Joe Lieberman Refuses To Apologize For Campaigning Against Obama
November 23, 2008
Meet the Press, 11/23/08. More:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/23/l...
Lieberman is wrong . It isn't just a matter of what was said in the heat of the moment during the final weeks of the campaign but what Lieberman has said about anyone who dares question the the policies of the Bush administration. Lieberman was a cheerleader for the Bush Regime's push to go to war with Iraq. In Lieberman's opinion Anyone who questions the Intel about Iraq is not a patriotic American because they are undermining the Commander In Chief during a war. Lieberman ignores the fact that the administration lied to the Media and the American people and to the Senate and the Congress. These are impeachable offences under American law and its constitution.
Tom Brokaw being the toady that he is allows Lieberman to get away with framing his answer as if it was only during the campaign that Lieberman said anything against Barack Obama or anyone else who disapproved of the Bush Regime. Over and over again since 9/11 Lieberman was quick to condemn anyone who dared question George W. Bush's policies or motives. Lieberman saw nothing wrong with making Bush into the Dictator In Chief granting him and Cheney & Co. all the power they wanted to break whatever American or International Laws they chose to. Lieberman like Dick Cheney is the quintessential " Ugly American " believing America can do whatever it wants; invade sovereign nations to get their oil; to kill hundreds of thousands of people; to kidnap, torture and murder those who are under suspicion of being enemies of the United States etc.
We can only hope that Barack Obama will be able to control and to pull the plug as it were on Lieberman if Lieberman becomes an obstructionist but hasn't this been Lieberman's role all along.
Joe Lieberman an Early Supporter of Iraq War- Drinking the Neocon Kool-Aid
From Echochamber project
10/2/02: Joe Lieberman was very eager to authorize Bush "to take military action to protect the region and the world from Iraq under Saddam Hussein." He was one of the senators who shared the stage with Bush before the House & Senate approved the war 9 days later. Lieberman says, "There is no more fateful, important, or difficult responsibility that the Constitution gives members of Congress than to decide when, whether, and how to authorize the President as Commander-in-Chief to go to war. Mr. President, in your eloquent, powerful, and convincing statement this morning, you have reminded us, and I believe the American people, about why this is such a circumstance."Lieberman concludes by saying that the resolution authorizing the war in Iraq is "the best hope for a stronger America and for a life for the American people that is safer."
Joe Lieberman an Early Supporter of Iraq War- Drinking the Neocon Kool-Aid
It is strange and ironic hearing Lieberman talking about the rule of law and yet the Bush Regime which he supports over and over again broke one law after another. In fact Bush & Cheney etc. argued that the United States can act unilaterally and ignore the International community and International Laws and agreements. They also argued over the last eight years that the President and Vice President of the United States are above the law . They argue as the Executive Branch that they are not accountable to Congress or the Senate or the Judiciary or even the American People in a time of war.
Bush and Cheney and their ideology of expanding the American Empire and their belief in deregulation and Laissez Faire unfettered Capitalism of the Free Market Place have been rejected by the American people when Americans voted in favor of Barack Obama as President .The American voters in the election of Barack Obama have rejected the use of renditions and torture and other abuses of detainees.
Was it right for Barack Obama to forgive Joe Lieberman ? Can Lieberman be trusted or will he do all he can to protect former members of the Bush administration. Will he continue to pander to the Pentagon Hawks and the Rogue CIA. Will he continue to support the use of torture and to defend those who have given orders to torture and abuse detainees ?
From The Real News Network- Joe (Lieberman) and Barack : Who owns who? By Pepe Escobar
Once Senator Joe Lieberman was Senator Barack Obama's mentor and urged him to "reach for the stars." Then he fiercely campaigned against Obama alongside his close friend, Republican Senator John McCain. He lost his bet. Many a Democrat believed there was only one way out as far as Lieberman was concerned: heavy punishment by the Democratic Party. The President-elect ordered otherwise. Pepe Escobar argues this is a political marriage of convenience.
And from
The Young Turks: Lieberman Pushes For War With Iran.
From: TheYoungTurksAdded: May 13, 2008
Oh yes the commentator Cenk Uygur gets upset but the issue is important and can lead to even further disaster for the United States.
JOE LIEBERMAN argues in favor of interrogation techniques what the rest of the world calls torture. Lieberman claims that either these techniques are not torture and if they are so what because they are necessary to America's security which trumps any notions of human rights or International Agreements.
For instance
Lieberman on Torture by Jesse Hamilton Hartford Courant February 14, 2008
Sen. Joe Lieberman, the "Independent Democrat," joined Senate Republicans this week trying to oppose a bill banning interrogation techniques, including waterboarding. The bill passed Wednesday (though the White House has threatened a veto.) But the senator explained more of his view on torture and waterboarding on Thursday.
