READING CHENEY'S PLAYBOOK?

JOE LIEBERMAN


Wow. This one has got to be seen to be believed.
A few weeks ago, Dick Cheney committed two errors. The first was that he commented on a northeast state's party primary, namely the Connecticut Democratic primary. People in his position have no business offering comment on a local matter. Maybe I'm overly sensitive, but I just thought that it was improper to say anything. The second offense? What was said in that comment, namely that al Qaida types were really digging that Ned Lamont defeated incumbent Joe Lieberman based mostly on Joe's wrongheaded support for Bush's costly and poorly executed war in Iraq. The inference was that a vote for Ned was a vote for al Qaida. But, then we all know that Dick has no shame or morals or a soul for that matter, so this sort of statement shouldn't have been that shocking. [Original quote via Think Progress.]
On August 20, John Kerry was on This Week, where he accused Joe of "adopting the rhetoric of Dick Cheney," on the issue of Iraq. I think Senator Kerry hit the nail on the head with that one. Why? Take a gander at this photo:

While I will readily admit that I have no concrete proof that this guy is in fact employed by Joe Lieberman, Jane Hamsher over at Firedoglake seemed to have a firm grasp on the subject when she wrote "Now, I can’t say for sure if Lieberman is paying this guy to make this sick and truly despicable joke. But, in my experience, nearly all the people who show up on behalf of Lieberman not named Lieberman are collecting a paycheck for it." [Quick shoutout for one of the commenters at Ned Lamont's blog, ShermanDem, who wrote this about the above photo: "I’m confused. Why is a Shepard from last year’s Christmas Pageant touting Lamont a big deal? I just want to know if the Pageant organizers know the costume is missing? Where is his shepard’s crook? Seriously, who the hell is he supposed to be? A retro Islamo-fascist?" I thought the same thing when I first saw the photo, but he wrote it way funnier than I thought it so he gets the mention.]

It's truly frightening how wholeheartedly Joe Lieberman has embraced the Republican Party election playbook. He's gone from the Vice Presidential nominee for his party in 2000 to this year's version of Zell Miller (anyone wanna bet that he'll be speaking at the GOP Convention in '08?). And the irony of it all is he would most likely be Vice President right now if he had shown this much drive and tenacity when debating Cheney or during the Battle for Florida during the 36 day recount and legal battle.