to turn out to be just like George Bush."
"John Kerry is part of the corrupt political culture in Washington."
"It appears that his word is no good."
"I'm just incensed by his hypocrisy."
"This is not the person we need to head the Democratic Party. I think Senator Kerry is clearly not the person to carry the banner of the Democratic Party because he has acted so much like a Republican."
"Senator Kerry apparently supports the kind of corrupt fund raising, politically corrupt fund-raising mechanisms that George Bush has also employed."
"We are not going to beat George Bush by nominating someone who is the handmaiden of special interests."
"A special-interest clone."
"A candidate of no principle."
"Just another inside-the-Beltway guy who's played the game for 15 years."
"First he sided with the president on the war .... now we find he is more like President Bush than we ever imagined. ... This is exactly what we don't need in Washington. I got into this race because I wanted to stand up and give the Democratic Party some backbone and character."
Howard Dean on Dick Gephardt
"We need new leadership in this country and we're not going to get it with Dick, with all due respect to Dick, who I voted for in 1988. We're not going to get it from somebody who spent 27 years in Congress making deals with the very people he now says he opposes."
Howard Dean on Wesley Clark
"I think that Wes Clark is, first of all, a good guy. ... [But]I think what you see in the Wes Clark candidacy is a somewhat of a desperation by inside-the-Beltway politicians."
"You've got a lot of establishment politicians now surrounding a general who was a Republican until 25 days ago."
Howard Dean on Joe Lieberman
We will skip this, inasmuch as the google searches would yield endless hits.
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If the Deaniacs and the Kossacks are going to demonize everybody who crosses them in the Democratic Party, then it truly is going to hard be to return the Democratic Party to the status of majority party. The Kossacks and other Leftist Bloggers had best beware, as should the Democratic politicians who, as Kos puts it, try to use the Leftist Blogosphere as an ATM machine. I agree with Kos that these politicians should not be so cynical. The press and the opposition research types are now paying attention. Most Americans would be horrified at the viciousness, filth and profanity that can be found in many DAILY KOS threads, especially those regarding Democrats that Kossacks regard as archvillans such as Lieberman, Cuellar, etc. Kos's "Screw the dead contractors" article will live on in infamy. It would serve Lamont right if Lieberman asked Lamont to justify having Kos endorse him in a commercial, when Kos wrote such dispicable things. "The Kiss" then could compete with the "Screw Them" quote and other quotes from the Kossacks' and Deaniacs' past.
Yes, Ned Lamont, why did you crave the endorsement of
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga? This is the man who said about the dead American contractors in Fallujah: "That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them." Mr. Lamont, would you like to defend your benefactor's words? Haven't the Leftist Blogosphere and Act Blue given you over $250,000? How do you justify taking that money?
I think that James Webb would do well to realize that the Left and the Liberals who are his friends today, could be seeking to "cut his throat" at some point if he is ever elected. Webb may be saying "BOHICA" before he knows it, as we used to say in the Army when there was incoming, which can include supposedly friendly as well as hostile fire. I imagine they used this phrase in the Marines as well. Imagine, with opposition research, the Allen campaign could be trying to tie Mr. Webb to Markos Moulitsas Zúniga and his most incendiary statements before Webb thinks possible.