About That FBI Thing

Joe Lieberman

• denounced, really scolded, Bill Clinton in 1998 over a blow job, and very sanctimoniously would not allow Clinton to campaign for Al and Joe’s ticket.
• selfishly held on to his Senate seat in 2000 when he ran with Gore; if they’d won, Lieberman’s replacement would have been appointed by a Republican governor.
• failed to bury Dick Cheney in the vice-presidential debate in 2000 because “he clearly had no interest in showing the public what kind of leader Cheney really would be.” (I remember he kept saying that Cheney was right about everything. It was unbelievable.)
• in 2006, Lieberman opposed an effort to require all hospitals to make the morning after pill available to rape victims. “In Connecticut, it shouldn’t take more than a short ride to get to another hospital.”
• loved for the Iraq war, and saw his hawkishness as in the service of Israel and Jewish identity in America.
• won a speaking role at the 2008 Republican National Convention, and actively campaigned AGAINST his mentee, President Obama.
• lost his Democratic primary to Ned Lamont and then won the 2006 general election running as an Independent.
• held the health care bill hostage so he could kill the Democrats’ proposal to let people get health insurance coverage by buying into Medicare (though he’d endorsed the same proposal months earlier; his wife is/was a lobbyist for the Health Insurance industries.)
• led the way toward extending the Bush tax cuts for every last millionaire.
• kissed George Bush at the 2005 State of the Union address
• proposed a bill that would have automatically stripped Americans of citizenship for being charged—not convicted—with a terrorist act.