(Former) Senator Lieberman
Joe
Lieberman disses the entire education establishment at Betsy DeVos’s
confirmation hearing (1/17/2017)
Top 10 Horrible Things Done To Us By Outgoing Senator Joseph Lieberman (1/19/2011)
Lieberman Draws Fire With Times Remark on Wikileaks. (12/10/2010)
Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson Stand in the Way of Meaningful Reforms … Yet Again (9/14/2010)
S. 3480 - Lieberman's Call To Silence the People
Senator Lieberman's Latest Constitutional Buffoonery (5/6/2010)
Joe Lieberman Wants to Introduce Bill That Would Strip Americans of Citizenship (5/5/2010)
What about Lieberman ? (video)
LIEBERMAN FINALLY AMONG FRIENDS
When Joe Lieberman left the Senate earlier this year, he probably muttered a final, "You won't have me to kick around anymore, you rotten hippies" under his breath. After all, there was no member of the Senate with a more openly hostile relationship with his own party than Lieberman. There are conservative Democrats who buck the party line as often, but all of them come from conservative states and tack right to maintain their electoral viability. Not Lieberman—he represented one of the most liberal states in the country. Lieberman did it for spite.
So it wasn't too much of a surprise to learn today that Lieberman will be joining the American Enterprise Institute, where he'll chat by the copy machine with the likes of John Bolton, Lynn Cheney, Charles Murray, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz. Perhaps Lieberman deserves some credit for not cashing in and becoming a lobbyist like everyone else who leaves Congress, but it's hard to believe he didn't take the job feeling pleasure in the knowledge it was just one more thing that would make liberals dislike him, after he spent the last decade doing whatever he could to arouse their ire. There was the Iraq War, of course, which really started it all; Lieberman's enthusiastic support for the war led to a successful primary challenge in 2006. (After losing Connecticut's Democratic primary, he won election as an independent but continued to caucus with Democrats). But Lieberman's fight with the left reached its apex during the debate over health-care reform, when he announced that he would join a Republican filibuster of the bill if it contained a public option, then when that was dropped, announced he'd join a filibuster if it contained a Medicare buy-in for people over 55, which he himself had previously supported. Why? As The New York Times wrote at the time, Lieberman decided that a buy-in was abhorrent "because it was enthusiastically embraced by supporters of a government-run health system." Or, more succinctly: Screw you, hippies.
In those last few years, that seemed his animating purpose, to stick it to the liberals who primaried him and said mean things about him. It was an ignoble end to a career that otherwise had a good deal to commend it. So it seems only right that Lieberman ends up at a place like AEI, where the occasional mild strategic disagreement notwithstanding, they can all agree on one thing: hating liberals. (From the American Prospect)
DINO
Lieberman's alliance with the Republican Party runs ever deeper. He endorsed and stumped for McCain, wanted to be the star of the Republican National Convention, and has even served on a 527 group that smeared Barack Obama with a nasty attack ad.
Lieberman willing to star at Republican convention
Lieberman:
'Thank God' political momentum now with GOP
(4/13/2010)
Yes, you read that right. In an interview with conservative
magazine NewsMax1, Lieberman said, "Now, all of a
sudden, the momentum is with the Republicans. And that's —
thank God — that's the way people have spoken, you know?
That's our democracy." He also praised former Alaska Gov.
Sarah Palin, claiming, "I don't know what her future is,
but I'm just saying everybody should listen."
Not surprisingly, Lieberman wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. (7/28/2010)
Lieberman: It’s ‘a good question’ to ask if Obama is ‘a Marxist.’
On Finance
Lieberman enabled our current financial collapse by voting for the repeal of Glass-Steagle, the law that separated taxpayer insured deposits from wild speculation.
"The power of our private managers over our public servants was exemplified by the ability of business lobbyists to persuade Congress to nullify the 1993 attempt by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to require stock options to be expensed in corporate earnings statements. In June 1993, Senator Joseph Lieberman introduced a bill condemning the FASB’s attempt, which passed the Senate overwhelmingly. He later introduced a side bill that would have put the FASB out of business if it implemented its option-expensing initiative. The FASB had little choice but to retreat, a sad example of legislation interfering in accounting decisions." John C. Bogle in The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism pg 39
Why aren’t Tea Partiers upset about McCain and Lieberman’s power grab?
McCain and Lieberman Setting Us On A Path To Dictatorship (3/19/2010)
Is Joe Lieberman Protecting Israel ? (12/15/2009)
On War
Joe Lieberman is a war hawk, plain and simple. He staunchly supported George Bush's War in Iraq and John McCain's plan to stay in Iraq for 100 years.
Lieberman: United States Must Pre-Emptively Act In Yemen 27 Dec 2009 Sen. Joseph Lieberman, (I-Israel) a renowned hawk and one of the foremost champions of the invasion of Iraq, warned on Sunday that the United States faced "danger" unless it pre-emptively acts to curb the rise of terrorism in Yemen. "Somebody in our government said to me in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, Iraq was yesterday's war. Afghanistan is today's war. If we don't act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow's war. That's the danger we face," LIEberman said during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." (From CLG news)
Lieberman: Not enough votes in Senate to ratify new START treaty (4/11/2010)
Joe Lieberman's declaration of war on Iran
Jon Stewart Slams Media, Lieberman Over Military Spending (4/10/2009)
Lieberman: U.S. Should Attack Iran's Nuclear Program If All Else Fails (4/12/2010)
Lieberman/Kyl provocation against Iran. 10/13/2007
Polls Are In: People Really Do Hate Joe Lieberman (12/23/2009)
Military Commissions Act
In 2006 Sen. Lieberman, Rep. Nancy Johnson, Chris Shays, and Rob Simmons all voted for the Military Commissions Act and it passed.
