The Green[e]house Effect: a Weblog

Shut Up, Joe

There's celebrating, and then there's gloating ... and then there's dancing in the end zone until even your fans want a flag thrown on the play. Joe Lieberman went with option three [emphasis added]:

This news also makes clear the choice the Democrats face next year.  If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a more dangerous place.

Wait a sec, Joe — if Howard Dean had his way, America would have gone into this war with a coalition of serious allies, rather than trampling over international opposition in a way that left our international reputation and foreign policy in tatters. Don't start with this "objectively pro-Saddam" business; most every Democrat, Howard Dean included, regards Saddam Hussein with as much contempt as you do.

Lieberman could have handled himself with grace by highlighting the celebration among the Iraqi people, which arguably shows the merit of going to war against Hussein. Rather than take the high road, though, he made an argument that ought to insult every sensible war opponent; he pretended to see no moral difference between people who opposed any war on Hussein and people who opposed the time and manner of this war.

That's a cheap shot — beneath contempt, really, and beneath a man of Lieberman's onetime reputation. Then again, Lieberman has made himself a connoisseur of cheap shots ever since he found himself in a tough race:

Lieberman has been the race's most negative candidate. Others have attacked Dean, and fought amongst themselves, in a variety of ways. But almost all of these feuds have been substantive and confined to particular differences. Only Lieberman has said -- or strongly, unmistakably implied -- that another candidate (he meant Dean) was unelectable. No candidate should say that about another candidate in his party. Lieberman was in essence saying that if Dean is the nominee, he might not be able to endorse Dean.

That's great, Joe. Really great. But at some point, you might want to explain why people should vote for you — because right now, with you carrying on like this, I can't see a reason to.

Posted by Greg Greene at December 14, 2003 11:30 PM