Senator Joe Lieberman announced that he will not be running again for the United States Senate in 2012. Apparently Joe read the polls and realized that he might not win re-election given his alienation of the Democratic base over the past number of years.
Joe Lieberman voted against the single payer health insurance plan, desired by the majority of Americans. Furthermore he was a supporter of the extension of the tax breaks for the upper 2% of Americans as well as the reduction in estate taxes on the super rich. Additionally he has been a traditional hawk, advocating the continued presence of American troops in the Middle East.
It should not be lost among Democratic voters that Joe Lieberman supported the candidacy of John McCain and Sarah Palin, even appearing in support of them at the Republican National Convention in 2006, even though many Americans felt that Sarah Palin may not have been qualified to be President. Imagine supporting Sarah Palin as Vice President, who would become President in the event of the death of John McCain?! Even more unimaginable is that given the precarious age and health of John McCain, a survivor of melanoma, Sarah Palin could have been a mere heart beat away from the Presidency. Shame on you, Joe, for exercising such judgment on behalf of fellow Americans.
Mr. Lieberman will not be missed by many Connecticut voters. Although some have suggested that he should be appointed the Secretary of Defense by President Obama, it is hoped by many that this will never eventuate. I, like many Connecticut voters, say good riddance to Joe Lieberman, hoping that he will depart entirely and immediately from politics for good.
I once spoke to a classmate of Joe Lieberman while he was a student at Yale. His one memory of Joe was that he was running for President way back then. LOL!
In addition to his political positions, this was also another reason why I personally did not like nor respect Joe Lieberman. He was always and too much the politician. I will never forget his “absence” during the first round of voting in the Senate on the expulsion of John Tower from office.
Goodbye, Joe. Good riddance!
He not only campaigned for his friend John McCain (which is on the outer fringe of “understandable”, since they had been best friends for 30 years), but for _down ticket Republicans_ in 2008. He stated that it would be better for the Republicans to have more seats in the Senate than they currently did. He specifically stated that he turned against the idea of a Medicare Buy-in, which he had supported (or pretended to, at least), primarily because a few Senate Liberals began to say it was a good idea. Lieberman believed that anyone with any tie to any group that condoned or supported “terrorism or terrorist sympathizers” (as defined by our government) should lose their American citizenship. He supported the Republican position on Terry Schiavo. He favored privatizing Social Security and was against Affirmative Action. He took a “principled stand” in not filibustering Samuel Alito, but he stood ready to filibuster Health Care reform and Financial reform. He led Bush off the hook in an investigation into malfeasance at the EPA.
He was more than just a centrist Democrat or even a Conservative Democrat. He was a zealot with a deep, visceral hatred of the Democratic Party and of the Left, and he probably would still have had these positions even if he and his wife didn’t take millions of dollars from AIPAC and two health insurance companies.