The bill would restrict all government agents to the use of techniques described in the Army Field Manual, which doesn't allow physical methods of interrogation. Why does Lieberman oppose the idea? Because he sees information, including classified reports, that lead him to believe "the terrorists are actively planning, plotting to attack us again. I want our government to be able to gather information."
"The ban was much too broad," he said.
So Lieberman claims such techniques as waterboarding is more psychological than physical and according to Lieberman does not therefore constitute torture. So faked executions , the playing of loud music, sleep deprivation or sensory deprivation , isolation , threats and intimidation , verbal abuse - like Bush and Cheney Lieberman rejects the International Agreements on torture and the accepted definitions of torture in those various agreements including the Geneva Conventions. Once again we have an American Senator who thinks American officials have a right to re-define torture and to re-interpret the Geneva Conventions to suit America's purposes and agenda.And once again we have someone in a powerful position who will give the military and private contractors and the CIA etc. a great deal of leeway. In what sense is this supposed to be a sign of change.
Lieberman supported the War in Iraq and continues to do so while urging an attack on Iran and other countries.He has been an outspoken cheerleader for the Bush Regime and its policies. He was also a supporter of the McCain/Palin ticket and was used as an attack dog as it were against Barack Obama.
-------
Does Obama think he can control Lieberman?
Lieberman as they say happily drank the Kool-Aid in regards to Iraq. It seems He believed all the propaganda & lies that the Bush Regime said about Saddam, Iraq, WMDs and Saddam's connections to Al Qaeda & 9/11. He believes that "water-boarding" and other torture techniques are not in fact torture since Cheney told him it wasn't. The Bush Regime made up its own definition of what is and what is not "torture" and Joe Lieberman accepts it as gospel truth.
A SLAP IN THE FACE OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO VOTED FOR CHANGE! Senator Bernie Sanders
Lieberman- Bush's Man in Obama Adminiistration
Bush and Lieberman on Iraq (Updated)
How many of the Good Old Boys who supported Bush & Cheney will keep their jobs and not be at least shamed into going into the shadows where they belong.
Joe Lieberman was and is amongst those who believe that any American citizen or legislator can be accused of being a traitor who gives aid and comfort to America's enemies who criticizes the Bush Regime about its policies.This in itself should have gotten him tossed out of the Democratic Party if they had any sense or any sense of decency or shame.
And here is Lieberman being schooled & scolded by Chuck Hagel
Joe Lieberman gets ripped apart by Chuck Hagel on MTP
ctbloggerAdded: January 14, 2007
A Republican does something that the Democrats refuse to do...put Holy Joe Lieberman in his place.Read more about Geogr Bush's favorite senator at ConnecticutBLOG
Salon by Glenn Greenwald Wednesday, January 24, 2007 The toxicity of Joe Lieberman's treason accusations
Joe Lieberman has probably become the single most poisonous Beltway voice when it comes to the war in Iraq. The Bush administration's principal rhetorical tactic for the last five years, of course, has been to equate opposition to its policies and criticism of the Leader with love of the Terrorists. But when it comes to the debate over Iraq, Lieberman -- time and again -- has managed to descend even further into the rhetorical sewer than the administration itself.Lieberman, of course, spent several years warning Americans not to criticize their Leader with regard to the War. Just two weeks ago, Lieberman went on Meet the Press and prompted an angry outburst from Chuck Hagel after Lieberman sat there smugly accusing Hagel and anyone else who opposes the Glorious Surge of wanting the U.S. to lose in Iraq. In the same appearance, Lieberman also looked straight into the camera and said that the U.S. was "attacked on 9/11 by the same enemy that we’re fighting in Iraq today" -- a claim so transparently false that even the President long ago abandoned it.But yesterday, Lieberman reached what might be a new low. During the confirmation hearings of Gen. David Petraeus, Lieberman provoked this truly reprehensible exchange with Gen. Petraeus, as summarized by The Washington Post's Thomas Ricks:---
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) asked Army Lt. Gen. David H . Petraeus during his confirmation hearing yesterday if Senate resolutions condemning White House Iraq policy "would give the enemy some comfort."Petraeus agreed they would, saying, "That's correct, sir."