In an interview with Harper's Magazine, Jane Mayer discusses the International Committee of the Red Cross report on torture, and commented:
The reaction of top Bush Administration officials to the ICRC report, from what I can gather, has been defensive and dismissive. They reject the ICRC’s legal analysis as incorrect. Yet my reporting shows that inside the White House there has been growing fear of criminal prosecution, particularly after the Supreme Court ruled in the Hamdan case that the Geneva Conventions applied to the treatment of the detainees. This nervousness resulted in the successful effort to add retroactive immunity to the Military Commission Act. Cheney personally spearheaded this effort. Fear of the consequences of exposure also weighed heavily in discussions about whether to shut the CIA program down. In White House meetings, Cheney warned that if they transferred the CIA’s prisoners to Guantanamo, “people will want to know where they have been—and what we’ve been doing with them.” Alberto Gonzales, a source said, “scared” everyone about the possibility of war crimes prosecutions. It was on their minds. Six Questions for Jane Mayer, Author of The Dark Side
(From 10/18/06 CLG news) Keith Olbermann:
"President [sic] Bush, happy Habeas Corpus Day. First thing this morning, the president signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which does away with habeas corpus, the right of suspected terrorists or anybody else to know why they have been imprisoned, provided the president does not think it should apply to you and declares you an enemy combatant... Does that not basically mean that if Mr. Bush or Mr. Rumsfeld say so, anybody in this country, citizen or not, innocent or not, can end up being an unlawful enemy combatant? Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Constitutional Law Professor: It certainly does. In fact, later on, it says that if you even give material support to an organization that the president deems connected to one of these groups, you too can be an enemy combatant. And the fact that he appoints this tribunal is meaningless. You know, standing behind him at the signing ceremony was his attorney general, who signed a memo that said that you could torture people, that you could do harm to them to the point of organ failure or death. So if he appoints someone like that to be attorney general, you can imagine who he’s going be putting on this board."
Why The Military Commissions Act is No Moderate Compromise
On Healthcare
Lieberman Among Top Recipients of Health Insurance Money; Opposes Medicare Expansion (12/15/2009)
Senator Lieberman received Contributions from health & insurance interests of $3,308,621 so it is not surprising that he reiterated his threat To support a GOP filibuster.
Lieberman says "the public doesn't support the public option". A recent survey shows he is wrong. "More than three out of every four Americans feel it is important to have a "choice" between a government-run health care insurance option and private coverage, according to a public opinion poll..." Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/new-poll-77-percent-suppo_n_264375.html
Actually, A Public Option would save many Billions (9/1/2009)
Morning Joe repeatedly airs Lieberman's false claim on public option
Why Lieberman Blocks a Public Option (Nov 10,2009)
Slide Show: Enemies of Health Reform
Lieberman Reiterates Threat To Support GOP Filibuster (10/14/2009)
"Even after supporting John McCain, Lieberman still holds a top rank within the Senate Democratic Caucus as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Senate Democratic Steering Committee needs to know just how much of a conflict of interest this is. That's why Lieberman Must Go. Sign the petition at http://BoldProgressives.org/majorityvote"
On Elections
Vote counting cannot be privatized to hard-right partisans if we are to have real elections. Partisans have installed machines that are blatantly hackable, and unauditable. Election rigging is now mostly computer crime, although there are many imaginative other techniques frequently used in U.S. elections. Lieberman was one of the leaders on the HAVA (Help America Vote Act which perpetuated the problem.) See the Voting Machine and the Elections pages.
Silence on the Senator (10/28/2009)
On Homeland Security
Senator Lieberman was instrumental in approving Michael Brown to head FEMA with the explanation that Bush should have any appointee that he wants. No. He shouldn't. He put cronies, Enron refugees, Iran-Contra felons, corporate lobbyists, ideologues, religious zealots, and other party hacks and unqualified operatives in to public positions and the predictable results were seen in the aftermath of Katrina, the Iraq War, and the massive debt run-up. It is profitable though. Naomi Klein in her insightful book "The Shock Doctrine" describes disaster capitalism as a new paradigm.
Michael Moore responds to Lieberman (9/5/2008)
Senator Joe
Lieberman echoed a GOP talking point by promising
that the new president will be welcomed by a terror attack in
2009,
continuing a disturbing trend of talking heads anxiously
relishing
a catastrophic pretext to reinvigorate the Neo-Con agenda.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2008/063008_latest_pitch.htm
Lamont slams Lieberman as AWOL on Katrina leadership (8/25/2006)
Lieberman wants to be judged on the job he has done.
Lieberman's
record includes...
It may cost Lieberman (5/14/2008)
Providing cover for Joe Lieberman
Lieberman: Hamas endorsement shows difference with McCain (5/12/2008)
Lieberman gets Worst Person in the World award.
Lieberman's bill on the floor.
People of Connecticut are not represented by Senator Lieberman. They should have the right to recall him. (Note)