A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library. ~Shelby Foote

Monday, July 10, 2006

The Rabid Left

They are gunning for Joe Lieberman, one of the few Senators that actually seems to take principled stances and is willing to work with Republicans to get things done. He's also taken the positions that ousting Saddam was a good thing, that leaving Iraq too soon would be disastrous, and that the President has the right to nominate whom he pleases and that they should be confirmed barring significant and substatntial cause to the contrary.

What a heathen.

When Russ Feingold strays from the party fold, he's a visionary, a stout-hearted man unafraid to stand on principle. When Feingold foists a really crappy piece of legislation on us in combination with Republican John McCain, nobody seems to hold him accountable.

The difference? Feingold disagrees with the President on nearly every issue, says so loudly and often, and that galvanizes the far-left of the Democratic Party. Lieberman has the gall to believe that George Bush isn't always wrong and that there's more to running the government than bellyaching from the sidelines while you try to hamstring whatever it is the other side is trying to accomplish.

Phillistine.

Interestingly, in the Time article linked above, there is a quote from Ned Lamont-- Lieberman's opponent in the primary-- but none from Joe himself. It's possible that Lieberman declined comment, but given that a blurb in Time is free campaign fodder, it seems really unlikely. It seems much more likely that Time never actually asked Lieberman what his thoughts on Lamont were.

For the record, I've always like Joe Lieberman. I think he's a decent guy, who usually does try to do what he feels is best, and I appreciate the fact that he attempts to govern rather than just crab and wail about the other side. Also for the record, I feel much the same way about Russ Feingold, although I disagree much more vehemently with most of his actual positions these days.

Also, also for the record, this is a great quote from Lieberman:

"I know George Bush. I've worked against George Bush. I've even run against George Bush. But Ned, I'm not George Bush," Lieberman said during the debate, televised nationally by MSNBC and C-SPAN. "So why don't you stop running against him and have the courage and honesty to run against me and the facts of my record."
And still more for the record, despite what the Time article might lead you to believe, Lamont did not come to his $90-$300 million bank account through starting his own business. He inherited it via being the grandson of a former chairman of J.P. Morgan (about 1/3 of the way into the article). He is, in fact, a privileged son of wealth. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does take a little shine off of his everyman/businessman underdog image.

It is stunning to me that there is a significant quantity of lefties out there that really don't like Joe Lieberman and are willing to risk losing the seat altogher because Joe isn't as rabid as they are. Especially for Ned Lamont, who seems dreadfully underwhelming to me.

Crazy.

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Comments:
I doubt that Joe Lieberman’s senate seat will go to a republican. That’d take a miracle.

What’s your take on Lieberman running as an independent if he loses the primary? While I overall agree with you that Lieberman is a decent guy, and doubly-decent as a democrat, he does seem a bit childish about this.

Shouldn’t he go through the primary, like everyone else, and take his chances?

I can’t help but suspect if it was a republican threatening to run as an independent if he lost the primary that the press would be bashing him daily.
 
Yeah, the independent avenue thing does have a "I'm taking my ball and going home" kind of feel to it. I hope it's merely a reflectioin of Joe's belief that Lamont would be a disaster and not a massive case of hubris.

I doubt he'll lose the primary. I hope he doesn't because a) he's easily the better candidate and b) it will puncture at least a small hole in the gas bag that is DailyKOS.
 
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