I Want To Say Something Nice About Joe Lieberman

[DemocratSinceBirth]

I was watching Mississippi Burning on tv this afternoon. It was better at the movies. I hate watching movies on tv that I saw at the theatre. When they remove the obscenities, the conversations become implausible. A street guy isn't going to say "mickey fickey you" but I digress.

Joe Lieberman went to Mississippi during Freedom Summer in 1964. That took a great deal of courage, physical and moral.

How many of the other Democrat candidates made an effort like that.

I'm not going to vote for Joe. He doesn't inspire me . I don't think he can win but a little part of me knows there was something pretty damn good about Joe Lieberman in the Summer of 1964.

Maybe Joe doesn't deserve to be a punching bag at democraticunderground.com

[JohnKleeb]

1. thats good of him but you know hes changed

[edward]

2. It's not that everyone thinks he can do no good,

it's that he does not do it enough.

[punpirate]

3. Maybe Joe thinks it's okay to wage pre-emptive wars...

... against other minorities....

[JustJoe]

4. Uhhh...

Mickey fickey Joe.

[cherryperry]

5. Thank you.

His current rhetoric made me forget about this.

His courage during Freedom Summer is something I promise never to forget again.

He is not my choice at all; a DLC/borderling repuke IMO.

However, he doesn't deserve to be a punching bag anywhere. I think this has as much to do with his more conservative beliefs as with latent and not-so-latent anti-Semitism. Go ahead, deny it; denying the truth won't make it any less true!

[mazzarro]

27. It is crap to say that the disapproval of Lieberman here in DU has

a pronounced anti-semitic component. Lieberman, pure and simply, is a neo-conservative in present times. Yes, accolades can and should be given him for his courage and fortitude during the Freedom Summer, but that does not obviate the fact that now he seems to advocate, comfortably, the same political philosophy of what he campaigned against during the Freedom Summer days.

[Melsky]

34. Actually, I would love to see a Jewish president

It troubles me that all presidents have been white Christian males.

But this guy is horrid!
Anyone that had his beliefs about war, wasteful defense spending and separation of church and state I would dislike just as much. Not to mention his behavior after the 2000 selection and his ties to Christian fundamentalist groups.

I'm glad he did some good stuff in the 60s. Leiberman is not the same guy he was 40 years ago. I don't like this current guy. If you can bring back the old one with a time machine, I might vote for him.

So I guess I'm anti semetic. That is so silly! Should we all just pretend we like him, or tiptoe around the truth just because of his religion?

I feel that is insulting to the many people who do suffer from anti semitism.

[Cha]

37. It's vey "insulting"!

And disingenous.

[KG]

6. Joe Lieberman would never wear a brown shoes with a blue suit.

or blue shoes with a brown suit.

he wore a tasteful tie to his rose garden photo-op handing the chimp the ability to invade a third world nation.

there. that's my lieberman love for the day. :)

[Pastiche423]

16. I can't see his shoes in this photo

But I agree, his tie was tasteful.

[Capn Sunshine]

20. Speaking of "worth a thousand words.."

What is Joe thinking here ?

Certainly not " I support the president wholeheartedly"

This picture needs to be "captioned" in the lounge....

[xray s]

7. We shouldn't be too harsh with Joe...

...after all he was elected VP of the US in 2000 by a majority of American voters...

[Cha]

12. So was Agnew.

[xray s]

13. Nah...Agnew was dead in 2000

:7

[Cha]

31. Right! I should have been more specific!

:D

Agnew was elected VP in 1969!

[lumpy]

33. Gore would have done much better in the polls

if Lieberman hadn't been his running mate. His support of Bush's warmongering turns too many people off. No way can I bring myself to vote for him if he gets the nomination.

[whoYaCallinAlib]

8. Regarding Joe's election chances . . .

I wouldn't bury him just yet. There are many, many of us middle of the roaders who aren't ready to write Joe off. It's early. We haven't heard all their plans yet. Plus, and this is most important, if Joe starts looking good in head to head polls against Bush, he will have my vote.

[unfrigginreal]

21. And you'll be looking at 2000 all over again!

I would probably drag myself out to vote for him, but that's what it would take. I swore after the 2000 elction fiasco that I would find and cart 5 people to the poles. I plan to honor that commitment, but I doubt that my heart would be in it for Lieberman but I'd be excited to do it for the other Democratics.

[whoYaCallinAlib]

22. I understand your frustration . . . but I will do whatever I can

if it helps elect a democrat . . . whoever it is.

[proud patriot]

9. I applaud Joe on his courage that Summer

if I had been alive I would of liked to gone too.

[Cha]

10. WTF changed holy joe?

:wtf:

lieberman is a flabby, shadow, skeleton of that man in the '60s.

he didn't grow from that experience ..he turned into a murdering warmongering scum.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

11. Lieberman has attacked Bush from a hawkish perspective

Politically, it's genius. I still won't vote for him in the primary, I'm just saying something nice.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. Joe's Not My Man

but I admire his courage.

I wonder how many people on this site would put their life on the line in the service of others.

He went to Mississippi ,of all fucking places, in 1964 to register blacks to vote a-f-t-e-r the murders of Cheney ,Schwerner, and Goodman.

Read a book. Read Taylor Branch's bigography of Martin Luther King. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

The Klan, the White Citizens Council were on the protestors asses and the corrupt cops looked the other way.

Joe had nads and for that I give him his props.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Most of the Democratic candidates were still in childhood in 1964

Most of the Democratic candidates were still in childhood in 1964, while Joe Lieberman was in Mississippi.

