Lieberman on contraception for rape victims, not digging into the past on Iraq, and loyalty.

[madfloridian]

I think back a lot into Joe Lieberman's run against Ned Lamont. I was amazed at the number of power Democrats who came to his aid. I was amazed that even when he made up his own party to run against Lamont...many power Democrats still supported him instead of the Democratic nominee, Ned Lamont. There was a group called Dems for Joe which contained many well-known names.

It was really eye-opening. Joe Lieberman lost the primary. He flat out lost. Yet he still won his seat back. He went on to campaign not just for McCain but against Obama.

He still has his chairmanship, and he was today embraced again by his party. Just as he was when he beat the Democratic nominee Ned Lamont....he was hugged and cheered when he returned to the floor.

One Democrat spoke out against him during the campaign against Lamont. That Democrat is now leaving the party leadership and likely will not be considered for any position in the Obama administration because he is too partisan..too loyal to the party.

Loyal out, disloyal remains.

That one Democrat who spoke out during the 2006 campaign...?

Dean said Lieberman being disrespectful of the party.

"Howard Dean, the Democratic national chairman, called on Mr. Lieberman to quit the race, and in an interview said he would be disappointed in any Democratic Party leader who continued to support Mr. Lieberman, declaring they “have an obligation” to support their nominee.

But most Democrats were united in saying they would not pressure Mr. Lieberman to step aside for now, saying he was too angered by his loss to accept such counseling and noting Republicans as of now do not have a strong candidate who could take advantage of a fractured Democratic field."

Disloyalty to Holy Joe is not easily forgotten. Joe's in the fold, Howard's out.

There are two things about Joe Lieberman's tenure I remember so well. It tells not only where he is, but it shows where our party is heading.

From Jane Hamsher at Fire Dog Lake:

In Connecticut, rape counseling activists say a recent study concludes that about 20% of state hospitals routinely refuse to offer emergency contraceptives to rape victims who are determined to be ovulating at the time they're attacked. A proposed bill would require them to do so.

And what sayeth Joe Lieberman about this? According to The New Haven Register:

This fight isn't exclusively being drawn along party lines.U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who often takes a conservative line on social issues, is facing a liberal Democratic primary challenge from wealthy Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont. But that hasn't stopped Lieberman from supporting the approach of the Catholic hospitals when it comes to contraceptives for rape victims.

Lieberman said he believes hospitals that refuse to give contraceptives to rape victims for "principled reasons" shouldn't be forced to do so. "In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital," he said.

Jane Hamsher on Lieberman

See, rape victims, just ask for a ride to another hospital...don't be so demanding. :eyes:

It also bothered me that Joe Lieberman highly praised the pastor, John Hagee, and compared him to Moses.

Of describing Pastor Hagee in the words that the Torah uses to describe Moses, he is an "Ish Elokim," a man of God and those words really do fit him; and, I'd add something else, like Moses he's become the leader of a mighty multitude, even greater than the multitude that Moses led from Egypt to the promised land.

That was at the CUFI conference where Hagee as much as declared war on Iran.

JOHN HAGEE: Iran is a clear and present danger to the survival of Israel. To the United States of America and the western the world-- western world. Therefore it is time for America to embrace the words of Senator Joseph Lieberman and consider a military preemptive strike against Iran to prevent a nuclear holocaust in Israel and a nuclear attack in America.

BILL MOYERS: On that, participants at the CUFI summit seem to agree: the times call for urgent action - even military action. Some of them believe war - and rumors of war - are part of God's plan.

Here's the part that worries me a lot now that he is being allowed to keep his chairmanships. He did not want to investigate what happened leading up to the Iraq War.

Lieberman doesn't want to to see us "digging around anymore for who did what in 2003"

At a time when this nation's partisan divide seems to be ever widening, Senator John Warner (R-VA) and Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) teamed up at a recent installment of the monthly Aspen Roundtable Series in Washington, DC, sponsored by the DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund, to speak out about the critical need for bipartisan policymaking. Both senators offered foreboding predictions for the situation in Iraq if America's political setting continues to be as divided as it is currently. "I anticipate a very stressful situation unless this Government takes strong control in Iraq—120 days from now is when serious stress on where we're going to go will begin to set in," said Warner. "I don't want to see us digging around anymore for who did what in 2003," said Lieberman, stating that continued partisan finger pointing is damaging the public support that is needed to complete the efforts in Iraq and finally bring US troops home.

This could be one reason he has so much congressional support. He is not the only one who would prefer there be "no digging around" for who did what in 2003.