Bush's Bitch

I had always blamed Ralph Nader and Elian Gonzalez for giving Katherine Harris a semi-plausible pretext for stealing the 2000 election for George Bush. But now I’m wondering if Joe Lieberman wasn’t actually a GOP mole.

I always found him a slightly repellent candidate and was dismayed when the Democrats nominated him. His smarmy piety and family values thing made me slightly nauseated. There was that awful whiny voice that just made your skin crawl. And that excruciating performance in the vice-presidential “debate”, during which Cheney gushed about the superior earning potential he had found in the private sector and Lieberman just sat there and swallowed instead of going after Cheney for the corrupt bastard he is. Of course, I voted for the ticket anyway, but was secretly glad I didn’t have to see that bobblehead on TV anymore.

Since then, however, Lieberman has revealed his true colors by giving aid and comfort to this most deceitful and disastrous of administrations. He totally buys the Israeli argument that you can’t negotiate with extremists in Hamas and Hezbollah, but he’s been more than willing to appease the political extremists in the Bush government.

Now he has lost the primary, but plans to carry on his campaign as an independent--regardless of the consequences for Democratic prospects for regaining a majority in the senate. Either the man is a monstrous egomaniac, or he’s a Republican fellow-traveller.

What does it tell you that Cheney today said that Lieberman’s defeat “might encourage ‘Al Qaeda’ types”? (NYT) Good heavens, how could we possibly fend off the evildoers without Joe Lieberman?

With friends like Dick Cheney, who needs the Democratic Party?