Lieberman's Lament

This one's for you Rubes.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I) Conn., was very critical of the Democratic party regarding its approach to national security issues, in a speech he gave at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, as reported by the New York Sun.

Lieberman accused his Democratic colleagues of abandoning the principles of FDR, Truman, and JFK, regarding national security. He called them out on the concept that they view George Bush as the greatest threat to American security:

"Since retaking Congress in November 2006, the top foreign policy priority of the Democratic Party has not been to expand the size of our military for the war on terror or to strengthen our democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East or to prevail in Afghanistan. It has been to pull our troops out of Iraq, to abandon the democratically elected government there, and to hand a defeat to President Bush."

Lieberman is now virtually an outcast from the mainstream of the Democratic party, which has shifted quite far to the left since he was Al Gore's running mate in 2000. He was particularly critical of his 22 Democratic Senate colleagues who voted against his resolution naming Iran's revolutionary guards and Quds force, terrorist organizations. Lieberman also railed against liberal web commentators who he claimed pushed a theory that his resolution would give the President a "back door" OK for war against Iran:

"There is something profoundly wrong-something that should trouble all of us — when we have elected Democratic officials who seem more worried about how the Bush administration might respond to Iran's murder of our troops, than about the fact that Iran is murdering our troops." He added, "There is likewise something profoundly wrong when we see candidates who are willing to pander to this politically paranoid, hyper-partisan sentiment in the Democratic base — even if it sends a message of weakness and division to the Iranian regime."

Sen. Lieberman is a voice in the wilderness of the Democratic party on this topic. I think great past Democratic leaders, who were strong on defense, like Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Scoop Jackson, and Sam Nunn, would hardly recognize today's Democratic party. One of these days, some Democrat is going to have to deal with a military crisis. How will they handle it?