Internet muse.
Daring, bold, never sold.
My daily weblog of politics, humor, philosophy...and a constant and nagging reminder of the existence of universal love....
"Once again the American public has shown its ability to get over paying high prices for gasoline."
- Alaron Trading Corp. analyst Phil Flynn on the demand for gas, even with oil prices rising to $75 per barrel and gas prices soaring.
"For him to accuse McCain ofTouché.
personal attacks is like accusing
the Three Stooges of being silly."
- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Ma), denouncing Grover Norquist’s labeling of a Senate Indian Affairs committee report connecting him with convicted felon Jack Abramoff as a "personal attack" by Senator John McCain
Recently Joe Biden gave a speech in which he said that Democrats need to show leadership on national security issues. It would be nice if the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would understand that it does, in fact, fall to him to provide that leadership, but perhaps that's asking too much.I'll tell you what - I have too good of a memory about some of the leadership that Senator Joe Biden has displayed on National Security, particularly during the Kosovo crisis when he was publicly itching to put U.S. troops' boots on the ground, accompanying Senator John McCain in sheer defiance of President Clinton's (and Wesley Clark's) leadership and policy. There are some things that really stick with you, and you look back and see what kind of disaster you would've had on your hands had you done something like that. You thank God it didn't turn out that way.
..opponents of McCain-Biden continued to argue that the lessons of Vietnam argued against the deployment of ground forces to Kosovo: for example, some of these opponents equated McCain-Biden with the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which, they argued, had given the U.S. president a“blank check” to wage the Vietnam War. The Senate eventually voted to table the resolution, but the debate surrounding the motion illustrated the dual character of the metaphor war in the Congress: not only was there competition to define Kosovo in the light of different historical metaphors, but there was a concurrent struggle to establish the implications of particular past events, including the Vietnam War.
Hillary Clinton, no doubt properly prodded by new hire Peter Daou, has made it clear that despite making common cause with Lieberman on the war, this is about an entirely different issue. It is about respecting the party and its voters.Senator Clinton's statement:
I've known Joe Lieberman for more than thirty years. I have been pleased to support him in his campaign for re-election, and hope that he is our party's nominee. But I want to be clear that I will support the nominee chosen by Connecticut Democrats in their primary. I believe in the Democratic party; and I believe we must honor the decisions made by Democratic primary voters. The challenges before us in 2006 call for a strong, united party, in which we all support and work for the candidates who are selected in the Democratic process.
I'm sure Senator Edwards will support any Democrat the people support. Isn't that the way it should be? Anything else is pure politics, and since he's outside the DC rat race, Senator Edwards doesn't have to play that game as Senators like Chuck Schumer are playing it right now. The adept interviewer Andrea Mitchell had a field day with Sen Schumer last Sunday on Meet the Press because it was too easy to pin him to the wall with controversial inconsistencies on his support of Senator Lieberman's campaign. What will he do now? Support Sen Lieberman as an Independent? YIKES. It's no wonder Democrats are having trouble looking unified.Then there are the people who say the party is leaving Joe Lieberman. No one is twisting Senator Lieberman's arm to run as an Independent. It is obvious that Senator Lieberman wants to retain his seat as Senator - at any cost - even if that means dumping his Democratic credentials. The fact is this: Senator Lieberman has become less popular among the people for refusing to debate the Iraq War and worse, harshly critciizing those who stand up to do so. He finally has a serious challenger. People who want to warp public opinion about the people who make up the Democratic party will swear that the Democrats have left Joe Lieberman when the polar opposite is true. Watch Joe file the papers. Watch him cut and run.
Senator Lieberman has been a grave disappointment to me. I had such respect for him and I believe to this day he's a wonderful and moral man. But my confidence in his leadership has gone flat. I encourage you to read Whatever Happened to Debate and Joe Lieberman? at my blog to help you understand where I'm coming from on this issue.
Clinton is trying hard to maintain a position that is at least close to the middle of the Democratic Party. That's the ground Lieberman abandoned altogether when he strongly endorsed the continued occupation of Iraq and refused to join most other Democrats -- including Clinton -- in supporting a vaguely-worded proposal by Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed and Michigan Democrat Carl Levin that urged the Bush administration to start thinking about an exit strategy.