What is wrong with Senator Joe Lieberman?

[onehandle]

If you pick mental illness, then that would suggest that he can't help it, so I did not build it into a combo with any of the other three (except "all of the above"). (Also we get only ten choices and it would not work mathematically)

[frogcycle]

1. head up ass

[krispos42]

29. You rang?

[Subdivisions]

2. I swear to God I saw him sitting in the audience while

McCain was being heckled. Anybody else see him there?

[opihimoimoi]

3. He is one sick puppy...I suspect the therapists would judge him long term treatment

with no assurances of him ever being normal again....GOPitis is a deep rooted condition/illness and Joe is infected up to the 3rd stage.....

[miles 2 go]

4. He's a mole. n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

8. a mole? n/t

[csziggy]

28. He does look like this one

[Behind the Aegis]

30. That's a naked mole rat.

While rat may be an appropriate term, I am curious as for whom he is supposedly a mole.

[Cleita]

5. I have no problem with Lieberman now that he has chosen to leave the

Democratic Party. It means I won't have to hold my nose and vote for him ever, unlike Zell Miller who still parades around as a Democrat.

[Tesha]

6. Zionism (which I distinguish from "Religious Agenda").

Plenty of politicians *ON MY SIDE OF THE ISSUES* are Jewish.

Lieberman is a Zionist. And, more-generally, a neocon.

Tesha

[onehandle]

9. That works. It's all good.

My Jewish sister-in-law and nephews are as far from being neocons as you can get.

[KharmaTrain]

11. A Likudnik Would Be An Even Better Term

I know "Zionists" who don't hold anywhere the extremist views of a Liebermann or the Israeli right wingers. There can those who believe in a return to Israel, peacefully, as opposed to doing so through military means. It's a word that easily turned into a pejorative...but it doesn't reflect a vast majority of Israelis who want a peaceful solution and to co-exist with their Palestinian neighbors.

[LeftishBrit]

12. Yes! To equate Zionism with the Israeli far-right...

is just like equating all of America with the American far-right.

Zionism just means support for Israel as a homeland for the Jews. Which includes anyone from supporters of parties to the right of the Likud to supporters of Peace Now.

[KharmaTrain]

16. It's An Easy Term To Abuse...

Zionism more than just a support for a Jewish homeland, it's a call for a Jewish identity...one that had been beaten and abused for centuries in Central and Eastern Europe. Sadly it's when an ideal is politicized that the true meaning gets lost.

Cheers...

[sabra]

13. being a Zionist - I also prefer "Likudnik"

:hi:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

20. He's become one of Israel's worst enemies

In his position as the most prominent Jewish person in American politics, he makes it seem as if all Jews share his extremist position on war. That is certainly not the case, especially in Israel.

[Hippo_Tron]

24. Likud is basically just the Israeli equivalent of the Republican Party

So I think we oughta just go ahead and say it. Joe is a Republican.

[zeemike]

7. he found the dark side pays better n/t

[Midwest_Doc]

10. Over-the-top

Senator Joseph Lieberman is scheduled to headline Pastor John Hagee's 2008 Christians United For Israel Washington-Israel Summit this July 22. In accepting Hagee's invitation, Lieberman became the most senior elected representative confirmed to appear at the annual gala. Last year, when Lieberman spoke at Hagee's summit, he compared the Texas televangelist to the biblical prophet Moses, dubbing him "an Ish Elochim," or "a man of God." Unless he rescinds his pledge to appear at this year's summit, Lieberman can be expected to deliver another soul-stirring tribute.
-DailyKos

[AlCzervik]

14. he gets a lot more press now that's he become the republicans favorite "ID"

i guess Mom didn't love him best so he's trying to make up for lack of attention.

[question everything]

15. Other. He was always a more conservative that most of us

would like our representatives to be, and perhaps DUers from CT can comment.

It is just that Gore selection of him in 2000 gave him a prominent exposure and he has been building on this.

[JerseygirlCT]

21. I think this is pretty true

I never much liked the guy, personally. Happily voted for Weicker rather than him.

But I do think that there's something that's been creeping in for years now - he's getting worse.

