More people jump on the "Dump Joe" Lieberman bandwagon

I tell you, Joe Lieberman by now has to be wondering if he did the right thing with pissing off the Democrats. Everyday there seems be someone else who comes out and rips into him for his sucking up to Bush and Co.

I don't want to say it but at there seems to be no end in sight to the criticism towards Sean Hannity's best friend and if this continues, he could be in some trouble next year when the eleciton season gets into full gear.

Here's the latest shot at "say it ain't so" Joe from Eugene Elander and let's just say that a. ) He knows Lieberman as they have sort of a history together and b.) he definately doesn't have many nice things to say about him personally.

Elander also brings up a great point. Why doesn't Lieberman stop pretending that he's a "centrist" Democrat and just run as an Independent?

From the Conord Monitor

Having known U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman since the early 1970s, when he served as chairman of my American Jewish Committee chapter in New Haven, I recall how much I respected him as a young, liberal, public-spirited lawyer who really cared about the poor and disadvantaged in our society.

Joe helped me distribute flyers on behalf of Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers union. We ate lunch each week at the local vegetarian restaurant because, being an Orthodox Jew, he could not eat out anywhere else.

Then again, I also sadly remember Joe's first run for statewide office, attorney general of Connecticut, in the mid-1970s. I was based in New London, where state Rep. Patricia Hendel, a close friend of mine, wanted to run for secretary of state.

Unbelievably, Joe felt that two Jews on the ticket were one too many. I learned this when I got a call from a Lieberman family member asking me to discourage Pat from running, which I refused to do. I told this family member that this was America, and we did not have religious quotas for high office.

Joe was dealing the religious card from the bottom of the deck, and I never felt the same way toward him afterward.

But that was only the beginning.

When Joe ran for vice president on the 2000 Democratic ticket headed by Al Gore, he ran for his U.S. Senate seat in the same election. In some states, candidates can't do that; they have to choose. But not Joe - he hedged his bets.

I was ashamed of Joe for running for both offices and told him so in a long letter, but I also forgave him for what he had become. All of us change with time, some for the better, some not.

Over the years, Joe has positioned himself as a "centrist Democrat," which means that as the Republicans moved far to the right, he moved with them, but not as far. He would not make a good Republican, but today he is certainly not a Democrat.

Point in fact: his enthusiastic support of George W. Bush's war in Iraq, a war based on lies, deceit, false premises and a thirst for Iraqi oil that has not been slaked. Long after the infamous "Mission Accomplished" photo-op with the president crowing and boasting, some 2,000 additional American lives (and countless Iraqi lives) have been lost. But Joe still opposes any kind of firm exit strategy, even though one is desperately needed.

Joe is not only out of tune with his own Democratic Party but with the American people as well. He should follow the lead of former U.S. senator and Connecticut governor Lowell Weicker, who formed a Connecticut Party when he ran for governor.

Lowell felt that neither of the two major parties represented where he stood - and so it is with Joe Lieberman. But in Joe's case, he often appears as a betrayer of Democratic stands and values in foreign policy, even if he is supportive of Democrats' domestic agenda.

It is one thing to be a maverick, a role Joe loves, declaring himself "the conscience of the Senate." It is another thing entirely to be a turncoat.

Hey, Joe, form your own party.

Ouch.