Joe Lieberman: Profile of An Anti-Moonbat Democrat

I don't have much in common with Joe Lieberman politically (he's a liberal and I'm not), but today he earned my respect in a big way. Let me start with a little background.

It was during the contentious recount mess of the 2000 Presidential election, in which Lieberman was Al Gore's VP running mate, that he began to get on the bad side of moonbats. See, according to this moonbat at Huffington Post, quoting from a book about the 2000 election drama, Lieberman wasn't forceful enough in pushing to drag out the battle.

Later, after 9/11 and the run up to the war in Iraq, Lieberman was criticized for not being antiwar enough. In fact, when he ran for President in 2004, his failure to win the nomination was attributed to his support for the war, which he acknowledged.

Apparently Lieberman isn't one to believe the 2000 election was stolen and he was, and is, a supporter of the war in Iraq. Therefore it's safe to assume he doesn't suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome. Naturally, this makes him an enemy of moonbats and the reality based community. In 2006, when Lieberman ran for reelection to the Senate in Connecticut, they got Ned Lamont to run against him in the Democratic primary, which Lamont won (shame on Connecticut Democrats). Lieberman ran in the general as an independent and won. Now moonbat hatred of Lieberman became white hot.

Fast forward to the present: Lieberman gave a speech today excerpted by John Podhoretz on his blog for Commentary Magazine. It's breathtaking in it's clarity and as an expression of what Democrats used to be like before they became infected with BDS:

Since retaking Congress in November 2006, the top foreign policy priority of the Democratic Party has not been to expand the size of our military for the war on terror or to strengthen our democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East or to prevail in Afghanistan. It has been to pull our troops out of Iraq, to abandon the democratically-elected government there, and to hand a defeat to President Bush….

Even as evidence has mounted that General Petraeus’ new counterinsurgency strategy is succeeding, Democrats have remained emotionally invested in a narrative of defeat and retreat in Iraq, reluctant to acknowledge the progress we are now achieving, or even that that progress has enabled us to begin drawing down our troops there.

Part of the explanation for this, I think, comes back to ideology. For all of our efforts in the 1990s to rehabilitate a strong Democratic foreign policy tradition, anti-war sentiment remains the dominant galvanizing force among a significant segment of the Democratic base.

But another reason for the Democratic flip-flop on foreign policy over the past few years is less substantive. For many Democrats, the guiding conviction in foreign policy isn’t pacifism or isolationism—it is distrust and disdain of Republicans in general, and President Bush in particular.

In this regard, the Democratic foreign policy worldview has become defined by the same reflexive, blind opposition to the President that defined Republicans in the 1990s – even when it means repudiating the very principles and policies that Democrats as a party have stood for, at our best and strongest….

Wow. That this man remains a Democrat can only be because he's honestly a liberal, just not a moonbat. In a future post I'll highlight the disgusting, hateful bile dished out against him by the left, but in this post I want to focus on his speech today. Podhoretz wrote a follow-up post about it in which he excerpts other stunning passages. The background to this portion is an amendment he co-sponsored declaring the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization:

The reason for [the] amendment was clear. In September, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker testified before Congress about the proxy war that Iran—and in particular, the IRGC and its Quds Force subsidiary—has been waging against our troops in Iraq. Specifically, General Petraeus told us that the IRGC Quds Force has been training, funding, equipping, arming, and in some cases directing Shiite extremists who are responsible for the murder of hundreds of American soldiers.

[...]

In light of this evidence, Senator [Jon] Kyl and I thought that calling for the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization was a no brainer. Rather than punishing Iranians indiscriminately, it would apply a set of targeted economic sanctions against the part of the Iranian regime that was responsible for the murder of our troops in Iraq….

[...]

First, several left-wing blogs seized upon the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, offering wild conspiracy theories about how it could be used to authorize the use of military force against Iran.

These were absurd arguments. The text of our amendment contained nothing—nothing—that could be construed as a green light for an attack on Iran. To claim that it did was an act of delusion or deception. On the contrary, by calling for tougher sanctions on Iran, the intention of our amendment was to offer an alternative to war.

Nonetheless, the conspiracy theories started to spread. Although the Senate passed our amendment, 76-22, several Democrats, including some of the Democratic presidential candidates, soon began attacking it….

I asked some of my Senate colleagues who voted against our amendment: “Do you believe the evidence the military has given us about the IRGC sponsoring these attacks on our troops?” Yes, they invariably said.

“Don’t you support tougher economic sanctions against Iran?” I asked. Again, yes—no question.

So what’s the problem, I asked. “It’s simple,” they said. “We don’t trust Bush. He’ll use this resolution as an excuse for war against Iran.”

I understand that President Bush is a divisive figure….But there is something profoundly wrong—something that should trouble all of us—when we have elected Democratic officials who seem more worried about how the Bush administration might respond to Iran’s murder of our troops, than about the fact that Iran is murdering our troops.

There is likewise something profoundly wrong when we see candidates who are willing to pander to this politically paranoid, hyper-partisan sentiment in the Democratic base—even if it sends a message of weakness and division to the Iranian regime.

Bravo, Mr. Lieberman! Here's someone who sees and understands the malignancy festering in his party, and he correctly notes that it originates in the delusional, paranoid, George Soros tainted moonbat blogosphere. This is a speech Bush or another Republican should give. Perhaps establishment Republicans aren't aware of how this is playing out or they just don't take it seriously, but Lieberman does. He sees it clearly because it's within his own party.

Oh, are you curious to know how some of those left-wing blogs Lieberman mentions are reacting to the speech? Here, let me give you an example. From your favorite and mine, Think Progress: Lieberman: 'Paranoid, Hyper-Partisan' "Left-Wing Blogs' Wrote 'Conspiracy Theories' On Iran. Note the sneer quotes in the title. Those are to give the impression that what he said isn't true. I won't excerpt any of it. You can read it yourself to see how it's the usual lies, with links "backing up" their claims that lead back to their previous posts and those of other moonbats, which are also lies and distortions. Again, their readers don't click the links, so they haven't a clue. One thing is for certain though; Think Progress and other outfits like them must be just a little worried that Joe Lieberman has their number. If he's willing to call them out then soon others will, too. And that, I think, is real progress.

"Bush Dog Democrat" Senator Jay Rockefeller

If you're wondering what a Bush Dog Democrat is, the term was coined by Matt Stoller at Open Left to describe Democrats who don't disagree with Bush or Republicans on every issue. What is likely to get Rockefeller labeled as such is his op-ed in the Washington Post today about the FISA bill, specifically as it relates to legal immunity for the telecom companies that provided information to the NSA shortly after 9/11.

In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, the Bush administration had a choice: Aggressively pursue potential terrorists using existing laws or devise new, secret intelligence programs in uncharted legal waters.

Unfortunately, President Bush often chose the latter, and the legitimacy and effectiveness of our efforts to fight terrorism were dramatically undermined.

The president's warrantless surveillance program and his decision to go it alone -- without input from Congress or the courts -- have had devastating consequences. One is that private companies, which would normally comply with legitimate national security requests, now have incentive to say no.

Okay, so far that doesn't look like anything pro-Bush. In fact, Rockefeller is slamming him. Here's some more:

Here's why. Within weeks of the 2001 attacks, communications companies received written requests and directives for assistance with intelligence activities authorized by the president. These companies were assured that their cooperation was not only legal but also necessary because of their unique technical capabilities. They were also told it was their patriotic duty to help protect the country after the devastating attacks on our homeland.

Today there is significant debate about whether the underlying program -- the president's warrantless surveillance plan -- was legal or violated constitutional rights. That is an important debate, and those questions must be answered.

In the meantime, however, these companies are being sued, which is unfair and unwise. As the operational details of the program remain highly classified, the companies are prevented from defending themselves in court. And if we require them to face a mountain of lawsuits, we risk losing their support in the future.

That's pretty much common sense. The telecoms believed the requests for information to be legal and acted accordingly. If they have to wait until the legality is determined before acting then they'll simply not offer assistance. Rockefeller continues:

Let's be clear. First, there is no automatic amnesty. All Americans, including corporate citizens, must follow the law and be held accountable for their actions. The bill authorizes case-by-case review in the courts only when the attorney general certifies that a company's actions were based on assurances of legality, and the court is specifically required to determine whether the attorney general abused his discretion before immunity can be granted.

Second, lawsuits against the government can go forward. There is little doubt that the government was operating in, at best, a legal gray area. If administration officials abused their power or improperly violated the privacy of innocent people, they must be held accountable. That is exactly why we rejected the Whitehouse's year-long push for blanket immunity covering government officials.

Third, immunity is the only procedural mechanism that works. We decided against "substitution" (putting the government in the shoes of the companies) and "indemnification" (making the government cover all costs) because both still mistakenly place the onus on the companies rather than on the government. And we recognized that this could expose too much about our intelligence capabilities, jeopardizing collection that targets foreign threats.

So the government can still be sued if it acted illegally. If actions were taken that threatened civil liberties unduly they won't go unpunished. Why isn't that enough? Why the clamor for the companies to be sued? Here, I'll show you why:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- BellSouth and AT&T were added to a class-action lawsuit against Verizon Communications that alleges the companies illegally participated in a National Security Agency domestic surveillance program.

The complaint, filed in Manhattan District Court, is asking that the companies pay $200 billion in fines to their 200 million subscribers.

Attorneys Carl Mayer and Bruce Afran said that since the lawsuit was filed Friday they have been overwhelmed with calls from people wanting to join the suit.

Enough said.