Lieberman drinks the McCain Kool Aid

December 17, 2007

Following up on yesterday’s news, Joe Lieberman officially endorsed John McCain today at an event in New Hampshire. The former Democrat carefully stuck to the Arizona senator’s campaign message.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) Monday crossed party lines to endorse GOP Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) for president, calling him the candidate who can best unite the country and lead it to a victory “in the war against Islamist terrorism.” […]

“When others were silent, and it was thought politically unpopular, John had the courage and common sense to sound the alarm about the mistakes we were making in Iraq and to call for more troops and a new strategy there,” Lieberman said. “And when others wavered, when others wanted to retreat from the field of battle, John had the opinion and support the surge in Iraq, where we are at last winning.”

So, as far as Lieberman is concerned, McCain pulled the trifecta — the Republican was right before the war (he backed regime change); he was right at the start of the war (he rejected the Rumsfeld strategy); and he’s right now (the surge is working).

McCain’s been hammering this point home for several months now. For example, he told George Stephanopoulos in November, “My record is right, of opposition to the failed strategy that former Secretary Rumsfeld was employing, and advocacy of the one that’s succeeding now.”

It’s become, for lack of a better word, annoying. McCain –and Lieberman — know this isn’t true, but they keep repeating it in the hopes that people will soon simply forget about the senator’s record, and accept the rhetoric as reality.

As long as these two are going to keep making the bogus claim, we might as well keep debunking it.

First, McCain was wrong before the invasion.

Sen. McCain on CNN on Sept. 24, 2002: “I believe that the success will be fairly easy.”

Sen. McCain on CNN on Sept. 29, 2002: “We’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.”

Sen. McCain on [MSNBC] on Jan. 22, 2003: “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.”

Then, McCain was wrong about the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld strategy. Far from “sounding the alarm,” as Lieberman insisted today, McCain was doing the opposite.

“It’s clear that the end is very much in sight.” [ABC, 4/9/03]

“This is a mission accomplished. They know how much influence Saddam Hussein had on the Iraqi people, how much more difficult it made to get their cooperation.” [This Week, ABC, 12/14/03]

“I’m confident we’re on the right course.” [ABC News, 3/7/04]

“I do think that progress is being made in a lot of Iraq. Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course. If I thought we weren’t making progress, I’d be despondent.” [The Hill, 12/8/05]

And finally, McCain said all we had to do was give Bush’s so-called “surge” a chance, and we’d finally see political reconciliation in Iraq. Strike three.

In all likelihood, Lieberman thinks McCain is a genius when it comes to Iraq, precisely because he made the exact same mistakes, at the exact same time. Being wrong every step of the way for five years doesn’t come with the consolation prize of rewriting history.

Post Script: On a related note, Lieberman told the voters of Connecticut last year that he was committed to helping elect a Democratic president in 2008. Media reputation notwithstanding, Lieberman has never been a man of his word.

I realize this is a question of semantics, but it’s incorrect to describe the Senator as “crossing party lines”, unless it also would have been used if he had endorsed a Democrat, rather than the presidential candidate of the Connecticut for Lieberman party.

Also, having Lieberman endorse you that you’ve been right at every turn on Iraq has got to be the winner of the unintentional-irony-of-the-year.

  • If Lieberman had not decided to do what is best for Joe and had done what was best for the Gore-Lieberman slate in 2000 then he would have been the VP.

    He decided he needed to run for re-election in 2000.

    If he had spent an extra day in New Hampshire he probably could have swung enough voters to give the state to Gore. If he had spent an extra hour in Florida he could have swung the election.

    But he spent that extra few days and hours running for re-election.

    It will be nice after the next election when the Democrats have a Lieberman proof majority in the Senate.

  • All I can say about the little rat-bastage is this: Dollars to doughnuts we start seeing McCain/Lieberman campaign messages on the Reich blogosphere before Christmas. Paul will never break double-digits, no matter how muich money he raises.. UnAware Fred is still “unaware”—as is the Huckster. Mittens and GhoulChild will beat each other up endlessly, with each trying to make the other look worse than Beelzebub himself. So what’s left for the tattered, scattered remnants of “the party of Lincoln?”

    Team RampStrike, of course….

  • “…Lieberman has never been a man of his word.”

    That’s it in a nutshell… and I do mean a “nut”shell. Liberman is an egomaniac and totally in it for self serving reasons. He’s been promised a position in McCain’s (never gonna happen) administration. He twists the facts and even outright lies to show he is always right. McCain is insane and Jerusalem Joe has got to go and will go come reelection time. Lieberman is a failed senator. He should be forced to resign his chairman post on the government reform committee and then maybe the committee will start to function again. His blackmail to side with repubs really makes no difference now as he obviously has chosen to do that anyway. McCain should know that this will not help his campaign and will pretty much condemn it. Maybe McCain thought he needed the Christians for Israel vote and the support of the very insane fanatic Hagee who is trying to bring on the rapture…says a lot about his foreign policy plans because they all want to attack Iran with nukes. McCain is not just insane…he’s an idiot too. Lieberman is out of there as soon as reelection comes up. Just pathetic

  • I think Lieberman is getting leaned on by the Republicans to do this to try to get liberal Jews to think that effectively fighting the Islamic terrorists requires a Republican as commander in chief. It’s a pretty clumsy move, that won’t gain much (if anything)– and Lieberman probably knows it– but that doesn’t change that to the dumb gentiles who are pulling the strings, it seems like it should work.

  • Kind of like “take it from a Jew”- the Jews don’t need Lieberman to tell them what to do. They already know plenty of other smart Jews who have opinions conflicting against those from plenty of other smart Jews they know. To them, then, Lieberman is just one more Jew, and he’s a let-down.

  • Okay CB…
    You debug McCain…
    And I’ll edit Lieberman’s quotes to conform with reality:

    “And when others wavered, when others wanted to retreat from the field of battle and count their body parts and the National debt, John had the opinion and support the surge in Iraq…”

  • Well, I AM a Jew, and I’ll have you know that I, along with many of my friends and relatives, find Lieberman to be an embarrassment. It does not make our tribe look good when he waves his arrogance all over the place!

    I’m glad Gore picked a Jewish VP in 2000 . . . but it should have been Feingold, not Lieberman! After all, Lieberman’s state was already going to be in Gore’s column, and Feingold was not up for reelection that year. Plus, Feingold would not have allowed Cheney to walk all over him in the debate. Oh well, coulda shoulda woulda . . .

  • If Joe does run as McCain’s vp, then he will get to experience two defeats. Wonder if that will sink through his ego.

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