Joe Lieberman for Senate

Should Joe Lieberman be turned out of the United States Senate?

Democrats in Connecticut must choose whether to keep Lieberman who has been acceptable to them for eighteen years or to elect his primary opponent based on his position on a single issue, the Iraq War. This is the nature of republican form of government. We elect people to represent us, to study the issues and to make decisions based on balancing the short term desires of the voters and the long term needs of the constituents and the nation.

Democratic voters in Connecticut are incensed by Lieberman’s stand on the war. It was one thing to be in favor of the conflict based on the yarns that the Bush administration wove into a fabric alleging that Saddam posed a security threat to the U.S. But the lame defenses of the attack put up by the President after his WMD rationale tripped over itself have completely turned off Nutmeg voters – and the vast majority of other Americans. But Joe hops from clambake to clambake happily spouting that getting rid of Saddam was a great thing despite the facts about WMD and the unmade connection between al Qaeda and Saddam’s government and his seemingly obliviousness to the great cost in blood and treasure and the bogging down of our military even as the world grows evermore dangerous.

Suffice it to say, Joe’s apologies for the Bush war are convincing almost none of the Democratic faithful in his state. He still appears to be in the lead in the primary, but that is clearly based on the balancing that the voters in a republic are forced to stagger under. Almost no Democrats facing the choice agree with the baloney Joe is spewing on the war, and seeing the he’s in trouble in, the Senator is preparing to run in the general election as an Independent and has signaled his intent to vote in the Senate Democratic Caucus if he’s returned to office.

Obviously, we expect our representatives to use their independent judgment in voting on issues and only when they fail us too many times or too badly should we turn them out. That is exactly the equation the Democrats in Connecticut are figuring, and the decision of each voter hinges on the answer to: does the Senator’s unrelenting support of the President on the Iraq War when balanced against the possibility, however remote, that their decision could sustain the Republican majority in the Senate that is viewed by these same voters as damaging to the national interest warrant the defeat of Joe Lieberman?

Each voter must balance eighteen years of relative happiness with one grave failure. To me this is a watershed decision. Lieberman’s unrepentant stance in favor of the Bush administration’s policy on the war on terror, highlighted by the attack on Iraq, is so great that were I a voter in this primary, I’d turn him out in a heartbeat. If we don’t show our politicians that they are being judged and that we’re willing to send them packing in a case of grievous departure from our wishes then we have in effect created a permanent class of office holders.

Thumbs Down! Off with his head!

Blog on!

Wild Bill