Joe Lieberman and Iraq

14 December 2005 |permalink | email article

The powerful editorial board of the Wall Street Journal rewards political friends and attacks political enemies.

This week it rushed to defend Joe Lieberman, the 2000 running mate of Al Gore and the Democrat from Connecticut, who has dared to agree with President Bush that the U.S. must and will win the war, from colleagues in the Senate.

The presidentís new cheerleader, in Iraq four times in 17 months, told the Hartford Courant he is unapologetic about his defense of Bushís Iraq policy. îI think Bush has it right.î He denied he is a neocon but added that some of his best friends are.

Lieberman sees the importance of rare bipartisan sentiments and draws a parallel from the early days of the Cold War. Then a Democratic President, Harry Truman, tried to build alliances to fight Communism despite fierce criticism from many Republican conservatives, notably their Senate leader, Bob Taft of Ohio.

But Arthur Vandenberg, a GOP Senator from Michigan and longtime isolationist, stood up to support Truman and a bipartisan ìcontainmentî strategy was born - which could have worked with major U.S. allies in Iraq had not Bush willed a first-strike rush to war.

The Journal’s editorial predictably seizes on Lierbermanís scenario and suggests that if Democrats are smart theyíll listen to what heís saying about the defeatist message theyíre now sending about Iraq, and U.S. foreign policy in general.

But to imply that the Connecticut senator is a credible reincarnation of Vandenberg is mind-bending, both in terms of history and the moment. He lacks the political skill the Michigan senator brought to bear in forging true bipartisan support for the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan or NATO.

ìWhen Vandenberg spoke,” his official Senate biography reads, ìthe Senate chamber filled with senators and reporters, eager to hear what he had to say.î Lieberman is no Vandenberg but a Bush toady squirming within the Democratic caucus.

As the Courant noted, Liebermanís political fate was sealed with a kiss, planted on his cheek by Bush, just after the President delivered his State of the Union address. Truman was blunt but never a fool.

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