Lieberman Does a "Zidane" on Lamont!
One of the memorable moments of the World Cup was the now infamous "head butt" given by retiring Zinedine Zidane of France to Italy's Marco Materazzi. Nobody understood how Zidane could have lost his composure and in the final game threaten the success of his team, which in fact, went on to lose to Italy without his assistance.
So it is with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman who, having lost the Democratic Primary to anti-war millionaire Ned Lamont, has now refused to support the winner of the Primary. After his loss to Lamont, Senator Lieberman had this to say:
"As I see it, in this campaign we just finished the first half and the Lamont team is ahead," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman last night after his Democratic primary loss to Ned Lamont. "But, in the second half, our team, Team Connecticut, is going to surge forward to victory in November."In the "second half" Senator Lieberman?
It is reasonable to assume that when you ran in the Democratic Party Primary in Connecticut you were seeking the endorsement of the Democratic Party. If you had wanted to be an Independent, you shouldn't have run first as a Democrat. It is not fair to the Democratic Party nor to Ned Lamont to have it both ways!
I like and admire Senator Lieberman. I even have visited with him when he and Al Gore came through Wisconsin during that unsuccessful campaign. He is a man of high ideals, strong religious convictions, and high moral standards.
But he lost the Primary.
Senator John Kerry had this to say about the Connecticut Primary. As reported:"Calling the result of the vote, "a strong statement about the current course in Iraq," Kerry has "strongly" endorsed Lamont over current Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman.Thank you Senator Kerry!
"I’ve worked with Joe Lieberman since our days in college together," Kerry said in a statement today, "and I respect his many contributions to our public life. But the Democratic Party stands for something, and the Democratic Party in Connecticut has made a choice."
"The events of the past months make even more clear," Kerry added, "the differences Democratic leadership would make for our country on Iraq, in making America safer, in having an economy that works for everyone, and in achieving energy independence. That’s who we are as Democrats, and that’s what we’ll be fighting for. It’s time for all Democrats to come together to support Ned Lamont. It’s time for Democrats to unite.”
"The Times They are a-Changin'" sang Bob Dylan.
And indeed they are. In Connecticut. In the State House and in the White House.
America is crying for new leadership. Leadership that will move us beyond a war with no end in sight. Leadership that will fight for the little guy raising the minimum wage on the lowest paid workers without bankrupting our nation with further tax cuts on the multi-millionaires among us.
Keep on coming John! We have got your back!
And Senator Lieberman, go gracefully into the sunset. You have one heck of a Senate record and are one heck of a great guy. We love you Joe. But today's problems need the leadership and ideas of tomorrow. Not more of the same as yesterday.
Bob
posted by BobsAdvice at 9:38 PM
3 Comments:
Lieberman is a decent man but he underestimated the significance of the Iraq war to voters in CT. It's a free country and if he wishes to go independent so be it......though I don't support it. It's a civil liberty issue. I dare say if I were him I'd endorse Lamont pack my bags and go south. The South is ready for a centrist Democrat. I believe he'd have a better chance as a Democrat in the South......and we could pick up another seat in the future. Location, location, location. ;)
You are absolutely right. It's time for new leadership. Not just for the Democratic party, but for the United States all together.
In my opinion, Senator Russ Feingold, from my state of Wisconsin, would be the best thing for the country in 2008. He has completely disagreed with the war in Iraq from the very beginning, and is the only Senator to have voted against the Patriot Act. He's actually honest and doesn't just vote for things for the sake of poll numbers or just to sail towards the popular current. He sees the future and predicts the truth, such as the failed war in Iraq and the stripped rights caused by the Patriot Act. Feingold is a man of honesty and sticks to himself.
My other favorite is John Kerry. Kerry may have voted for the war in 2002, but he is one of the few Senators to have actually taken responisbility for that vote. Many people will never forgive him for that faitful vote. I forgive him. I like John. He, like Feingold, truly does believe what he says. He feels absolutely passionate about his stance on the war. He recongnizes that the only way out of this mess is to withdraw our troops as soon as possible. He also recognizes that when you get right down to it, not listening to the lies and meaningless ramblings of fake loyalty the Republicans express, the war was a mistake. It's as simple as that. And what do we do with mistakes? We fix them. "Staying the course" is not going to fix this mistake. It will only dig us deeper into this whole, and quite frankly, grave, that the Bush Administration has gotten us into. Too many people have died needlessly already. Young people with their entire lives ahead of them, whose family and friends will never get to see them again. It really is disgusting. The Bush Administration claims we are "spreading democracy" by "staying the course" in Iraq. What we are actually doing is killing, being killed and digging a grave with no end in sight unless we take strong action and set a firm, strong, hard, immediate deadline to withdraw the majority of US troops, leaving only the required troops for a minimum amount of time, to ensure the Iraqi's take care of themselves, and then withdraw, leaving the country of Iraq to the only people who can actually run their own country, the people of Iraq. It's the only way anything is going to get done. A hard, fast deadline is not only needed, it's absolutely crucial.
I cannot express this enough. Saddam Hussein, a heartless, brutal, evil bastard, no doubt, would never have gone through with striking the United States. Why is this? Because he loved his power. The last thing he would ever want would be to lose his power. If he were to lose his power, he would have nothing. If he ever struck the United States, he would have been completely destroyed by our retaliation. Saddam is as evil as you can ever get, but he's not stupid. He new not to attack us. Even if he bragged about his ability to do so, actually going through with it would cost him his life and his place in power. Two things he would never move close to losing, evil or not.
The people who say that invading Iraq has made us safer, couldn't be any farther from the truth. We have now created a safe haven for terrorists from all over the world to blend in, plot and execute. And to say that "We cannot leave the country where our enemies are harboring" forgets the fact that they're harboring there because we invaded in the first place, which as I'v made clear, was obviously the biggest mistake that could have ever been made. Too many familes and friends have been affected because of this. I can only, honestly, sitting here writing this right now, thank God that I am not one of those people who have been put in this unbelievably sick, disgusting and truly evil situation. It's sick and I'm tired of it. Enough is enough.
On one last note, to say that "We are spreading democracy to the world" is not knowing anything about the nature of the world. "Freedom" means different things to different people. To us, as Americans, it means that we have freedom of speech, the right to bare arms, the right to vote, equality of the sexes, etc. To other parts of the world, "freedom" means things like the right to see the light of day, the right to be seen in public, the right to wear certain clothes, the right for skin to be seen. To say, "We will give you freedom" comes off in different weights to different people around the world who hear that statement and do not know how to react to it, because because of the different meanings of freedom, also creates different ways of interpretation, which results in overwhelming violence, shock and chaos. Which all together proves that the invasion of Iraq was the worst thing we could have ever done.
It's time for change.
Brandon,
Nice post. And Marie, good point about relocating to the South.
Thank you both for commenting and participating here on the blog.
Russ Feingold is my Senator and I have and shall continue to vote for him for the Senate. I believe that Senator Kerry has more credibility with his actual experience in Vietnam and dealing with that fiasco. They are both great Americans.
Bob
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