PAUL C. CAMPOS: No wonder Democrats are angry with Lieberman
http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/opinions/story/3328222p-12256969c.htmlScripps Howard News Service
Consider what Joe Lieberman said just last week: "The situation in Iraq is a lot better than it was a year ago." The Iraqis "are on the way to building a free and independent Iraq. Two-thirds of their military is now ready, on their own, to lead the fight with some logistical backing from the U.S. or stand up on their own totally. That's progress. And the question is, are we going to abandon them when they are making that progress?"
This might as well be a press release from the Ministry of Truth. Indeed, it's substantively identical to the "This Week in Iraq" e-mails I get from the White House. I'm sure my fellow liberal pundits get the same e-mails, and are similarly appalled by the willingness of the administration to continue to spout transparent nonsense in the service of a bankrupt policy. (Someone who claims "the situation in Iraq is a lot better than it was a year ago" deserves precisely as much respect as someone who claims Bush carried out the 9/11 attacks).
So why are some liberals sticking up for Lieberman? The Bush administration sold the Iraq war on a phony premise. It worked hard to convince Americans that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11. And it succeeded - more than half the public believed this by the fall of 2002. After utterly botching the occupation and causing incalculable damage to America, Bush's "plan" consists of continuing to pretend the whole thing isn't a catastrophe until the day he dumps it in his successor's lap. And Joe Lieberman has been one of the president's biggest cheerleaders, every bloody step of the way.
Yet according to various liberal commentators, supporting Lieberman's opponent in a Senate primary is somehow wrong. Have these people lost their minds?