No Mo Joe

I'm generally against the whole notion of assigning perjorative labels like 'Vichy Democrat.' As long as our office holders caucus with the Party, support the Party on leadership votes and make some effort to keep, for instance, their Americans for Democratic Action rating a bit higher than their American Conservative Union rating, I'm inclined to be tolerant. After all, there really are places where a Democrat with the kind of liberal views and agenda I tend to favor could never get elected, and by and large I figure we're better off with an occassionaly wayward D than any R. When someone stops caucusing with the Party, or chooses to endorse the opposition ticket, I don't think of them as a DINO, I think of them as a Republican. Zell Miller, for instance, wasn't a Democrat by the end of his Senate career. He was (and is) a fraud.

One of the main beneficiaries of that view on this blog has been Joe Lieberman. He's the frequent target of attacks in comments here and in posts around the blogosphere, and on a number of occassions I've leapt to his defense, pointing out his strong progressive record on civil rights (if not civil liberties), labor issues, the environment and other things that I think merit at least as much attention as his abysmal views on national security and foreign policy.

His conduct during the Condee-lie-za confirmation, though, went over the edge. Again, I'm tolerant, perhaps to a fault, of many Democrats who chose to bow to the inevitability of her confirmation and cast a yea vote, with appropriate handwringing and caveats. Joe went a step further, though, and a step too far, in his stalwart advocacy for Rice. These quotations culled from Kos are typical...

Lieberman said voting against Rice as a protest of past disagreements over Iraq was futile, and urged senators to back Rice with an eye toward actions she can now take to improve the situation. "Give America's national interest the benefit of the doubt," Lieberman said.

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Lieberman spoke passionately of Rice as a stalwart in the "world war with Islamic terrorism." He urged an end to political partisanship over Iraq, "particularly so when our nation is engaged in a war, a global war on terrorism, a war in Iraq in which Americans have already lost their lives in the cause of freedom and in protection of our security."

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Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who strongly backed the war, urged a "resounding vote" for Rice to show "that we're together for what we're pursuing which is a successful conclusion to our involvement in Iraq and to the spread of freedom and democracy throughout the world."

Enough. Connecticut is a place where a better Democrat can be elected, and I urge the Democrats of Connecticut to find one to challenge Lieberman for re-election. Find us a good one and I can promise whatever help a blogger from the Upper Left can muster. And his 'good points' be damned. You won't find any more defenses of Holy Joe around here.