Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller: Cousins?

Remember Zell Miller? He was a Democratic Senator from Georgia who almost always sided with Republicans in recent years, until he retired last year. Months before retiring, he appeared at the Republican National Convention to praise Bush and condemn John Kerry, the candidate of his own party. Despite repeated overtures from the GOP, he repeatedly turned down the opportunity to defect and increase the GOP majority in the Senate.

Now, Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, faces a similar situation. The difference is that while Miller came from a state that increasingly turned Red, Connecticut is a true-blue New England state, and his constituents are starting to notice.

I have long admired Lieberman, and supported him in his brief run for president in 2004. An Orthodox Jew, his strong faith and belief in his convictions has always set him apart from generic double-talking politicians. He was elected to the Senate in 1988 in an upset victory, and has faced little competition since. His 2004 opponent, a man named Philip Giordano, is currently in prison for molesting children. Lieberman was elected Vice President in 2004, until Bush & Cheney’s lawyers prevented him from ever assuming the office. Despite getting some guff for simultaneously running for reelection and for Vice President in 2000, he has been very popular in his state.

Long a "moderate Democrat,’ he has veered dangerously close to becoming a conservative. His early attacks on Hollywood "indecency" bordered on government censorship, and made him a rare Democrat not in Hollywood’s favor. He was one of Bush’s original supporters of the Iraqi invasion, which I forgave because Bush convinced a lot of people that it was necessary. He voted with the GOP in confirming Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, and has not ruled out supporting Bush’s absurd Social Security ideas. There was some talk of his being asked to join Bush’s cabinet overhaul, but he quickly ruled that out.

A February poll showed him with an outstanding 69% job approval rating, but there are certainly rumblings. Web sites have popped up such as www.timetogojoe.com and
www.dumpjoe.com. The last straw for many, it appears, was when Lieberman embraced Mr. Bush on February 3rd, following the State of the Union address. He literally, physically hugged the man. In Connecticut, which went overwhelmingly for Kerry in 2004 and Gore in 2000 (with Lieberman on the ticket), that is tantamount to treason.

In the midst of his third term in the Senate, Lieberman needs to assess where he stands. His "moderate" positions got him nowhere in his presidential campaign. He runs for reelection next year, and could be beaten, possibly even by another Democrat. He needs to ask himself if he is truly a Democrat, or Zell Miller’s northern cousin.

Things We Need to Remember

As of this writing, 1,518 American soldiers have died in Iraq since we invaded the country for murky reasons on 3/19/03. Since Bush declared an end to major combat on 5/1/03, there have been 1,381 American military casualties. We must not forget these brave men.

For more information, go here: http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

There are several other things we need to remember, courtesy of a column by Juan Gonzalez of the NY Daily News:

-Earlier this week, a leaked Pentagon audit revealed that Vice President Cheney's former company, Halliburton, which has so far received $10 billion in Iraq contracts, overbilled the government by $108 million for supplying fuel imports to that country. In one instance, the company billed the federal government $27 million to transport $82,000 worth of liquefied gas from neighboring Kuwait! The report was finished last fall but became public only after U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) obtained a copy.

-The House of Representatives approved a whopping $81 billion supplemental bill...to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations. That brings the total cost of those wars so far to an astounding $300 billion.
{WL Note: Remember that the Afghanistan war and subsequent occupation was absolutely necessary}

-Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi announced this week that his country will become the latest to pull out of Iraq later this year. Berlusconi acted after American soldiers mistakenly shot and killed an Italian undercover agent who had just succeeded in obtaining the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist. Italy becomes the 15th nation to pull out of Bush's Coalition of the Willing since the war began.
{WL Note: Reminds me of what John Stewart said on The Daily Show: "and Poland! Don't forget Poland!"}

-A recent survey of global attitudes by the Pew Research Center points to how isolated the United States has become in the world. The Pew survey found that 64% of Turks, 60% of Germans, 58% of French and 51% of Russians believe the United States is occupying Iraq to control Mideast oil - something only 18% of Americans believe.

"Anti-Americanism is deeper and broader now than at any time in modern history," the survey concluded, and the Iraq war is the principal reason.
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So when you see all these kudos for Bush and his boys as they purportedly spread democracy around the Middle East, remember these things that they neglect to mention.

The Butterfly Effect

Several years ago, a weird Texas millionaire decided to run for president. He believed his vast business experience was enough to overcome his complete lack of political experience. I am not talking about George W. Bush. I am actually talking about H. Ross Perot, the little man who, though now mostly forgotten, had a huge impact on U.S. and world history.

In 1992, this man ran for president and then withdrew from the race, citing fears that Republicans would sabotage his daughter’s wedding. He later re-entered the race. His reliance on business charts and homespun metaphors gave him a certain outsider charm. His Republican opponent was George H.W. Bush, a man whose huge approval ratings during the Gulf War had plummeted, and Bill Clinton, a fairly unknown Arkansas governor with some questionable past relationships. Given that competition and his penchant for straight talk (or telling people he was using straight talk), he won 18.9% of the popular vote, a staggering total for an independent. Bush managed just 37.4%, and Clinton won with 43%. Conventional wisdom had it that Perot siphoned more votes from Bush than from Clinton, meaning that Clinton should have sent Perot at least a thank-you note after his victory.

If Perot had not run, Bush may well have fended off this unknown Arkansas and won a second term. If he had been in office until 1996, who would have run to replace him? Maybe Bob Dole? Maybe the two-term Vice President Dan Quayle? On the Democratic side, Clinton might have missed his window, and we might have seen someone like Bill Bradley. Whatever the case, George W. Bush would not have run in 1996. If his father had not gotten beaten, he might not have run in 2000, either, especially if a Republican was already in office.

Ross Perot ran again in 1996, but his credibility was shot by then and he managed just 8.4% of the popular vote. That is a respectable total for an independent candidate, to be sure, but at less than half his 1992 total, it has to be viewed as a failure. It didn’t matter, though. He essentially put Bill Clinton in the Oval Office (and is the reason I can’t argue about Ralph Nader doing the same for Bush in 2000), and Clinton’s being in office is part of what precipitated Bush’s decision to run. If Clinton was never elected, we also would never be talking about his wife as a possibility in 2008. Ross Perot may have sank back to obscurity, but his impact on world affairs might not be over just yet.