A Crusade Without A Cause

I'll admit that I've always been a little mystified by the Daily Kos' campaign against Sen. Joe Lieberman. (See this and this.) The latest installment from the DK continues to mystify.

As usual, the New York Times misses the issue. This in its story today on Lieberman is so offbase as to be laughable and makes you wonder if the reporter knows anything:

Their disappointment with Mr. Lieberman illustrates the difficulty of trying to be a centrist in an increasingly polarized political climate. Mr. Lieberman has gone from a possible Democratic heir apparent to a presidential primary footnote in 2004 to the conspicuous odd man out in his own Senate party caucus.

Excuse me, NYT reporter, the problem is not in being a centrist. Look it up, you may find out that the Senate Minority Leader is well to the right of Lieberman on many issues - most notably abortion rights. Is Senator Reid too "centrist"?

No, NYT Reporter, the problem is this:

In recent weeks, he has angered Democratic activists nationwide for expressing a willingness to work with President Bush to change Social Security. Critics say that is just his latest act of disloyalty to the party. He already had supported the war in Iraq and Mr. Bush's cabinet choices - and received a televised presidential smooch at the State of the Union address.

Ohmigod! It looks like Joe Lieberman has been engaged in politics! (The horror!) One wonders if dastardly Joe has been engaged in acts of compromise and negotiation as well. At the expense of ideological purity!! You prepare the tar and feathers!! I'll get the rail!

It's all so incredibly stupid. Of course I begin to wonder if the real trouble doesn't stem from Lieberman's unflinching support of Israel. After all, that was why he didn't mind toppling Saddam Hussein. I remember seeing video of some Democratic event right after Baghdad fell, and Senator Lieberman raised his hand in triumph celebrating the fact that the murderous thug had fallen. No one in the audience could care less. The whole episode made me cringe and feel sorry for the guy. He was making a fool of himself in front of that audience. He was absolutely right in thinking that Israel's long term security could only be helped by this action. He was absolutely wrong in thinking that anyone in that audience gave a flying fig.

I disagree with Sen. Lieberman on lots of things, but I believe him to be an honorable man who deserves better than this.