Did anyone else see this Op-Ed in Sunday's (or Saturday's, if you're a subscriber) Connecticut section of the New York Times? I really wanted it to be snark. I really, really did. Because if it was snark, it was really good snark. If it was serious, though, it's very disturbing.
More...
The piece, entitled "The Lieberman Principle," carried the subtitle, "Why the presidential nominees should seek the senator's advice." http://www.nytimes.com/... Oh, I get it, I thought: So they can do the opposite, right? It begins:
POTENTIALLY the most important words of this painfully long and rhetorically useless campaign season were recently uttered. And because they were meaningful, timely and imbued with common sense, the vast majority of the news media chose to ignore them in favor of partisan sound bites meant to divide.
When asked this month whom he might vote for in the 2008 presidential election, Senator Joseph Lieberman, shockingly told reporters in Hartford, "I’m going to choose whichever candidate that I think will do the best job for our country, regardless of the party affiliation of that candidate." He added that he was "not going to get involved until after both parties have their presumptive nominees and, frankly, to see if there is a strong independent candidate."
Wow. Finally the patriotic words tens of millions of Americans have been thirsting to hear.
(Emphasis mine.)
My favorite sentence opening, "Alas, Joseph Lieberman is back in Congress..." (I know!! I know!!! This guy is reading my thoughts!!!) continued with, "...and many in his former party treat him as a pariah." Which party? The CFL Party? http://www.dailykos.com/...
Continuing:
To the everlasting shame of the Democratic Party, he and his tremendous record of service to his state were foolishly cast aside during his primary bid in favor of a candidate deemed malleable by the far left.
(emphasis mine)
...as opposed to being malleable by the right? (Anyone have a pic of "The Kiss?")
The closing, however, is too precious to ignore:
Should the nominees ignore the will of the people and resort to politics as usual, it is all of us who may well pay the price for their hubris. Before it's too late, the candidates should swallow their pride, ring up Senator Lieberman and take a lesson or two in sanity, humility and reason.
Yes, phone the guy who wants to ignore the will of 72% of the American people http://thinkprogress.org/... and pick a fight with Iran. Phone up the guy who thought the Democratic primary was "too partisan" because he lost. Phone Lieberman to reassure yourself that you are sane, humble and reasonable.
I'm writing mainly to let off steam, but also because I'm hoping that there is someone out there a little more articulate than I who could perhaps take pen in hand and write a rebuttal. There's so much material here--the letter writes itself. I'd originally left the paper on the floor to type this diary. My lovely dog waited five minutes, then planted her lovely bottom right square in the middle of it.