Using the terms to" give comfort" and the "enemy" in the same phrase has no conceivable objective other than to invoke accusations of treason. The Constitution's definition of "treason" is exactly that -- giving "Aid and Comfort" to the enemy. For Lieberman to purposely track the Constitution's treason language when describing opponents of the "surge" plan -- and to invite the new Iraq War Commander to agree with his accusation -- reveals so inescapably what Lieberman is. That's just the basest and most despicable smear one can imagine.The Post also re-prints the response to this exchange from Sen. John Warner -- who, as a newly announced surge opponent and co-sponsor of one of the enemy-comforting resolutions in question, is now one of the many whom Lieberman is accusing of being "some" type of a traitor. Warner warned Petraeus of how ill-advised it is for Petraeus to associate himself with the toxic sentiments of Joe Lieberman:
I hope that this colloquy has not entrapped you into some responses that you might later regret. I wonder if you would just give me the assurance that you'll go back and examine the transcript as to what you replied with respect to certain of these questions and review it, because we want you to succeed.
To Joe Lieberman, anyone who opposes whatever Iraq plan he happens to be currently favoring is a frivolous, defeat-hungry traitor -- giving "some comfort" to the "enemy." He's really the Senate's modern-day Joe McCarthy, smearing everyone's character and impugning everyone's motives who doesn't march faithfully along behind the President. What makes it all the more deceitful is that he never ceases to piously masquerade around as the Beacon of Civility and Honor, a disguise long propped up by an adoring Beltway media.But now, Lieberman's behavior has become so toxic and ignoble that even decorous, restrained Senate Republicans -- no strangers to the art of the political smear -- have begun condemning him in unusually strong terms. What is more pernicious than for a politician, in a Senate hearing with the country's new top General in Iraq, to expressly equate disagreement with their war views with treason? Not much.
Lieberman also believes Obama's policies on Iraq will rob America of a victory in Iraq:
And from CNN Sun July 20, 2008
Lieberman: Obama choosing to lose Iraq war
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama is choosing to lose the Iraq war by planning to withdraw American combat troops, a high-profile supporter of Republican candidate Sen. John McCain said Sunday.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut, said McCain's support for bolstering U.S. forces in Iraq last year to subdue insurgents has made Obama's expected visit to Iraq this week possible.
"John McCain had the guts to argue against public opinion, to put his whole campaign on the line, because, as he says, he'd rather lose an election than lose in a war that he thinks is this important to the United States," Lieberman said on "Fox News Sunday."
"If Barack Obama's policy in Iraq had been implemented, he couldn't be in Iraq today," Lieberman said, adding that Obama "was prepared to accept retreat and defeat."
Obama's expected arrival in Baghdad is part of a multi-country trip that included a Saturday stop in Afghanistan, where the Illinois senator says he would send more U.S. troops to bolster the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda.
The remarks by Lieberman -- who ran for vice president as a Democrat in 2000 -- drew a sharp response from Sen. Evan Bayh, an Obama supporter who appeared with Lieberman on the show.
Obama's initial opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq "was right from the beginning," said Bayh, D-Indiana
And even after discovering that the Bush Administration had cooked up the Intel on Iraq and bamboozled the Media and the American people Lieberman like other American Conservatives still believes everything the Bush Regime and its propagandists say.
Lieberman: We may have to bomb Iran-June 10, 2007
Lieberman Believes all of the Bush's administration's Cooked up Intel on Iran
He claims he's seen the evidence that Iran is a major player in the Iraq War.
Didn't Senator Lieberman make similar claims about Iraq before the US Invasion & Occupation of Iraq. He mentions several hundred dead American troops but says nothing about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed. I forgot they are not Americans and so to Lieberman and the conservatives the Iraqis don't count.
Lieberman: Iranians will "pay for it.":.
mjbindcAdded: March 04, 2007
Sen. Lieberman outside the studios of CBS News in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 2007.Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) today re-asserted his belief in intelligence presented by the Bush administration proved a link between the Iranians Quds special forces and Shia insurgents in Iraq, he has also said that he believes the highest levels of the Iranian government are behind this alleged relationship. Lieberman recently admonished others before a session of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee for being skeptical of these intelligence claims.The Senator went so far as to advise the Bush administration to read the riot act to the Iranians and let them know that "if they don't stop, they'll pay for it
"
Lieberman: How About Another War?- Sept. 11, 2007
From: VeracifierGeneral David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testify before the Senate on the Iraq surge progress report, September 11 2007
Lieberman claims that America is at war with most of the nations in the Middle East except Israel.
Lieberman spouts the Bush administration line that Syria and Iraq & possibly Lebanon took part in 9/11 attacks.
Specter Gives Lieberman A Lesson On Foreign Policy
From: intoxination
Added: April 08, 2007
In a total flip-flop we have a Republican defending Nancy Pelosi, while Liberman, the man who swears he is a Democrat, is bashing Pelosi. Liebmerman even goes as far as to try to implicate Syria in 9/11.
and so it goes,
GORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment