We The People Politics

Joe Lieberman is standing at the crossroads of personality and ideology, and can’t seem to make up his mind. 

Joe, officially speaking, is an “Independent Democrat,” also known as a “Lieberman Democrat,” which officially denotes him as an independent.  He still, however, caucuses with the Democrats - his party since he won his seat in 1988.  Now, Joe is a staunch supporter of John McCain for president, and has been asked to speak at the Republican National Convention in September. The latest news stories say that he is on the republican short-list for possible “veep” candidates on McCain’s ticket.

The issue of course, lies between two distinct paths: The political, public path of Joe’s life, and the political, personal desires of Joe’s career - and given the circumstances, it looks as if the two have crossed paths enough to form a web so convoluted that we really don’t know what the hell Joe stands for anymore.

Joe was one of the first Democrats in the Senate to stand up and criticize then Pres. Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.  Of course, he also decided to vote against his removal from office, lest we upset potential voters.

He was the Vice Presidential candidate - on the Democratic side - in 2000, when he and Al Gore lost to George W. Bush in what may have been the most contested election in US history.

After that time, he became an advocate for the War in Iraq and continued action there.  Joe ran for president in 2004, but dropped out of the race without winning a single contest - after his former running mate, Al Gore, endorsed his opponent, Howard Dean. Of course, at the time, he was still running as a Democrat.

When his Senate seat was up for re-election in 2006, the Democratic party decided that Joe had fallen away from liberal values, and the primary vote went to Ned Lamont, the Greenwich anti-war businessman.  He changed his affiliation from “democrat” to “independent,” and, once again, won his seat in the 2006 mid-term election by courting more conservative voters.

Joe voted for the War in Iraq, and against the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposal of requiring publically-traded corporations to report of the costs of stock options as a business expense. He co-sponsored for the “Family Entertainment Protection Act,” which was a failed bill mandating enforcement of ERSB ratings on video games (and a blatent violation of First Amendment rights).

But, he is an “independent Democrat.”

Now, Joe is in the running for the republican vice-presidential spot, after losing his “superdelagate” status at the democratic national convention in August.  His support for republican nominee John McCain is so prevalent that an advertisment for “John McCain 2008,” an advertisment that has appeared on this website, shows the two embracing and smiling.

But, he is still an “independent Democrat.”

Joe, the “observant, but not orthodox” Jew, is also a supporter of controversial pastor John Hagee - yes, the same John Hagee whose endorsement was rejected by John McCain. The same John Hagee who said that the Holocaust was an act of God to return the chosen people back to the Holy Land. That John Hagee  Joe even compared Hagee to Moses, after admitting that Hagee had his faults: “Even Moses fell short of God’s expectations.”

Lest we forget, he is still an “independent Democrat.”

The overlying theme of all of this is simple:  Joe is willing to pander to anyone willing to put him in a position of power, even if that means compromising his party, his people, his values, his friends, his supporters, his state, or even the wellbeing of the citizens of the United States. All so that Joe gets a nice cushy chair in a plush office, and gets to live comfortably off the taxpayer teat.

I think it’s time that the American public says “No to Joe,” and makes the illustrious senator come out from behind the curtain to pick a side and stick with it.