Abandoning Bipartisanship
Two years ago, Joe Lieberman campaigned throughout Connecticut in attempt to convince Democratic primary voters that he was the true Democrat in the race and that I was "Republican-lite". He promised significant American troop reductions by the end of 2006 - and just enough voters believed him in November 2006 to earn him re-election.
This evening, at the Republican National Convention, Senator Lieberman will likely reprise Ronald Reagan by claiming that he has not left the Democratic Party, but that it has left him. He will likely claim that the Democratic Party has abandoned the strong foreign policy tradition of Truman, Kennedy, and Clinton. He may even cherry-pick a phrase or two that he commonly lifts from Kennedy's inaugural address - framing Kennedy's famous call to "pay any price and bear any burden" as a call to arms.
But the call in John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech was clear, and resonates even louder today as the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, not as a call to battle, but as a call to bear the burden in the long struggle against the common enemies of mankind - tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
Kennedy did not praise unilateral military excursions around the world, he praised the United Nations as "our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace." Kennedy did not call for a military answer to every question, but for real statesmanship and leadership, warning that we must "never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate."
This is the Democratic tradition that Joe Lieberman is slamming the door on tonight. And this is the bipartisan foreign policy consensus that Lieberman, Bush, and McCain have all abandoned over the last eight years, with such disastrous consequences.
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Joe Lieberman and George Bush and John McCain have deserted the core bipartisan principles of American foreign policy that every president from Truman to Kennedy to Reagan and Bush's father understood. Strong alliances, a strong military, and forceful diplomacy helped us to win the Cold War and will help us to subdue the rogue nations which harbor terrorists wishing to do us harm today.
Five years after the unfurling of the Mission Accomplished banner - five years and a trillion dollars and tens of thousands of dead and wounded later - our military is stretched to the breaking point and Iran is resurgent. Yet Joe Lieberman will likely claim tonight that the surge has been a huge success and that the decision to invade Iraq was the correct one.
Some months ago, under the cloak of darkness and unannounced, Dick Cheney donned his flak jacket and flew a Black Hawk helicopter into the Green Zone in Baghdad. After a short briefing, he slipped out the same way he came in, and announced from Jordan that the surge was a success.
About the same time, Iranian bad boy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - richer than ever thanks to a tripling of oil prices - flew into Baghdad in the middle of the day and was literally welcomed with flowers and marching bands at the airport. Once there, he did not hunker down in the Green Zone, but was rather greeted by his new ally Iraqi Prime Minister Al Maliki and the Iraqi cabinet. At the first of four press conferences, he saluted the brotherly ties between Iran and Iraq, denounced America as Al Maliki stood by, and then enjoyed a peaceful rest in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. Not one shot was fired or one IED exploded in Baghdad during his stay.
Yes, there is less violence in Iraq today, but the reasons are complex. Our troops have made a difference, the bad guys have moved on to Afghanistan, Iran has brokered a wait and see peace, and most importantly, the Iraqis themselves have stood up.
Now is the time for us to start standing down and let the Iraqis to take control of their own destiny. We need to stop giving their historical enemies, the Iranians, a pretext to make mischief in that region.
And now is the time for America to be itself again.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville said that America is not good because it is great, but rather, it is great because it is good.
America the good represented a symbol of hope for peoples around the world who wrote constitutions and promoted democracy, who named their major boulevards after Roosevelt and Kennedy - to be like America.
We weren't greeted as liberators when we marched into Baghdad, but that is just how President Eisenhower was greeted on his first Presidential visit to Berlin. Tens of thousands roared when President Kennedy rallied the world with the words: "Ich Bin Ein Berliner." Tens of thousands more turned out to cheer when Ronald Reagan stood in the same place and said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," and soon saw the Berlin Wall come tumbling down without a shot being fired.
And last month, tens of thousands again turned out in Berlin as Barack Obama followed in the footsteps of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan.
That's how America starts winning again.
This week, as you hear John McCain and Joe Lieberman talk about their "bipartisanship," remember the bipartisan foreign policy tradition which they have cast aside with such disastrous consequences to our nation's reputation and security.
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Lieberman may be a traitor but does it really matter? I just read a enlightening article about what the Repubs are doing on the side for money (Rudy G and Colon Powell) . Even they can't rally a crowed with Regan talk anymore. Here is a link to the article if anyone wants to read it.
http://www
Lieberman has donated more than $145,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. in July he cut $5,000 checks from his PAC to such key Democratic candidates as Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado and former governor Mark Warner of Virginia, both of whom are trying to win seats vacated by Republican
Is this an action of Republican? It is the action of Democrat who is unhappy wih Dem. party's choice for President. I wouldn't go so far as to vote Republican. But many Democratc alienated by strategies of current DemNom. campaign voting Green ( like me) or just sitting this one out. Good luck in November..
