Rolling Back History; Joe Lieberman's smears against the American left...

[Purveyor]

BY: Michael Tomasky

Joe Lieberman's smears against the American left for not supporting the Iraq war fail to recognise the true record of the Democratic party

Like a pestilential raccoon who keeps figuring out how to get into your garbage at night even after you've tied down the lids, Joe Lieberman emerges anew every so often to knock over liberals and remind us of his moral superiority.

This time he appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday and sniffed:

"Well, I say that the Democratic party changed. The Democratic party today was not the party it was in 2000. It's not the Bill Clinton-Al Gore party, which was strong internationalists, strong on defence, pro-trade, pro-reform in our domestic government. It's been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist and basically will - and very, very hyperpartisan. So it pains me."

Several bloggers have commented. Michael Scherer at Time says Holy Joe is full of buncombe. Reihan Salam, a talented conservative blogger, counters that liberals should be happy that Lieberman thinks this: "Correct me if I'm wrong," he writes, "but isn't a commonplace observation on the left - indeed, don't many liberals see this broad trend as a very good thing?" And Ross Douthat at the Atlantic, another talented conservative blogger, echoes Salam and adds that the American political middle often finds itself aggravated by too much enthusiasm on the extremes, either left or right.

Everyone has a point here, but no one quite gets to the heart of the matter, which is the fallacy (historical, philosophical, moral; you name it) at the heart of Lieberman's argument. When you get right down to it, Lieberman thinks the Democratic party is girly-mannish because its leaders and rank-and-file members did not and today do not support the Iraq war fully or strongly enough. And more, that today's Democrats are betraying their history, a history he specifically associates with Harry Truman and Jack Kennedy.

But Lieberman just doesn't know what he's talking about. Or worse, I think he knows exactly what he's talking about but is lying anyway.

---EOE---

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_tomasky/2008/04/rolling_back_history.html

[pansypoo53219]

1. joemental lieberfuckenputz is

a pain. between a hemmeroid and a heart attack.

[DCKit]

2. No wonder McSame is so comfortable with him around. n/t