This is the same failed argument that is made about Kerry in Vietnam. We are asked to judge their character by the sort of men they once were so long ago, and not by what they have done more recently as politicians.

Al Gore supported segregation, as all young men of his age did at one time, but he outgrew the culture in which he was born to.

Some of the most rabid rightwing fascist of our day, David Horowitz comes to mind, were liberal activists in their youth. Look at where Horowitz is today, and the journey he took to the Dark Side of the Force. Look at Lieberman today!

Clinton was against the war in Vietnam, partly because sex was easy to get (I can speak with some experience in that regard). Compare that Clinton to the one that unleashed such gems as Plan Colombia, the bombing of Yugoslavia, the bombing of Iraq, and the sanctions on Iraq that took the lives of half a million children.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. Edwards Gets A Pass Cuz He's Too Young

but most of the other Dems were in the same position as Joe Lieberman and they had more impotant things to do.

[IndianaGreen]

25. Lieberman was 22 years old in 1964. Hitler was still alive!

Holy Joe was born in 1942, and he went to Mississippi after his graduation from Yale.

Interestingly, Lieberman does not mention his Mississipi experience on the bio he has posted on his Senate website:

http://www.senate.gov/member/ct/lieberman/general/newsite/biography.cfm?lowsrc=true

Howard Dean was born in 1948. Dean was 16 years old in 1964, a freshman in high school.

John Kerry was born in 1943. Kerry was 21 years old in 1964, a sophomore at Yale.

Dick Gephardt was born in 1941. Gep was 23 years old in 1964.

Dennis Kucinich was born in 1946. Dennis was 18 years old in 1964.

John Edwards was born in 1953. Edwards was 11 years old in 1964.

Bob Graham was born in 1936. Graham was 28 years old in 1964.

It seems to me that the only two candidates old enough to have been involved in the Civil Rights movement in 1964, as Joe Lieberman was, are Dick Gephardt and Bob Graham.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

30. Not To Split Hairs

but Cheney, Schwerner, and Goodman were between 19-22 years old. That opens it up for a couple more.

But there were opportunities to make a difference after Freedom Summer that all of them, save Edwards could have participated in.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Horowitz

jumped on the left wing bandwagon in the 60's for the sex and drugs. Given his looks I'm sure he got more of the latter than the former.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. I, too, want to say something nice about Lieberman

But, damn, nowadays he makes it hard!

His work during the Mississippi summer is greatly appreciated.

[IndianaGreen]

19. Whose side was he on in Mississippi?

Just kidding!

:smoke:

[JohnKleeb]

23. heh nice one

But you know IG, I have heard until he was senator, he was much more liberal but then the liberal tag come on and boom well thats the Joe Lieberman we have come to mistrust. Besides I bet those southerners wouldnt want him, they were just as anti semtic as they were anti black. The election registration officals who disappeared, two of those kids were Jewish and the other was black. Real shame what happened there, that was MS right? or Alabama?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

24. Mississippi

There were others killed.

They killed a young white housewife from up north during that Summer.

Her crime. Driving with a black man.

John L Lewis who is now a Congressman from GA still has a dent in his head from the beating he took that Summer.


Read Taylor Branch's book about MLK. I think it's called "Parting The Waters."

[IndianaGreen]

26. Viola Liuzzo, she was the mother of 5 children

I was a young Jewish brat at the time, and I was deeply moved by those events. I was a freshman in high school in 1964 when I marched on the first civil rights march that Indianapolis has ever seen at Monument Circle.

A woman that was walking in front of me carrying a baby got her picture taken by the now defunct Indianapolis Times. I was the one walking behind her carrying a sign "Must There Be a Third Party?"

The Democrats had a Southern problem at the time, and the argument was that if the Democrats did not buck their Southern segregationist brethren, that we (the civil rights marchers) were going to look elsewhere for another party to support. This is a true story, and as you can see, this battle has been raging since the Second Day of Creation!

BTW, the FBI investigated Viola Liuzzo and her associates while looking the other way for her killers:

http://foia.fbi.gov/liuzzo/liuzzo1.pdf

More here:

http://foia.fbi.gov/liuzzo.htm

[jiacinto]

28. Lieberman doesn't deserve it

But see, DemocratSinceBirth, Lieberman gets singled on everything. Even though Edwards and Kerry voted for war with Iraq he gets singled out for it. Even though every other Democrat running for president shares the same position it is Lieberman who gets singled out.

I am not voting for him either but I think he does get attacked unfairly here. Try to substitute "JFK" and with "Lieberman" and things sound awfully similar.

[poskonig]

32. Lieberman shoots himself in the foot.

Lieberman could rally Democrats on an economic message and Clinton-Gore nostalgia. Instead he acts ashamed to be a Democrat and gives the rank'n'file righteous lectures for not giving Bush full support. While Kerry and Gephardt supported the war, they have not gone this far.

[demnan]

29. This is why I don't bash Democrats

Hey, we're all in this together. Lieberman has a style and a personality and religious practices I don't particularly like. But he's a Dem and would make a much better President than Bush. We have to work together to get our country back. Let's not bash someone who may not encompass all our values but has the core ones to heart as your post clearly states.

[UTUSN]

35. He's a Dem - That's the Nicest Thing to Say - & That's ALL n/t

[corarose]

36. That's a great thing that Holy Joe did but he sold his sole to the DEVIL

Like Flo use to say on Alice He can Kiss My Grits!

[Pepperbelly]

38. Joey deserves respect for that ...

and I give him his props. I still will not vote for him in the primary but I do admire his courage and morality in risking life, etc for the principles of equaolity.