In Defense of Joe Lieberman

Update: Hartford Courant: Secret Ballot To Decide Lieberman's Fate - "Joe Lieberman votes with me a lot more than a lot of my senators. He didn't support us on military stuff, and he didn't support us on Iraq stuff. But you look at his record, it's pretty good."
- Sen. Harry Reid

I don’t care for Joe Lieberman as a U.S. Senator.

Lieberman went right along with the obscenity of the Iraq Invasion and the Patriot Act, among other imbecilities.

I don’t care for Joe Lieberman as a public man.

Even among elected officials in Congress, Lieberman stands out as a lying propagandist.

Lieberman used Republican talking points and lies in his failed attempt to prop up John McCain’s candidacy that would have been devastating to a reeling economy and a shredded American Constitution.

And Lieberman veered right up to and past neo-McCarthyism questioning the patriotism of those not sharing his discredited militarism.

But let’s look to history.

Did the Democratic Party attempt to marginalize and punish Senator
Henry "Scoop" Jackson in 1977, for example, the dedicated militarist of the 1960s-70s who shared with Lieberman the sanctimonious commitment to state violence?

No.

Because to cast out Jackson would have been to indict a whole generation of Democratic leaders without whose dedicated support and lies the Vietnam Invasion would not have been waged.

If we take seriously the arguments to sanitize by sanctioning Lieberman after the Democratic Party’s electoral victories in 2008, more than Joe Lieberman need to stand and account.

The effort to punish Lieberman smells of scapegoating.

We just had an election. What are we going to do, punish Vice-president Biden, Clinton and Kohl for their historically horrendous votes and sometimes unsavory politics?

Of-course not.

Obama has it right. Let’s look to the future.