Joe Lieberman

What the heck was Al Gore thinking when he ran for President in 2000? Joe Lieberman for V.P.? The Democrat from Connecticut had won a Senate seat in 1988 with the support of conservative Republicans who wanted the more liberal Lowell Weicker out. Lieberman was also the first Dem to publicly criticize Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. And he’d sided with the GOP in 1995 to limit punitive damage awards in product-liability cases. In other words, let companies make any shitty, dangerous products they want, but prevent consumers from seeking fair reparations in court if a product causes injury or death. Of course, that was just the beginning of Lieberman’s headlong attack on logic, ethics and his own political party.

Ten years later, in 2005, he voted for the Class Action Fairness Act, which severely limited the ability of plaintiffs to file class-action suits against corporations in federal courts. (Score another one for Big Business.) And let’s not forget that Lieberman, who left the Democratic Party in 2006 to seek reelection as an independent, supported GOP Presidential candidate John McCain in 2008. It was McCain who propelled Sarah Palin into the national spotlight by picking her as his running mate. Sarah Palin! We still have to live with that nightmare! As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lieberman even campaigned with McCain—who appeared to be in the throes of dementia—and challenged candidate Barack Obama’s willingness to put his country first. And when asked if he agreed with Bill Kristol’s statement that Obama might be a Marxist, Lieberman responded, “Well, you know, that’s a good question.”) Despite that bit of ugliness, Obama—as President— blocked a Democratic move to kick Lieberman off the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which he chairs. How did Lieberman thank his benefactor? By openly campaigning against Obama’s healthcare bill.

It’s certainly worth noting that more insurance companies are headquartered in Connecticut than any other state. Lieberman himself has received more than $900,000 since 2005 from insurance industry sources. No other lobby has contributed as much. Beyond that, his wife, Hadassah, worked for a lobbying firm specializing in health and pharmaceuticals. Can you say conflict of interest? But wait. As the TV pitchmen say, there’s more. Much more! This senator from hell, this wretched assault on human evolution, has already stated he will support Republicans in 2010. Further, he has joined forces with Lynne Cheney in criticizing universities for being “anti-American,” i.e., too liberal. Lynne fuckin’ Cheney! Has he no shame? Apparently not.

In 2008, Lieberman accepted an award from fanatical preacher John Hagee, who bellows that God sent Hitler to kill the Jews so they would all move to Israel, where most of them will be dispatched to hell come the Apocalypse. You got that? Sarah Palin! Lynn Cheney! John Hagee! Three notorious psychopaths. But let’s not leave out the fourth horseman of the psychopaths: Alberto Gonzales. Can you remember the smug yet somehow vacant expression on the then-Attorney General’s face when he repeatedly told Congress he couldn’t recall his role in formulating the policies of George W. Bush? Gonzales is the lackey who labeled as “quaint” the Geneva Conventions, which bar torture. Believe it or not, Lieberman actually champions this notion. When Gonzales was forced to resign in the wake of the scandalous firing of U.S. attorneys who’d resisted Bush policies that violated the law, Lieberman said Gonzales “deserved our appreciation for his work for our nation.” That would only be true if Lieberman meant Gonzales’s efforts to turn America fascist.

The list of odious positions embraced by Lieberman is virtually endless: He supports the World Trade Organization, which is responsible for shipping Americans’ jobs overseas. He is a staunch chickenhawk who backed Bush’s wars in the Middle East. He does not support gay marriage, believes in tax cuts for the rich and increasingly seems to favor the interests of Israel over those of the United States. Lieberman’s lurch to the right has become so extreme that in 2007 his Senate Homeland Security Committee held zero oversight hearings regarding Bush’s controversial policies, and he even backed away from preelection demands to investigate the Bush White House’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Just as disturbing, Lieberman told nutcase Glenn Beck, “You’re a good man,” and right-wing radio personality Hugh Hewitt, “I’m proud of you.” Ugh!

We hear from pundits that Lieberman’s antics are basically a cry for attention from a short fellow who has spent his life struggling with a raging inferiority complex. But, stature aside, we think someone who was determined to deny 45 million Americans adequate healthcare—thus consigning many of them to an early grave—is nothing less than a psychopath. Pile shit high enough, put a yarmulke on it, and you’ve got pious, independent Senator Joe Lieberman. Independent of the American people, maybe, but hostage to Big Business—and Israel. Oh, by the way, Joe, Israel has universal healthcare.