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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "get rid" of hard-line Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Channel Two reported on Monday. The Foreign Ministry responded to the report by lambasting the French leader for his "intolerable intervention in internal Israeli affairs." Sarkozy spent a good portion of his meeting with Netanyahu last Wednesday discussing the composition of the Israeli official, according to the report. The presence of three other Israeli officials at the meeting did not deter the French leader from expressing his true opinion of the foreign minister, said Channel Two. The French president reportedly told...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S Car.) and Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) say they are proud of the way President Obama has handled the situation in Iran so far.

The hawkish trio of Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) praised President Barack Obama on Thursday for condemning the corruption and violence surrounding the recent election in Iran. “I’m very proud of my president for what he said Tuesday,” Graham declared during a press conference. “It was the right thing to say.” “I appreciate it,” McCain added.

The relationship of “good friends agree to disagree” took a tough test Wednesday afternoon as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman standing at her side, told reporters, "We want to see a stop to the settlements.” The Foreign Minister, who lives in the community of Nokdim in the eastern part of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, did not flinch and retorted, “We think that as in any place, babies are born, people get married, some pass away and we cannot accept this vision about an absolutely complete freezing of settlements."

Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman will conduct a series of political talks in Washington with senior government officials, including discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday. The talks come three days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced that he would support a demilitarized Palestinian Authority state. Netanyahu’s speech was well-received by the American administration. Lieberman, who landed in the U.S. capital on Monday, will continue his political campaign that he started in Europe. In Luxemburg, he met with European Union ministers, who labeled Netanyahu's speech on Sunday as “insufficient.” The EU has said it is freezing plans...

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said this weekend that he opposes a public option plan for consumers in a healthcare reform plan to emerge from the Senate. "I don't favor a public option," Lieberman told Bloomberg News in an interview broadcast this weekend. And I don't favor a public option because I think there's plenty of competition in the private insurance market." Lieberman's decision joins several other centrist Democrats' decision to have publicly refused to back the plan, derided as a "government-run" plan by Republicans. Centrist Democrats like Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.) have also been skittish to...

“Over the last six months, we have witnessed free and fair elections in Iraq and Lebanon, in which millions of people peacefully went to the polls, and in both cases, the Iranian-backed forces of extremism were decisively rejected at the ballot box. “Unfortunately, on Friday, the Iranian people were denied this right, enjoyed by Iraqis and Lebanese and so many other peoples throughout the world, to determine the future of their country for themselves. Instead, through intimidation, violence, manipulation, and outright fraud, the Iranian regime has once again made a mockery of democracy, and confirmed its repressive and dictatorial character....

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened to hold up any and all legislation in the Senate until Congress passes its legislation to prohibit the release of photos showing detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We’re not going to do any more business in the Senate,” Graham said. “Nothing’s going forward until we get this right.” Both Senators said they were alarmed that a House-Senate conference committee on the supplemental war spending bill appears poised to eliminate language — inserted by the two Senators — that would block public disclosure of detainee abuse photos. The $90-billion-plus bill...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Israel issued contradictory signals on Wednesday on whether it might bomb Iran, with its foreign minister saying there were no such plans and the defense minister saying all options were on the table. Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran's uranium enrichment as a threat to its existence. "I have been asked by Saudi journalists about when Israel plans to bomb Iran. We are not planning to bomb Iran," far-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a visit to Russia. "We do not have a need" to carry...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that it is imperative that the world prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. She pledged that the Obama administration's engagement with Iran to achieve that end would be carried out "with eyes wide open and under no illusions." Mrs. Clinton is right. Iran's illicit nuclear activities represent a uniquely dangerous and transformational threat to the United States and the rest of the world -- a threat that demands a response of open-eyed realism. A realistic response requires that we first recognize that the danger...

