Lieberman describes himself as The Lorax

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Has anyone posted on tis New Yorker piece on Lieberman?

It's fascinating, and has a lot on Dodd and other dems as well.

...Christopher Dodd offered another perspective. A popular figure in the Senate who has the buoyancy of a natural politician, Dodd portrayed Lieberman as the last of the uncomplicated neoconservatives.

“I think there was this assumption that democracy was just waiting to blossom,” Dodd said of Iraq. “Let’s assume the President believed this, that it wouldn’t take much to produce a democratic society in Iraq. I’m not opposed to that, and I think that may happen, but the idea that you could go from where they were was a leap of faith, and many took that leap. Joe took that leap. He thought this was one way to bring stability in the region.”

Dodd went on, “I’m in the Brent Scowcroft school, the world as it is.” Once, this would have been a surprising statement, particularly to Brent Scowcroft, who might be called a Republican fatalist. But Dodd said that the last four years had been “sobering” for him. “I’d love to see a democratic Middle East,” he said. “But you’ve got to be a coherent society before you can be a democracy.” In the absence of weapons of mass destruction, “If you came to the country and said, ‘This guy’s a bad guy, we want to invade his country,’ I could not justify the loss of three thousand Americans for this, as much as I disliked Saddam.”

I asked Dodd if he has spoken to any other senators who are as optimistic as Lieberman is about Iraq. “I’ll tell you, I bet this has happened fifteen times in the last few days—conservative Republicans have said to me that they’ve told the White House that this is the last vote you’re going to get out of them, a vote against the Iraq resolution,” Dodd said. “They’re angry, and they sure don’t believe the new plan is going to work.”...

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1. oh, and check out what

The Rude Pundit and Digby have to say about the article.

Digby:

We have talked a lot lately about Dick Cheney's delusional behavior and his childlike strategic foreign policy vision. It seems as if even the dunderhead Bush seems less threatening and freakishly out to lunch than Cheney. In fact, it's hard to find any Republicans wearing the fogged-up, rose colored glasses that Cheney sports these days. But there is one guy who equals Cheney for sheer magical thinking and schoolboy worldview; it's Holy Joe Lieberman, the Supreme Allied Commander of the War against Islamofascism.

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2. One more thing -

a fascinating discussion yesterday on WBUR's On Point on jewish antisemitism. Or, to put it another way, on the war betweeen AIPAC neocons and your average, run-of-the-mill jewish liberal.

http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/02/20070206_a_main.asp

American Jews and Israel

American Jews, liberal and conservative, now square off over whether questioning Israel equals anti-semitism. - (Tuesday, February 06, 2007)

[Mass]

3. The Boston Globe has an oped on this subject.

My husband was listening to this show while driving back last evening. He nearly stopped to call in. He did not give me the details, but he was absolutely mad.

All critics of Israel aren't anti-Semites
HE AMERICAN Jewish Committee has endorsed an article by Indiana University professor Alvin Rosenfeld linking "progressive" Jewish thought to a rise in anti-Semitism. The article pointedly castigates Jewish critics of Israel 's policies, and argues that such criticism questions the very right of Israel statehood. All this, Rosenfeld -- and the AJC -- insist, fuels anti-Semitism. It is a false proposition.

Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that to be or not to be is not the question, but how to be and how not to be is the essential one. The AJC's view is that criticism of Israel is tantamount to denying Israel's right to exist, and that makes you an anti-Semite.

Anti-Semitism has many sources, but the spring of critical "progressive Jewish thought" is a mere trickle. Indeed, there are lonely voices on the left and right who question Israel's existence -- and yes, some are Jewish. A voice here, an article there, by an American Jew criticizing Israel, and the AJC trembles.

The AJC's real targets are "progressives" -- which is their shorthand for Democrats and opponents of George W. Bush's dubious adventure into Iraq. Along with its favorite stable of commentary writers, the AJC has been an ardent advocate for the Iraq war, fixed with a vision that it would bring forth a new Middle Eastern order. But the war and the vision have failed, and, ironically, at some cost to Israel's interests.

Israel's right to exist is not a serious question dividing Jews. But if Jewish criticism of the Jewish state made such Jews anti-Semites, then the world of anti-Semitism would be significantly enlarged. Criticism of the Israeli occupation puts you in the company of a significant portion of the Israel population. Those folks -- many of whom are descendants of Israel's "pioneers" -- at best are amused by such an equation. American newspapers have been critical of the occupation, with some significant ones being Jewish-owned. And this has stoked the fires of anti-Semitism?

The recent Israeli bombing campaign in Lebanon failed and provided a boon for growing Hezbollah power and influence. The war and its unintended consequences was further exacerbated by the US response -- or, rather, the lack of one.
...

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4. I listened to the archive late last night -

missed the original broadcast.

My husband listened too - and was furious. It's a very ugly subject. Fascinating listening, if you have the time.

[ginnyinWI]

5. love this part:

>>> conservative Republicans have said to me that they’ve told the White House that this is the last vote you’re going to get out of them, a vote against the Iraq resolution,” Dodd said. “They’re angry, and they sure don’t believe the new plan is going to work.”... <<<

That is one very heartening statement! I believe Dodd is telling the truth. All sorts of stuff is going on behind the scenes! ;)

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6. To me, that was definitely the best part.

I keep wanting to know what is going on behind the scenes - you know there has to be a ton of stuff happening, but it's like there's this code of silence.

Good for Dodd.

I was looking at a copy of the Washington Post national weekly in the kitchen at work today, and I was struck by an article about Brian Freeman. I'm sure someone else posted it here somewhere, but this was the part that struck me:

The death of the West Point graduate -- a star athlete from Temecula, Calif., who ran bobsleds and skeletons with Winter Olympians -- has radicalized Dodd, energized Kerry and girded the ever-more confrontational stance of Democrats in the Senate. Freeman's death has reverberated on the Senate floor, in committee deliberations and on television talk shows.

"This was the kind of person you don't forget," Dodd said yesterday. "You mention the number dead, 3,000, the 22,000 wounded, and you almost see the eyes glaze over. But you talk about an individual like this, who was doing his job, a hell of a job, but was also willing to talk about what was wrong, it's a way to really bring it to life, to connect."

"When I returned from war, almost 40 years ago now, I stood up and spoke from my heart and my gut about what I thought was wrong," Kerry said on the Senate floor last week as he recounted his meeting with Freeman. "I asked the question in 1971: How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? . . . I never thought that I would be reliving the need to ask that question again."