Joe Lieberman and many of his supporters really, really want to try to make the blogosphere’s opposition to his continued employment as a U.S. Senator about anti-Semitism and/or anti-Israeli-ism. Today’s probably not the best day to discuss Israel dispassionately. But, Joe Lieberman is high on crack if he thinks we dislike him because he is Jewish or because he is supportive of Israel. The very most I will say is that some people think his concern for Israel may be clouding his judgment about Iraq. But let’s be clear: It doesn’t matter why his judgment on Iraq sucks, it only matters that it sucks. And Iraq is only one piece of the puzzle. Personally, Joe lost me when he told rape victims to go for joyrides in their cars looking for hospitals that would be willing to tolerate their desire to make sure they didn’t become mothers to their rapist’s child. I want all Joe’s supporters to consider that position very carefully. I have a mother, and I have several women in my life that I care about. I couldn’t look any of them in the eye and support Joe Lieberman.
Asked specifically if he felt that the wave of opposition to his candidacy had anything to do with his religion or his support for Israel, Mr. Lieberman paused, stepped toward the blue sedan that would speed him to a meeting outside of Hartford and said, “That’s too big a question to answer on one foot. We should come back to answer that one.”
Lieberman needs to come back to his flirtation (up to the last minute) with Social Security privatization. He needs to consider his cloture vote on Alito. He needs to revisit his smooch of George W. Bush. He ought to think about why he told me not to undermine the credibility of the President in wartime. Most of all, he needs to abjectly apologize to every citizen of these United States for suggesting that rape victims avail themselves of motor vehicles in order to attain Plan B contraception.
And there is that pesky little war. Lieberman thinks things are going just great. He’s wrong.
People need to figure out that this is not about Israel. That includes Israelis:
“I can’t tell you how many times I was asked by officials and even people walking down the street, ‘What is going to happen to Joe Lieberman?’” said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia who just returned from a research project in Israel. “They are aware about this race, and they are concerned.”
They might be concerned that they are going to be missing one of their staunchest supporters, but he is not being opposed because he supports Israel, nor because he is Jewish. I have stated many times how much I admire Russ Feingold. It’s not about Joe’s religion. It’s about his tendency to be aggressively and obnoxiously wrong on the issues.