In another controversial bill, the Senate Democrats voted early Friday morning to remove Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's power to appoint a U.S. Senator in case of a vacancy. Instead, there would be a special election if one of the two U.S. Senators - currently Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman - stepped down from office before the six-year term ended. The Senate voted, 21 to 12, on strict party lines with three members absent at about 2:10 a.m. Friday on the underlying amendment regarding the vacancy. The bill would apply to whomever is in the gubernatorial chair. But...

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said today that he "totally disagrees" with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) assertion that the CIA regularly misleads Congress. "No, on that specific point I totally disagree," Lieberman told MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell. "Over the 20 years I've been here, I've been briefed constantly by the CIA, and I'd say they've told me the truth as they see it."

As can be expected, John ‘F’in Kerry (who I’ve heard served in Viet Nam) is still trying to appear presidential and act as if the world revolves around his treasonous butt. It took but a few short hours for the Senator to issue a welcome statement to former RINO, Arlen Specter as he returned home to the Democrat Party, where he has belonged for some time now. Kerry’s statement said, “This is a big moment. When Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party, he was the canary in the coal mine warning of Bush era ideological excess, and Senator Specter’s decision...

Didn't take long for Joe to drink the Kook-Aid, huh? "The most important thing he has done overal is he has restored the confidence of the American people in the American Presidency."

Arizona Sen. John McCain suggested today that the push to investigate and possibly prosecute Bush administration officials who crafted the legal basis for the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques," such as waterboarding, may have grown from a desire to "settle old political scores." Appearing on CBS' Face The Nation Sunday, the former Republican presidential nominee, who was himself tortured as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, said, "Are you going to prosecute people for giving bad legal advice?" He suggested that Washington should ignore calls to investigate who was behind government lawyers writing memos which gave legal cover to the...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Vice President ______________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 23, 2009 VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN ISSUES STATEMENT ON ACTING COMPTROLLER GENERAL GENE DODARO’S TESTIMONY AT HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS HEARING Vice President Biden issued this statement following the testimony of GAO Acting Comptroller General Gene Dodaro at this morning’s Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing: "From the beginning, we committed to not only work at record speed to provide immediate economic relief under the Recovery Act, but to do so with unprecedented accountability...

(CNN) — John McCain’s general election campaign began as “the strategic equivalent of throwing a football through a tire at 50 yards” – and was doomed weeks before Election Day, his former chief strategist said Thursday. “We were running a campaign under extra difficult circumstances — the state of the Republican Party, the president’s unpopularity, the economy — a lot of issues that were not John McCain’s fault, but were John McCain’s problem in this race,” Schmidt told an audience at the University of Delaware, according to Politico. “When Lehman Brothers collapsed in the fall I knew pretty much right...

Talks to Brian Kilmeade.

Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent President Obama a letter today in which they expressed strong concern about his decision to leave the door open to the possible prosecution of officials who crafted controversial Bush administration policy on detainee interrogations. "Pursuing such prosecutions would, we believe, have serious negative effects on the candor with which officials in any administration provide their best advice, and would take our country in a backward-looking direction at a time when our detainee-related challenges demand that we look forward," the letter said. It went on to say that such...

Islamic extremism, not India is Pakistan's enemy No.1 and this needs to be understood very clearly by the establishment in Islamabad, a powerful US Senator has said. "Pakistanis have to understand that their major enemy in the region is no longer India, but it's Islamist extremism. In fact, they have a common enemy in that with the Indians," said Senator Joseph Lieberman in his interaction at the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think-tank. Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said it is difficult to convince the Pakistani establishment. "That's a tough sell," he said. Responding...

It may be, a colleague notes, a fitting coda to the McCain campaign: He apparently rejected his first choice as a running mate, Joe Lieberman, in part based on a faulty legal opinion. McCain lawyer and vetter A. B. Culvahouse said last week that West Virginia law could have barred McCain from nominating a Democrat as his running mate in the key state, knocking Lieberman out of the running.

