Friday, August 04, 2006

The Moose offers some summer thoughts before taking a brief break from the blog.

A few years back the Moose broke with the Republican Party on a range of issues dealing with economic justice. His reasons for leaving the GOP are explained here.

As the Moose indicated, just because he became a heretic on the right, he certainly did not join the left. At another time he would be in the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Alas, that Scoop Jackson wing today is miniscule.

Almost a decade ago, the Moose witnessed the seeds of corruption being planted on Republican soil. And now the GOP is paying the price - its grip on power is tenuous .

In contrast, while the Democratic political prospects are good for '06, the party is increasingly coming under the influence of a left-wing element. The MoveOn.org crowd and their blogosphere buddies are intimidating even the saner centrist leaders in the party. Dean lost the nomination, but the Deaniacs are gaining control over the party.

[...]

However, on national security issues the party is regressing back to the glory days of the early seventies. In their reflexive opposition to everything Bush, Democrats too often appear weak on fighting the war against Jihadist terror. The left has a knee-jerk negative reaction to every assertion of Presidential prerogative in using surveillance against our enemies. Some lefties want to censure or even impeach the President for being overly aggressive in defending the country. And many lefties in the party reject even the notion of a war against terror.

The only jihad many in the left-wing in the party are interested in is the one against the party's former vice presidential standard bearer. The reason that the Moose devotes so much attention to the Connecticut Senate race is that it is the main battleground for the soul of the party. A national, litmus test purge is underway, and it's unambiguous purpose is to intimidate centrists in the party.

[...]

Sometimes there is a higher calling than partisanship. The country desperately needs the type of centrist leadership that Joe Lieberman has provided throughout his career. Unlike the Liliputians, Joe puts country first. While other notable politicians have flipped-flopped for political expediency, Joe has bravely sailed against the wind .

Embattled Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman - facing a possible primary defeat Tuesday because of his strong backing for the Iraq war - yesterday launched a Hail Mary attack on the Bush administration's handling of the war.

"I supported our war in Iraq but I have always questioned the way it was being executed," Lieberman said.

"This administration took far too many shortcuts. We continue to suffer the consequences, as do the Iraqi people."

Lieberman, an 18-year veteran of the Senate and a former vice presidential nominee, has been stunned by polls showing anti-war challenger Ned Lamont might win the Democratic primary.

"It sounds like he's finally starting to wake up," said Lamont spokeswoman Liz Dupont-Diehl.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, campaigning for Lamont yesterday, repeated the main charge against Lieberman: that he's an overly enthusiastic cheerleader for the war.

"I was disappointed that every time we came out of the huddle, it seemed like my friend Joe had [on] the other team's uniform," Sharpton said.

Lieberman's campaign said the senator's attack on the administration was nothing new. "This is one of those great myths that the Lamont campaign have been able to peddle," said spokesman Dan Gerstein. "He's been critical [of the handling of Iraq] since the war started."

But the cheerleader image was cemented last year when Lieberman chided Democratic Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for suggesting a troop pullout. "We undermine the President's credibility at our nation's peril," Lieberman said last year of war critics.