The Problem With Joe

For the past two weeks, top Republican party officials have spread the word that they wouldn’t mind seeing Joe Lieberman win re-election.

Monday, President Bush for the first time spoke publicly about the Connecticut Democrat’s bid to win the seat as an independent, telling a nationally-televised news conference: “I’m staying out of Connecticut. You know, that’s what the party suggested, the Republican Party of Connecticut, and plus there’s a better place to spend our money, time and resources.” [...]

“It seems like a de facto endorsement of Senator Lieberman to me,” Lamont said Monday. “Here we are, ten days after the primary, and President Bush and Dick Cheney and [Republican National Committee Chairman] Ken Mehlman and an awful lot of others are saying that Joe Lieberman is, in effect, our guy.” (source)

If it walks like a Republican, talks like a Republican, votes like a Republican, it probably is a Republican. Of course the Republican Party and the President want Joe Lieberman reelected to office -- he votes Republican most of the time. And on the issue of the war in Iraq, that goes up to 100% of the time. The problem for the President is that an endorsement from him could be the kiss of death for most any political candidate these days. I wish the President would give him full endorsement. Hell, maybe even another photo opp of them kissing again.

I have a few issues with Senator Joe Lieberman.

Joe Lieberman doesn’t have a single opinion of his own. Every time he votes, he sticks his finger up in the air to see which way the political wind is blowing.

He’s been in Washington too long. He’s lost touch with the people of Connecticut. I could say the same for most all of them in Washington. I believe they should have term limits. They go to Washington and, over time, I believe they completely lose touch with the concerns of The People.

He overwhelmingly seems to vote Republican. He claims to be for the environment saying that his record on the environment is second to none. That’s not saying a lot today. The Republican Party in power today didn’t exactly raise the bar very high on environmental issues.

There’s only so much mileage you can get from non-war-related issues today. And for goodness sakes, steer clear of important issues such as how the average American family is going to be able to afford to heat their homes this winter, let alone afford the gas to get to work. No one is offering a solution to that, other than the President dipping into our oil reserves to “ease the burden”. That’s the same reasoning that says that it really doesn’t matter that this war will end up costing our country YOUR kids a trillion dollars when everything is said and done. We don’t have to pay it off today, so all is good. We can dip into the oil reserves and ease the burden for... three months. All is good.

But then what?

Finally... am I the only one that has noticed the comparison between Senator Lieberman and Senator Palpatine, who went on to become the evil Darth Sidious?

Liberman photo credit, CNN