Mexican drug cartels have displaced the mafia as the "number one organized crime threat" in the United States, Sen. Joe Lieberman said Monday as his Senate committee heard testimony in Phoenix on border violence. Lieberman, an independent Democrat from Connecticut, and Sen. John McCain, a Republican on Lieberman's panel, told FOX News that the United States needs to step up the fight against the drug cartels. The two senators were in Arizona, McCain's home state, to hear from local officials on their advice for dealing with the drug-fueled violence many fear is spilling across the border.

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Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) has tried to mend his relationship with President Obama in recent months but their reconciliation hit a snag Monday over ballistic missile defense. Lieberman, the self-described independent Democrat who questioned Obama’s credentials to serve as commander in chief during the 2008 campaign, has panned the Obama administration’s proposal to cut the nation’s missile defense shield. Lieberman had begun to sing Obama’s praises in recent weeks but his song sounded a decidedly harsh note this week. As during the campaign, the latest tension stems from disagreement over national security and foreign policy. Lieberman, who campaigned for Sen....

In the Israeli political game, there are some things too important to play with. Has new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu safeguarded Israel’s security and foreign relations while meeting party and coalition needs, and what is the likely result of this new government’s policies internationally? Netanyahu had to put together a complex web of parties and personalities to get a Knesset majority. The result is a cabinet with more ministers than Jerusalem has rabbis. Yet equally impressive is that of the 30 ministers, almost half of them will deal with some element of national security or foreign policy. Is this a...

A press release from Lieberman's office, announcing the passage of an amendment this evening: The United States Senate today adopted an amendment to the budget resolution, introduced by Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), to increase the end strength of the United States Army by 30,000 personnel. Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Mark Begich (D-AK) and John Thune (R-SD) co-sponsored the amendment. “Today’s vote shows that Congress is ready and willing to support those who voluntarily serve our country," Lieberman said. “This amendment is an important step in the right direction, and will help grow the Army to prepare it both for its...

JERUSALEM — Avigdor Lieberman, the new foreign minister of Israel, was questioned by the national fraud squad for more than seven hours on Thursday, according to a police spokesman, as part of a longstanding investigation into suspicions of bribery, money laundering and breach of trust. Also Thursday, a Palestinian wielding a pickax killed an Israeli boy, 13, and wounded another, 7, in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank before fleeing, witnesses and the Israeli authorities said. Israeli officials said that the father of the wounded 7-year-old, Ofer Gamliel, is serving a 15-year prison term for planting a bomb outside...

Even before Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel’s new Prime Minister and Avigdor Lieberman officially became the new Israeli Foreign Minister the world had declared that they were not men of peace and their taking power would be the death of any prospect for peace with the Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared even before the approval and swearing in of the new Israeli governing coalition that he saw no reason to continue talking with Israel as no peace is possible as long as the Netanyahu Government is in power. Abbas further demanded the world to aid in efforts...

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration's beefed-up efforts to fight violence on the Southwest border is not the last word, the head of the Homeland Security Department told the Senate on Wednesday. Several senators questioned whether the administration's plan can be successful without more money and people. The administration announced Tuesday that it was sending hundreds of federal agents, along with high-tech surveillance gear and drug-sniffing dogs to the Southwest border. It was largely relying on existing funds and resources at the departments of Homeland Security and Justice for the increased effort. It also includes $700 million that Congress has...

Later this month, the Obama administration will unveil a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan. This comes as most important indicators in Afghanistan are pointing in the wrong direction. President Obama's decision last month to deploy an additional 17,000 U.S. troops was an important step in the right direction, but a comprehensive overhaul of our war plan is needed, and quickly.

It is being widely reported that Benyamin Netanyahu is making Avigdor Lieberman Israel’s foreign minister in his coalition plan. Maybe; maybe not. This story should be looked at as a ploy in the maneuvering over Israel’s next government. It may be brilliant for Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, it may more likely be a disaster for Netanyahu and the country. Netanyahu is offering a bluff, saying to Kadima: “Hey, guys, look! If you don't make a coalition deal with us in which I am the sole prime minister we will form a coalition with the right wing and make...

