Connecticut ping!
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Posted on 09/08/2006 8:13:41 PM PDT by blam
Lieberman Defends 1998 Rebuke of Clinton
Saturday September 9, 2006 3:46 AM
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
Associated Press Writer
STRATFORD, Conn. (AP) - Sen. Joe Lieberman defended his reprimand of former President Clinton for his involvement with a White House intern, dismissing rival Ned Lamont's claim that he turned the 1998 rebuke into a spectacle.
``It was important for someone who was a Democrat to stand up and call on him publicly to accept more responsibility for what he had done,'' Lieberman said Friday. ``In that case, I stood up and did what I believed was right for our country.''
In September 1998, as the sex scandal raged, the Connecticut senator was the first prominent Democratic lawmaker to openly criticize Clinton's conduct with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the Senate floor, Lieberman spoke about being ``personally angry because Clinton had, by his disgraceful behavior, jeopardized his administration's historic record of accomplishment.''
The senator said his personal dismay evolved into ``a larger, graver sense of loss for our country, a reckoning of the damage that the president's conduct has done to the proud legacy of his presidency.''
Lamont, who defeated Lieberman in the Democratic primary Aug. 8, criticized the incumbent in an interview with The New York Times.
``You don't go to the floor of the Senate and turn this into a media spectacle,'' Lamont told reporters and editors from the newspaper during a dinner meeting Wednesday night.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Lieberman has an opening here to claim that he is independent and that he can stand against anyone on principle etc etc.
How dare Lieberman criticize Clintoon for lying under oath, committing adultery and bringing disgrace to the White House!! This is an outrage, everyone knows that Clintoon was a saint. Lieberman is obviously under the evil mind control of Rove the Impaler.
They (the left) seem to be getting more desperate by the day.
As I recally my trip to DC that summer, most Dems wanted to shoot Clinton at dawn (any dawn). Unfortunately, they only would express their disgust after the cameras were turned off and the mics put in thier cases.
Lieberman simply made the mistake of saying openly what 99% of them were saying privately.
And, as I recall, as the summer dragged into winter, the talking head shows resorted to more and more obscure Dem apologists for their hour of blather. Most reputable Dems wanted nothing to do with Clinton, or at least his scandal.
This should really backfire on Lamont. Clinton takes a hit from the Path docudrama no matter how much they edit it.
I can't believe they would try to use something like this against Lieberman. These people are thugs, and stupid thugs at that!
It seems the once and future President Algore did not have a problem with Joe's position. He found him qualified enough out of 260 million people to be the Vice Presidential nominee.
An for your trouble, Joe, you got to become the Loserman in Sore-Loserman.
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
"You don't go to the floor of the Senate and turn this into a media spectacle."
Sorry, Lamont, it was already a media spectacle courtesy of Clinton.
"Mr. Lieberman have you learned nothing from Kennedy, Byrd and Durbin; Doing what you believe to be right is not an effective strategy for regaining power."
Wanna bet?
Joe's doing what he thinks is right, and he's going to regain power here in Connecticut by a landslide.
Not only that, but he'll have MORE power than he ever did, because he will be beholden to nobody but the voters. A truly independent Joe Lieberman is a more powerful Joe Lieberman, because he will no longer be under any of the pressure to compromise himself to get along and go along with the Democrat establishment. He did that, and they kicked him in the teeth anyway. So now he's going to win power on his own merit.
This will make him more popular with his constituents, not less. There are plenty of Republicans who won't vote for a Democrat, but who like Joe Lieberman. They'll vote for him as an independent. He'll be in the Senate for a long time, and given how tight the balance is between the parties, his independent status will make him a power broker. The party Whips can go to hell: he answers to the voters, who like him here, and NOBODY else. THAT'S real power in politics: to be so liked by your voters that you can give Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Teddy Kennedy AND George Bush the finger, and still hold your seat forever.
Truth is, given how close the Senate is and will remain, BOTH parties will have to kiss an independent Joe's ass. And he knows it.
The Lamont idiocy, and tomfoolery of the the Republicans is nominating a guy with serious gambling problems has created the perfect storm for the arrival on the national scene of an EFFECTIVE independent.
Lieberman the Independent in the Senate is going to be an eye-opener. He could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
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