Overactive Imaginations

Yes, we know that the rest of his party hates Joe Lieberman with an unrivaled passion. Yes, we know that they despise him for his patriotism and for his apparently antiquated belief that politics ought to stop at the water's edge. Yes, we know that this single-issue obsession is causing them to forget that he toes their line on just about every other issue.

But has the enmity really become so maniacal that they're throwing a stink about this?

On his increasingly difficult path to re-election, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman keeps getting kissed. And not lovingly.

Kisses mock Mr. Lieberman, the incumbent Democrat, all over Connecticut — on signs, on buttons, even on giant parade floats. They commemorate the one President Bush appeared to plant on his cheek after last year’s State of the Union address, a symbol, in the eyes of Mr. Lieberman’s liberal critics, of an unforgivable alliance in support of the Iraq war.

“It’s a ‘Godfather’ kiss — one of those kisses that says, ‘I own you,’ ” said Edward Anderson, a supporter of Mr. Lieberman’s Democratic primary opponent, Ned Lamont, who was distributing “kiss” buttons outside a Lieberman campaign event in Stamford, Connecticut, on Monday. [emphasis added]

Has Mr. Anderson ever watched a State of the Union show? The processional and recessional lines are crammed full of congresscritters and senators beating each other with tire irons to get handshakes, backslaps, embraces, and even "kisses" from the same president a lot of them otherwise criticize and lampoon in every other circumstance. Whatever else a president may be, one evening every February he's a rock star, and they ALL want a piece of him. Why would Joe Lieberman be any different?

Furthermore, Anderson's anthropomorphizing is borderline comical in its retroactive imputation to Bush of his own interpretations. Look at the emphasized phrase in the quote - the kiss Bush "appeared to plant" on Lieberman's cheek. Even the film footage itself is inconclusive. And from this the nutrooters conclude that poor ol' Joe is, you should pardon the expression, GDub's bitch?

The Connecticut senator himself - increasingly the only adult left in the Democrat Party - had the proper take on this foolishness:

In an interview in his Senate office, Mr. Lieberman said he recalled only a hug, not a kiss, but acknowledged, “There has been some doubt, based on the postgame films.” Asked if there had been any subsequent kisses with the president, he said, “None that I’m prepared to talk about,” and chuckled.

Ah, the New York Times. Would a serious publication indulge such nitwittery just as a hook to further publicize their own faction's intolerance of the slightest dissent on anything within its ranks?

Or, in other words, to what lower depths will they sink to tell Joe Lieberman to "kiss off"?

UPDATE: Looks like the Times is lustful in its own osculation of its chosen allies....(h/t: Double-M)