Nasty Little Man

Lieberman and Cheney: Cut from the same cloth

Only Republicans like Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman could claim that Ned Lamont's primary victory in Connecticut last week would embolden terrorists:

"My God, here we have a terrorist threat against hearth and home and the very first thing that comes out of their mind is how can we turn this to partisan advantage. I find that offensive," Lamont said in an interview Sunday with The Associated Press.

After British officials disclosed they had thwarted a terrorist airline bombing plot on Thursday, Lieberman warned that Lamont's call for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq would be "taken as a tremendous victory" by terrorists.

Cheney suggested Wednesday that Lamont's victory might encourage "the al-Qaida types" who want to "break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task."

Like so many that have come before him, Lieberman has to have power taken from him instead of graciously giving it up. If he cared about the country, he would give up his independent bid.

The Republicans and the neo-conservatives are doing their best to paint Lamont's victory as a takeover of the Democratic party by the "far-left" since the campaign centered largely around Lieberman's support of the occupation of Iraq and Lamont's opposition to it. They are flailing, looking down the barrel of their own loss in November and perhaps long-term exile into the wilderness. 60% of the general population and 82% of Dems oppose what we're now doing in Iraq. That is not the far-left.

Neo-con (emphasis on the "con") Charles Krauthammer of the WaPo claims that this will lead to the Democrats' demise much like the party's anti-Vietnam War shift did.

Like Iraq, Vietnam was but one theater in a larger global struggle -- the struggle against the Soviet Union and its communist clients around the world -- and by the early 1970s, the newly reshaped McGovernite party had to face the larger post-Vietnam challenges of the Cold War. The result? Political disaster.

There is one major problem with Krauthammer's premise. There were communists in Vietnam. Before we invaded, there were no global jihadists in Iraq. The Iraq debacle has taken us away from the job at hand, which is chasing the extremists like al-Qaeda.

John Kerry made those arguments in 2004, and I believe the people of this country are finally recognizing this truth.

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 6:38 PM