"But Lieberman added, "I've been here long enough where, at this stage in my career, I'm going to do what I think is right." "
And there you have it. That is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, problems in American politics today. A young politician has to play the game. Bow to special interests, regurgitate the party line. If you want to survive, there's no room for doing what's right.
Now Joe can do what he thinks is right, because if he gets shelved, he's financially set.
Very discouraging.
IIRC, Lieberman is pretty well of financially anyway from family money. I do not see his statements here being at all inconsistent with anything else he has ever said about foreign policy.
That's true. But if the party leadership pulled their collective heads out and decided to the right thing, instead of the political thing, the young politicians could vote their consciences.