Off scale

Robert Kagan sent the BS meter off scale this morning when he told us that Joe Lieberman may lose the primary on Tuesday because he's The Last Honest Man.

The question of the day is, what makes Joe Lieberman different? What makes him now anathema to a Democratic Party and to liberal columnists who once supported both him and the war? Why is there now a chance he will lose the Democratic primary in Connecticut after so many years of faithfully serving that state and his own party?

So what does Kagan think the reason is?

No, Lieberman's sin is of a different order. Lieberman stands condemned today because he didn't recant. He didn't say he was wrong. He didn't turn on his former allies and condemn them. He didn't claim to be the victim of a hoax. He didn't try to pretend that he never supported the war in the first place. He didn't claim to be led into support for the war by a group of writers and intellectuals whom he can now denounce. He didn't go through a public show of agonizing and phony soul-baring and apologizing in the hopes of resuscitating his reputation, as have some noted "public intellectuals."

I'm sorry Mr Kagan but there is no nobility in refusing to admit you were wrong when it's become obvious to anyone who pays attention that you were. And there is nothing noble about making an attempt to "recant" in the final hours of a campaign by saying you didn't say things that you did just a few short months ago, for example should Donald Rumsfeld be replaced?

Mr Kagan also sticks with the meme that opposition to Lieberman is all about the war.

It will not be because he is a bad Democrat. As others have pointed out, on the broadest range of social, economic and even foreign policy issues he has been a stalwart member of his party. Indeed, the questioning of his Democratic credentials is absurd given that he was, after all, the party's candidate for vice president in 2000.

As many others have pointed out he hasn't been such a great Democrat on domestic issues in the last few years either. All we have to do is look at things like the bankruptcy bill, his pandering to the religious right during the Terri Schiavo debacle and the Alito nomination just to name a few. The simple fact that he plans to run as an independent when he loses the primary shows he is no Democrat. Yes Mr Kagan the war was the catalyst but there is so much more. But it's not because Lieberman is honest or a man of principal.