Democrats Adrift

Do you notice something missing here?

Senator Joe Lieberman's staunch stay-the-course defense of President Bush's Iraq policies isn't winning him any friends among fellow Democrats.

Lieberman's pro-war views may be winning him praise from a grateful White House, but some Democratic colleagues see him as undercutting their party's efforts to wrest control of Congress from the GOP next fall.

"He's doing damage to the ability of Democrats to wage a national campaign," said Ken Dautrich, a University of Connecticut public policy professor. "It's Lieberman being Lieberman. And it's frustrating for people trying to put a Democratic strategy together."

Nothing about what he actually said. Nothing about the facts as he saw them while he was over there. The only thing they care about is winning back their power...something we have said on this blog from Day 1.

Sensing political vulnerability in Bush's handling of Iraq, Democrats are anxious to craft a compelling anti-war theme uniting the party for the pivotal midterm congressional elections.

Democrats hope a surging anti-war tide in 2006 can help them shatter the GOP's 12-year lock on the House and win back the Senate for the first time since 2001.

See? How obvious is that?? Joe Lieberman said we DO have a plan, we ARE making progress. And the Democrats DO NOT WANT TO HEAR IT. Why, America can't win! That would show them for the spineless, lying, anti-American cowards they are!

"It is time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be commander in chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril," said Lieberman, urging bipartisan cooperation.

Face it, Joe. Your party does not CARE if our nation is at peril. They hate Bush so much, they are blind to everything else.

"We believe that talking about the President's failed strategy in Iraq is not unpatriotic," Dean said on CNN. "It may undercut the president, but it does not undercut our troops."

Capital B Capital S, Dr. Demented. Of COURSE it undercuts the troops. What an idiot.

JAS adds: I wrote the following of Senator Lieberman during last year's Boston Bacchanalia:

Joe Lieberman spoke, too. Kind of like the last twitch of rigor mortis from the long-dead Truman/JFK/Scoop Jackson wing of the party that sincerely believed that partisanism should stop at the water’s edge. He actually identified the enemy not just as "terrorists" but Islamists, and even went so far as to equate them to "Nazis and Communists," which earned him a stony silence, since all the delegates know that Republicans are Nazis, and how dare this Bush-collaborator insult their comrades in arms like that!

Then he declared:

"We must support our brave troops; they are the new greatest generation, they have liberated Afghanistan and Iraq from murderous tyrannies, and they are fighting tonight in both of those nations to defeat terrorists and allow democratic governments to grow there."

The delegates just stared back with muted hostility.

I know that Senator Lieberman, just like John McCain, has firmly and unequivocally denied that he will ever switch parties. But you have to wonder about the Connecticut Democrat, who is a rarity in that party anymore, a good, decent, and honorable man. He really did seem to be addressing the wrong convention.

Joe Lieberman is an anachronism: a patriotic liberal who understands that the time for debating the merits of going to war ends after the decision to go to war is made. And that's why his party of power-mad quislings has disowned him.

Wrote Cap'n Ed today:

One has to wonder why, under the circumstances, Lieberman hasn't left the party that so obviously has left him. His dogged loyalty probably explains that, and that makes his latest stand all the more remarkable. Lieberman is no babe in the political woods; he understands perfectly what his statements did to the Democrats. Instead of openly wondering what motivated Lieberman to take this kind of action, Reid and other Democrats in party leadership should ask themselves why they made it necessary for him to do so.

More rhetorical advice for people for whom introspection is a congenital impossibility.