Neocon Joe

Make no mistake, Joe Lieberman has not recently gone over to the dark side, he was always a card carrying member. A life long neocon through and through, that's Joe. The only thing that's changed is he is now very up front about it and as a result is the new darling of the Bush administration. Sorry Zell Miller, your folksy moronic hate mongering is no longer in style.
Lieberman Wins Republican Friends, Democratic Enemies With Support for War

Five years ago, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman was one of President Bush's arch political rivals. Now many in his party complain that he sounds more like Bush's running mate.

The Connecticut Democrat's strong public defense of Bush's handling of the Iraq war has provided the White House with an invaluable rejoinder to intensifying criticism from other Democrats. In public statements and a newspaper column, Lieberman has argued that Bush has a strategy for victory in Iraq, has dismissed calls for the president to set a timetable for troop withdrawal, and has warned that it would be a "colossal mistake" for the Democratic leadership to "lose its will" at this critical point in the war.

At a time when the American people are turning against Bush's war for oil Lieberman is just as out of touch as those with an "R" after their names and even more so than some.

Over at Slate John Dickerson asks Joe Republican?

George Bush can't stop talking about Sen. Joe Lieberman. For the last two weeks, the president has been citing the Connecticut Democrat in his major speeches about the war in Iraq. Bush has quoted Lieberman as saying that we have made progress in Iraq and have a strategy for winning, then he declared: "Sen. Lieberman is right."

Vice President Dick Cheney also quoted Lieberman approvingly this week. Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman and White House spokesman Scott McClellan name-checked Lieberman, too. Last January, George Bush gave Lieberman a kiss on the cheek before the State of the Union. The way things are going, this January Bush might give him a back rub.

Why so much affection? Lieberman, a conservative Democrat, has credibility, and Bush is trying to regain his. When Bush says there's progress in Iraq, moderates think he's spinning. When Lieberman says it, they might actually believe it. Quoting Lieberman highlights the Democratic Party's confused position on the war. White House aides hope Lieberman becomes the anti-Murtha, the sage Democrat who slows the push for speedy withdrawal.

Dickerson points out the real danger of neocon Joe: "When Bush says there's progress in Iraq, moderates think he's spinning. When Lieberman says it, they might actually believe it."Lieberman also remains the darling of the corporatist DLC types like Marshall Wittmann who warns the Democrats not to turn on Lieberman but embrace his "wisdom".

And now, some in the party, incredibly including the Senate Minority Leader are making it inhospitable for their former Vice Presidential standard bearer, Joe Lieberman. Here's some news for them - they are not only telling Joe that the Democratic Party does not have room for his views, they are also communicating to millions of Americans who might support this war or not, but find defeat unacceptable, that they are not welcome in this exclusive political club.

And then he has this to say:

Here's some news for Reid, Pelosi and Dean - you are the minority party. You control nothing in this town. And it is unlikely that you ever will or should control anything as long as you apply a litmus test on prominent elected officials.

Well I've got news for more Bull than Moose. What good is it to be the new majority party is you are no different than the old one. And Wittmann has this to say about Howard Dean.

But, there is irony and mirth in all of this. In a week that the Chairman of the Party played into the hands of the GOP by suggesting that we could not win in Iraq, his brother launched a crusade of criticism of Joe Lieberman. It appears that the entire Dean clan is committed to making the Democrats remain in the minority.

I'm sorry, but the reality is we can't win if we stay and we can't win if we leave. The only difference between leaving and staying is fewer Americans will die. George W. Bush started a war for oil on false pretenses that we could never win and that's the crime.