With John Kerry out of the picture, it is difficult to find a Democrat whose political stock has fallen more than Joe Lieberman.
There is much to admire about Lieberman, but much to dislike, and the portrait that Jeffrey Goldberg paints of the self-described “independent Democrat� from Connecticut in a New Yorker profile titled “The Lorax� (after the Dr. Seuss character) is not flattering.
An excerpt:
To Democrats, Lieberman’s most vexing quality is not his early support for the war—Clinton, Dodd, and Edwards, among other senators, voted for the Iraq-war resolution in 2002. It is that no development—not the absence of weapons of mass destruction, or the Administration’s innumerable and well-documented mistakes in post-invasion Iraq—has lessened his admiration for President Bush or his belief that the war has aided America in its fight against Islamic terrorism.
“I’ve had a lot of disappointments along the way here,� Lieberman said. “So why do I trust President Bush in spite of the mistakes that were made, consequential mistakes? Because having watched him, having talked to him, I believe that he understands the life-and-death struggle we are in with the most deadly and unconventional enemy, Islamic extremism. And that he has shown himself, notwithstanding all these mistakes, willing to go forward with what he believes is right for the security of the country, regardless of what it has done to his popularity.�
“Isn’t President Bush responsible for losing this war?� I asked.
“Insofar as you have to hold the Chief Executive accountable, he bears responsibility for the mistakes that were made on his watch,� Lieberman said. “But I think he understands that now. And, look, Rumsfeld is no longer there. Gates�—Robert Gates, the new Secretary of Defense—“is there. There are a lot of changes happening. We’ve got a totally new plan for how to succeed in Iraq.�
More here.