NAPOLITANO: Hey Sen. Lieberman, you know Barack Obama, is he a Marxist as Bill Kristol says might be the case in today’s New York Times? Is he an elitist like your colleague Hillary Clinton says he is?
LIEBERMAN: Well, you know, I must say that’s a good question. I know him now for a little more than three years since he came into the Senate and he’s obviously very smart and he’s a good guy. I will tell ya that during this campaign, I’ve learned some things about him, about the kind of environment from which he came ideologically. And I wouldn’t…I’d hesitate to say he’s a Marxist, but he’s got some positions that are far to the left of me and I think mainstream America.
It's beyond disgusting that Joe Lieberman is still called on by moronic right-wing talk show hosts to offer a "Democratic" point of view. It's beyond disgusting because anything "far to the left" of Joe Lieberman at this point is still likely far to the right of "mainstream America".
More than anything, it's beyond disgusting because when Joe Lieberman was at his greatest political peril, facing Ned Lamont in the run-up to the midterm elections of 2006, he begged Sen. Barack Obama to vouch for him at Connecticut's Jefferson-Jackson dinner. Obama, having received some mentoring by Lieberman upon his entry to the Senate in 2004, obliged.
"The fact of the matter is, I know some in the party have differences with Joe. I'm going to go ahead and say it," Obama told the 1,700-plus party members who gathered in a ballroom at the Connecticut Convention Center for the $175-per-head fundraiser.
"I am absolutely certain Connecticut is going to have the good sense to send Joe Lieberman back to the U.S. Senate so he can continue to serve on our behalf," he said.
Lieberman became Obama's mentor when Obama was sworn into the Senate in 2005. They stayed close at Thursday night's event, too, entering the room together and working the crowd in tandem.
I don't agree with Obama for sticking up for Lieberman in the congressional primary of '06 (in the general, he endorsed Lamont). The entire Democratic leadership failed in properly backing anti-war challenger Ned Lamont, who still managed to secure the Democratic nomination.
That said, for many years, anti-war progressives like myself have attacked Joe Lieberman for being in the wrong party, for having the wrong principles, and for believing in them too strongly. I now realize the mistake I made was in assuming he had any at all.
If Harry Reid and the Democratic Leadership have any guts, they will strip Lieberman of his seniority, his committee chairmanships, and tell him he is welcome to caucus with the Republicans, the No-Nothings, the Whigs, the Prohibitionists, or any other goddamned party he'd like, just as long as it isn't the Democrats.
