Posted on 08/20/2006 11:43:07 AM PDT by Dane
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Joseph Lieberman, seeking to slip out of a perceived White House embrace, insisted on Sunday he was a loyal Democrat and criticized the Bush administration's post-invasion Iraq war policy.
The 2000 vice-presidential candidate lost the Democratic primary vote in Connecticut to an anti-war rival this month, but is now running for re-election as an independent candidate in a contest that has exposed deep U.S. divisions over the unpopular war.
Some Republican officials have shifted their support to Lieberman, and the White House took the rare step of declining to back the Republican nominee, leading critics to accuse him of becoming the de-facto candidate for President George W. Bush.
Lieberman, who according to a poll released last week now leads the Senate race in the Democrat-leaning state, said in an interview on CBS television that he was "devoted" to his party and would remain in its congressional caucus if elected.
"I am a Democrat. Look at my voting record - I voted 90 percent of the time with the majority of Democrats in the United States' Senate," he said.
However, he said, "I feel I allowed my opponent to distort my position on Iraq," he said. "What I mean is he made me into a cheerleader for George Bush on everything that's happened."
Lieberman reiterated his call for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign due to setbacks in Iraq and said that despite his own support for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, he thinks Bush has mishandled Iraq policy after the invasion.
"I've been very critical over the years, particularly in 2003 and 2004 about the failure to send enough American troops to secure the country," he said.
But he said there would be all-out civil war and a "disaster we pay for a generation" if Washington sets a deadline for a troop withdrawal from Iraq, a call that helped his Democrat rival Ned Lamont win the primary vote.
"The position that my opponent and others take to set a deadline by which we will get out is the surest way to get to a civil war, which would be dangerous for our troops, a disaster for Iraq, the Middle East and for the United States of America."
He said the president and Congress may need to consider a troop withdrawal in the event of "all-out" civil war in Iraq.
Leading Democrats said the senator's defeat showed voters' anger at Bush and the war ahead of November mid-term elections, while Republican and administration officials have painted it as an example of Democratic weakness on national security.
Democratic party Chairman Howard Dean has called for Lieberman to drop out after his primary loss.
Lieberman's decision to shrug off the defeat and run as an independent has ensured the war will stay in the election spotlight as Democrats try to wrest control of the House and the Senate from Bush's Republican Party
Any "Conservative" that wants to vote for a DUmocrat can change their party registration while they are at it....we've got enough RINOs already.
nah vote for him and send lamont back to the junkyard
Sean shows his true colors with the LIEberman endorsement...his mantra about "principle over party" only matters when he's bashing Bush and Republicans.
I noticed alot of new freepers begging for people not to vote for lieberman, hmmmm just makes you think, could they have ulterior motives.
This is poetic justice of the best, purest kind.
"New" FReepers...where?
Anyone who'd vote for a DUmocrat is an enemy to Republicans, this President, and this country.
LIEberman, the same "reasonable" DUmocrat who calls for Rummy's resignation and undermines WOT with attacks on Bush.
Ok it's time for Joe to have a thorough Psych evaluation.
A vote for Al Gore's running mate Lieberman is a vote to elect a socialist who will make Harry Reid majority leader.
A vote for LIEberman is the same as a vote for Hitlery, Lardass Kennedy, Nitwit Pelosi and Dingy Harry Reid.
Me, someone else? Well, you're not so "old", my friend.
Harry Reid has a better conservative voting record than Joe Lieberman according to the American Conservative Union. That's all I need to know.
However the newest poll in Connecticut shows the Republican candidate Schlessenger getting less than 10% of the vote in a state with a Republican governor and 3 out of 5 Representatives being Republicans. Pathetic.
Pathetic.
Stay home
He's a lesser liberal. Choose the better path; its one that you'll have to walk.
That Republican has too much baggage and should have been prevailed upon to quit the race to put someone else in. He is polling at about 6% and won't even be a factor in the race.
Joe Lieberman is one of the few liberal Democrats to be right on the decision to overthrow the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein. His stance has angered those of his party who have not only no agenda save a hatred of Bush but no moral compass as well.
Devoted Democrat? That's right, Joe, the democratic party DE-VOTED you right out the door in that primary.
C'mon Joe, why stay with a party that one day calls you the "Conscience of the Senate", elevates you to the position of Vice-Presidential Candidate, makes you a household name, and then leaves you for dead on the side of the road because you're so, like, 1990's, Joe, and this is the beginning of the Second Age of Aquarius (if only Howard Dean could be elected).
You should have seen it coming,Joe; democrats (small 'd' intentional) don't just bury their dead (like Walter Mondale), they bury their wounded as well. And you've been wounded twice; you're associated with Al Gore, a man who was supposed to be such a formidible politician and intellect that he lost to a man the dems generally consider just slightly more aware than a retarded Irish Setter.
Al Gore, the conventional wisdom goes, couldn't beat the village idiot, and perhaps that had something to do with his VP choice. Believe me, Joe, desperate people will grasp at any straw. That must have been the unkindest cut of all.
Anything associated with the stench of the 2000 election is suspect to the democrats, Joe (unless it happens ot be Donna Brazille or Bob Shum; somehow they can rack up a steady stream of losses and still be considered "political geniuses". Must know where the bodies are buried).
Don't forget, Joe, there was also the debacle of voting for the war and then having the absolute gall to not reverse positions in order to kow-tow to the Hollywood and Tie-died-aging-hippie sets when they changed their minds. Let's also not forget your callous disregard for the "I-can't-go-to-Iraq-to-do-the-right-thing-because-it-cuts-into-my-X-Box-and-Starbucks-time-crowd" crowd, you know, the 18-22 year old college bunch, who are handicapped by a strange disease in which the last idea they heard from their professor is the absolute truth which does not require any critical thought at all? They didn't like you; too, you know, pro-icky-Israeli, you use words that don't get used in their "Latina Lesbian Dwarves in American Literature" class, and remind them so much of their parents, unlike the balding-60-year-old-Professor-who-grows-what's-left-of-his-hair-long-in-the-back-so-that- he-can-be-"hip"-and-put-it-in-a-ponytail.
You don't want to associate with them, anyways, Joe. Hippies and dopey college students smell.
Of course, the other mentally-crippled consitutency of the democratic party (to protect the innocent, we'll just refer to them by the name...minorities) don't like you because, well, Jewish bloodsuckers own everything, and destroy the authentic "inner-city" with their food and clothing stores, and everyone knowns everything falls at the Jew's feet; Minister Farrkhan and Reverend Al all said so. And besides, you expect them to take personal responsibility for themselves,their actions, their neighborhoods and their future! How dare you? You're supposed to bribe them with a "program" and welfare (only now we call it "Reparations") you stupid bastard! Great way to make friends and influence people who have been trained, like seals, to have their hands out as a reflex action: ask them to behave like human beings!
Is that the party you wish to be associated with? One in which one half wants shoes made out of hemp and the other half can't tie them without government assistance? A bunch that keeps asking you to the dance but leaves you a wallflower? Don't you get sick of having your name and reputation sullied by association with the likes of Pelosi (I vote we rename AIDS; we'll call it Pelosi from now on - a vicious little virus for which there is no cure, and which is typically caught by engaging in self-destructive behavior), Kerry (rename cancer), Dean (rename psoriasis), Reid (rename brain-death), Gore (rename Cerebal Palsy), Boxer (crotch rot), Kennedy (cirhossis)?
C'mon Joe; make the move. You know you want an (R) next to your name. We'd welcome you. You'd be better than some that have the (R) next to their name these days.
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