There were people who knew him and loved him years ago. I watched them really struggle this past few years with the guy they thought they knew and this jerk. Loyalty accounted for a lot of the few Dem votes he did get last go-round.

But a couple of years later, even they acknowledge he's really out there. I can't speak to his motivations for all that, though. But I definitely see a change.

[Eric J in MN]

26. Bingo.

By "always" I can't necessarily include his youth, but at least since 1988.

[LeftishBrit]

17. A lot of the same things as were wrong with Tony Blair.

Such as spending too much time up Bush's arse.

Apart from that, everything you'd expect of someone who was elected with the support of William Buckley and the National Review, and was openly to the right of the Republican incumbent.

[CTyankee]

18. Naw, he just got too full of himself. The nom for VP and his enhanced status

with the press just went to his head. He stopped going around the town stopping in diners and talking to people. He finally sold his New Haven house. He got more and more remote from reality and more and more entrenched in D.C. His wife got a big job with a lobbying firm (which she later had to give up b/c of conflict of interest) in D.C. He gave up on New Haven and moved to Stamford, probably just a mail drop.

I do wish people here would stop with stuff like "religious agenda." Much as I don't like him and worked for Ned Lamont in his campaign, I don't think his religion has that much to do with his failures. Many good Dems hold the same position on Israel as he does.

[onehandle]

19. I regret using that term in the poll.

And the selection, really.

That was just a little red meat for our fringe.

I should have known it would be a popular selection.

Makes you wonder about our little Internet pool.

[Behind the Aegis]

31. I don't wonder at all.

It is as it always has been. Some hate is just too insidious to die, even among self-professed liberals.

[CTyankee]

34. As a non-Jewish liberal, I can't understand that at all.

It is so self contradictory IMO. I can understand rational differences with the present government of Israel. I can understand concern for the plight of the Palestinians, but this harping on Judaism, Zionism and even Israel's right to exist at all has me bewildered and profoundly unhappy with my fellow liberals. I just don't understand how things got so off the track with people who call themselves progressive. I wonder what else is lurking in their minds that they don't talk about so readily...

[pleah]

22. I am stealling a friends quote,

"Ate up with the dumb ass"!!!!!

[greenbriar]

23. sold his soul to the devil

only thing that makes sense

[Eric J in MN]

25. I didn't like him when first ran for the US Senate in 1988.

From my perspective, there is nothing new wrong with Joe Lieberman.

[CTyankee]

32. Since I was living in CT at that time, I can attest to the fact that he has changed.

His house was not too far from me in the Westville section of New Haven. I passed him every Saturday morning as he, Haddassah and baby daughter in a carriage walked to shull and I was on my way to Jazzercise. I would wave and say hi. He was very friendly. I saw him out running in the neighborhood. He dropped into our local diner to chat folks up. He was visible.

That's all gone now. I'm sure he's mad as hell at having the Dems throw him out of the party, but it took awhile for us to do so. Even Ned Lamont didn't originally want to take him on by running against him. He tried having a dialogue with him about the Iraq War. Only when Joe proved intransigent did Ned make his move, and not even right away, he tried to get someone to run but no one would take on the challenge. So Ned did, to his everlasting credit.

[saltpoint]

27. He's a grandstander.

He can't win nomination in 2004 in his own party so he keeps making steps to the Right side of the stage Then MORE steps Right.

Soon he's on the far, far end of the stage, endorsing Bush and Cheney and everything they stand for.

Democrats in his state chose Ned Lamont as their nominee. Lieberman bolts the party, runs as an independent, courts and gets many Puke votes, retains the seat. All legal but not very attractive to progressives.

He's seen on the Sunday news programs bobble-heading for Bush.

I don't have much respect for Lieberman at all now, and would actually have preferred that Lowell Weicker had trimphed against him in their long-ago Senate race. Weicker, then a Republican and later an independent, is actually far more progressive than Joe Lieberman.

[DFW]

33. A relevance is a terrible thing to lose

And he has lost it.

[InkAddict]

35. What isn't? n/t

[DFW]

36. A sore throat?