Lieberman Calls for 'War Cabinet

Newsmax ^ | Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005 10:50 a.m. EST | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[JustAnotherOkie]

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) proposed a special bi-partisan war council Tuesday to provide advice and direction to the president.

Lieberman’s "Bipartisan Victory in Iraq Administrative Group” would help dull some of the bitter tension between Republicans and Democrats.

The council would resemble those created in the Vietnam War and World War II, but Lieberman said he had not thought through the details of how the panel would work. It would likely meet weekly to discuss conditions in Iraq and recommend policy.

In a speech at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, Lieberman said the war debate is poisoned by partisanship.

"We can’t tolerate the kind of division that currently exists in our country,” Lieberman said. "Why are we fighting among those who have the same goals?”

Lieberman also confronted Democrats who question the president’s motives.

"It’s time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he’ll be commander-in-chief for three more years. We undermine the president’s credibility at our nation’s peril,” he warned.

Lieberman planned to send a letter to congressional leaders and the White House Wednesday detailing the proposal.

Rumors have circulated in the past week that Lieberman could supplant Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense sometime within the next year.

The idea was first printed as an afterthought in an editorial by Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol. But it picked up steam over the weekend.

On Face the Nation Sunday, CBS host Bob Schieffer asked Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) if he would support Lieberman as Secretary of Defense.

"Over the weekend,” Schieffer asked, "I had four different people tell me that the White House is thinking if the secretary of defense goes over the next year - and a lot of people think that he will, that the president is thinking of nominating Joe Lieberman to be secretary of defense. If he did that, would you support Lieberman?”

Kerry said that he would.

The former Democratic vice presidential candidate has come under fire from the rabid anti-war wing of the Democratic Party in recent weeks for his unwavering support of the war in Iraq.

Markos Moulitsas, the namesake and founder of the liberal blog, The Daily Kos, said he had mixed feelings about Lieberman as secretary of defense. After weighing the negatives, he noted, "We could finally get rid of Lieberman."