Shameless and Clueless

Now I don't know how much of the plot uncovered by the British if genuine and how much of it is hype. It would appear to be more serious than the much hyped Miami Seven. Certainly more organized and with connections in Pakistan. The Miami Seven were not organized and their only connection seemed to be with the FBI. In addition I don't think that law enforcement in Britain has been completely politicized like it has in the US.

There are a couple of things I do know. After five years Bush's "war of terror" has not only been a failure but made us less safe and that the Bush administration, that includes Joe Lieberman, will politicize anything.

After Ned Lamont's victory in Connecticut, I saw a number of commentaries describing Joe Lieberman not just as a "centrist" - a word that has come to mean "someone who makes excuses for the Bush administration" - but as "sensible." But on what planet would Mr. Lieberman be considered sensible?

That is the first paragraph of Paul Krugman's column to day, Nonsense and Sensibility. There is nothing sensible about supporting the misadventure in Iraq and supporting Donald Rumsfeld's incompetence which has simply poured gasoline on the fire of Islamic fundamentalism.

Take a look at Thomas Ricks's 'Fiasco,' the best account yet of how the U.S. occupation of Iraq was mismanaged. The prime villain in that book is Donald Rumsfeld, whose delusional thinking and penchant for power games undermined whatever chances for success the United States might have had. Then read Mr. Lieberman's May 2004 op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal, 'Let Us Have Faith,' in which he urged Mr. Rumsfeld not to resign over the Abu Ghraib scandal, because his removal 'would delight foreign and domestic opponents of America's presence in Iraq.'

And that's just one example of Mr. Lieberman's bad judgment. He has been wrong at every step of the march into the Iraq quagmire - all the while accusing anyone who disagreed with him of endangering national security. Again, on what planet would Mr. Lieberman be considered 'sensible'? But I know the answer: on Planet Beltway.

Lieberman is beyond redemption

But in his non-concession speech, Mr. Lieberman described Mr. Lamont as representative of a political tendency in which 'every disagreement is considered disloyal' - a statement of remarkable chutzpah from someone who famously warned Democrats that 'we undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril.'

The question now is how deep into the gutter Mr. Lieberman's ego will drag him.

There's an overwhelming consensus among national security experts that the war in Iraq has undermined, not strengthened, the fight against terrorism. Yet yesterday Mr. Lieberman, sounding just like Dick Cheney - and acting as a propaganda tool for Republicans trying to Swift-boat the party of which he still claims to be a member - suggested that the changes in Iraq policy that Mr. Lamont wants would be 'taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England.'In other words, not only isn't Mr. Lieberman sensible, he may be beyond redemption.

Does the fear all the time still sell? There are indications that it's becoming a no sale. A Zogby poll conducted August 9-10 indicated that:

....four out of five Democrats (79%) were happy the former Democratic vice presidential nominee was knocked off by Lamont.....
.....Just 12% said they were not pleased with the results of the primary, which riveted political junkies across the nation.

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Lieberman, Krugman, terror, Iraq

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