Avigdor Lieberman - branded a racist by critics - set to be foreign minister James Hider in Jerusalem Israel's next foreign minister looks set to be Avigdor Lieberman, the Soviet immigrant whose controversial policies have been condemned widely by the country's regional neighbours. His critics accuse him of being an Arab-hating racist but he is hailed by supporters as a strongman who will deal harshly with the state's enemies, in particular Iran, which he has threatened to bomb. Mr Lieberman has threatened to bomb a number of Israel's neighbours, including Egypt, with whom the Jewish state has a peace treaty....

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There is an increasing threat of homegrown terror stemming from segments of a deeply isolated and alienated Somali-American community, a U.S. Senate committee hearing concluded Wednesday. The hearing, conducted by the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, focused on the attempted recruitment of young Somali-American men by al-Shabaab, "a violent and brutal extremist (Somali) group" with significant ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department. "Over the last two years, individuals from the Somali community in the United States, including American citizens, have left for Somalia to support and in some cases fight on behalf...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Lieberman has changed his tune on Barack Obama. After campaigning across the country for Republican John McCain in 2008 and attacking Obama as naive, untested and unwilling to take on powerful special interests, Lieberman now showers praise on the popular new Democratic president.

No I am not surprised. Avigdor Lieberman saying I also advocate the creation of a viable Palestinian state is proof he was infected some time ago with the disease of conventionalism. When politicians are on the cusp of power but not sensing victory they grasp for support. Lieberman needed to reach a wider audience to win. The path was to secure the land of Israel loyalists yet also win over those sort of pragmatic folks who don't yet see or understand the nature of the divine in the land of Israel. Lieberman went wobbly - his biography title: From Bar...

Israel Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman advocates the establishment of a Palestinian state, he wrote in an article published in the New York Jewish Week. Lieberman wrote on Wednesday that while he wants "the state of Israel to remain a Zionist, Jewish and democratic state," he supported the "creation of a viable Palestinian state." Lieberman said he was trying to shake off labels such as "far-right" and "ultra-nationalist" thrown in his direction. The party leader said he welcomed the "contribution of minorities to Israel's flourishing" and did not expect Israeli-Arabs "to share in the Zionist dream," but asked them to accept...

The District of Columbia's two-century-long wait for a voice in Congress was a step closer to ending Tuesday with a crucial Senate vote to take up legislation giving the capital city's 600,000 residents a full seat in the House. The Senate voted 62-34, two more than needed, to begin debate on the measure that would increase the House to 437 members. It would give the Democratic-dominated city a new vote while adding a fourth seat to Republican-leaning Utah. Key to the vote was that Democrats, who overwhelmingly support the bill, have seven more Senate seats than two years ago when...

The Likud is confident it can meet the two demands on which Israel Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman has conditioned recommending that President Shimon Peres designate Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu to be the next prime minister, Likud officials said Thursday. The Jerusalem Post reported exclusively Thursday that Lieberman was ready to endorse Netanyahu rather than Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, provided that Netanyahu pledged to push through his demands for civil unions and an eased conversion process, but that if those two demands were not met, he would back Livni. Lieberman is also seeking to be appointed defense minister or finance minister,...

Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman refused to endorse either Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni or Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night, saying rather his party would be open to hearing from all parties involved in the formation of the next coalition, but his party would never give up its core principles. Israel Beiteinu leader... "We truly hope that one of the dramatic changes that will be in the next government will be a change in the method of governing," Lieberman said following the exit polls which predicted Livni the winner of the election. "We will be open to hearing what...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Months after slamming then-presidential candidate Barack Obama's world view as "naive," Sen. Joe Lieberman reversed course in a critical foreign policy arena Thursday, praising the new administration's approach in Afghanistan. The former Democratic vice presidential nominee from Connecticut told an audience at the Brookings Institution he is optimistic the United States can turn the tide in the former Taliban stronghold in part because "President Obama has made very clear that this is a war he intends to win and he has moved swiftly to take command of it."