Joe Lieberman should just put the R in front of his name already. He is so pathetic to think that he can speak at a Republican Convention, and beg Democrats to vote for Mccsame, and miss anti science Palin.
I remember the chilly rainy day standing at the polls with my Ned Lamont signs. Mr. Lamont was the first to stand up and fight for the people of CT and our "no more war" views. I saw through Joe then too. What a disappointment he is to CT democrats who had supported him all the years before he started flipping.
I hope to see Ned Lamont on a ballot in our state again.
my word of the day for mclieberman PEJORATIVE
Lieberman has provided Democrats with their majority in Senate. He has been attacked by the left of Democratic party non-stop for the past 2 years. Yet he kept Democrats in majority in the Senate. Outside of the war he has voted with Democrats on every issue. He chose to support a Republican who is his personal friend for the president (Hagel has helped Obama). To me it is sad that left of Democratic party wants to tarnish this man. To me he represents the best in the politics on both sides - willigness to do what he thinks is right without regard for political cost.
You may disagree with his views but it hard to disgree with his courage. He could have easily supported Obama in exchange for protection against attacks by progressives in the next election. Instead he is saying what he believes in...
Are you one of his constituents, or are you just talking about someone without doing any real research??
Do you know the left Dems in CT? The Dems in the center? Even some CT republicans that did vote for him? Do you know a great majority are disenfranshised with his choices? Since he was chosen as VP in 2000 he's been chasing the Presidency with vigor. As one of the many he is supposed to represent and who once thought highly of him for his character, as I once did for McCain way back when, I am not sure you are qualified to explain why people now dislike his choices so deeply.
You are possibly qualified to admire him from afar by projecting upon him something that you need to experience on some level in your own life without any true correlation to reality.
"Bipartisanship" in Washington always means both sides of the aisle coming together to screw the poor and Middle Class on behalf of the large corporations (Washington = Republican and Republican-Lite)
It's time to end "Bipartans
Senator Joseph Lieberman's highest priority in the Middle East is my opinion that which is good for the State of Israel. All else is of secondary importance. This is at the foundation of his support for the war and for McCain.
And it is a disgrace for him to base his support for McCain on the absurd basis that for the Democratic Party the Party is more important than the country.
Please tell me you are going to run again!! I was so sick my husband had to help me to get to the voting booth so that I could vote for you. I'll never forget the disappointment I felt that day, very much like when I realized Bush was "elected" in 2000, and then again in 2004! I truly hope I get that opportunity once again to vote for you...
Lieberman has disgraced Ct and Dems.
How could anyone possibly go from Al Gore to McCain??!! Really??!!
Either a nasty bump on the head, or he thought that he could reach the highest office with the party that seems to always win, right or wrong, but he jumped ship too early, and joined the GOP too late.
Bipartisanship in policy-making is a virtue; bipartisanship in plea-bargaining before charges have been filed is a vice.
It would be more appropriate for Lieberman to reprise Reagan -- and remind the Republicans how their (and his) REPUBLICAN party has left them.
Bipartisanship is obsolete.
This is not the time of Kennedy, most Republicans are neo-fascist extremists who've pulled off a coup (they even have their own Reichstag fire -- 911) and are operating well outside the Constitution. Illegal, preemptive war, warrantless wiretapping, torture illegal manipulation of the Justice Department -- the list is long.
This "party" needs to be erased the same way the Whig Party passed from history.
Its leaders need to be pursued legally after they are removed from office, tried and jailed. That means Bush, Cheney, Delay, Rove, Libby -- the entire fascist gang.
If they remain in power, they need to be resisted by all means at our disposal.
This is not, to quote a famous politician, tiddlywinks. Power needs to be wrested from these criminals and they need to be tried for their crimes. So that true government of and by the people, which they have usurped, can be restored.
For openers: " they certainly demonstrated that the can close it down at will and that the U.S. has no military capacity to stop them -- particularly so long as our forces are tied up in Iraq."
Huzzah.
(Quote source?)
Ignore the last sentence, moused in by mistake from my notes.
"Yes, there is less violence in Iraq today, but the reasons are complex. Our troops have made a difference, the bad guys have moved on to Afghanistan, Iran has brokered a wait and see peace, and most importantly, the Iraqis themselves have stood up."
And this would have happened anyway without the surge? Is that part complex?
I found it ironic to see Lieberman standing beneath the bannerr proclaiming 'COUNTRY FIRST" wondering which country was first with him? We now know when Lieberman is no longer listed as 'Ct-D' but now listed as 'Ct.-I" what the 'I' stands for.
Come on now...you'
Lieberman is the new Zell Miller.
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