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut Democrats are calling on Sen. Joe Lieberman to apologize to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for his comments criticizing them during the campaign. . . . It chastises the longtime Democrat, who won re-election in 2006 as an independent, for speaking at the Republican National Convention on behalf of Sen. John McCain.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama honored his vanquished Republican rival John McCain on Monday, describing the Arizona senator as an "American hero" while the Democrat prepared to assume the office that both men fought bitterly to attain. Obama and McCain clashed repeatedly on the campaign trail over foreign and domestic policy in sometimes heated exchanges that occasionally veered into the personal. But Obama made clear that period had passed even as he predicted the two would not always get along in the future. "John is not known to bite his tongue and if I'm screwing up, he's going to...

Gone are the days on the campaign trail when Sen. Joe Lieberman would introduce Gov. Sarah Palin at McCain-Palin rallies as “a breath of fresh Alaska air.” Now the two have squared off on opposite sides of a renewed debate over drilling for oil in ANWR, the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. Lieberman and 23 other U.S. senators introduced a bill Wednesday which would close that part of Alaska’s coastal plain to oil and gas development. In a statement, the Connecticut Senator described ANWR as “…a pristine natural treasure that must be preserved for future generations.” But Lieberman and many of...

On January 6, bills were introduced in both Houses of Congress to give the District of Columbia a voting member of the U.S. House. They are HR 157 in the House, and S160 in the Senate. The bills would also permanently expand the size of the U.S. House from 435 member to 437 members, effective upon passage. The other new seat would go to Utah, which just barely missed getting another seat in the last reapportionment in 2001. The sponsors in the U.S. Senate are Orrin Hatch and Joe Lieberman. The sponsor in the House is D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes...

HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut Democratic Party officials, after an hour of political soul searching, decided Wednesday to send Sen. Joe Lieberman a letter detailing their disappointment with his public support for Republican John McCain in the presidential race. It was a step back from an earlier proposal before the Democratic State Central Committee to censure Lieberman and ask him to leave the party.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani (right) with U.S. Senator John McCain (second left) and Senator Joe Lieberman during a meeting in Islamabad on Saturday. Mr. McCain was on a daylong visit to Pakistan. ISLAMABAD: United States Senator John McCain has said there is enough evidence of the involvement of former Inter-Services Intelligence officers in the planning and execution of the Mumbai attacks. If Pakistan did not act swiftly to arrest the people involved, the Senator said, India would be left with no option but to conduct aerial operations against select targets in Pakistan. Senator McCain, the Republican presidential...

In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site. ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig, speaking of Google, ‘it’s hard to . . . gather data in ways that don’t raise privacy concerns or in ways that might help repressive governments to block controversial content.’ In March of last year, Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google, was notified that there had been a precipitous drop in activity...

Senator Lieberman, thank you for your tireless effort to help Senator John McCain in his campaign for the presidency. No elected official did more for Senator McCain than you, and probably, nobody outside his family loves him more than you do. It was clear during the campaign, just as it was clear eight years ago when you couldn't stomach the Gore team trying to trash the military votes in Florida, that you believe in putting what's best for the country above what may be best for the democrats or even for you.Joe's speech at the RNC convention Now that Harry...

After Lieberman Vote, Kos Says He's 'Done With Reid' @ 5:41 pm by Walter Alarkon Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, isn't happy about Senate Democrats' decision to keep Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Moulitsas wrote that the Democrat senators' vote showed "disdain for the American electorate that voted in overwhelming numbers for change from the discredited Bush/McCain/Lieberman policies." He added that he is "done with [Harry] Reid as Senate leader." "[I]n a city known for tone-deafness, there clearly isn't a more tone-deaf group than the Senate Dems," Moulitsas wrote.