Wednesday, August 10, 2016

JOE LIEBERMAN: STILL A TERRIBLE PERSON (updated)

(See the update below.)

I just stumbled on this story, which is a few days old:
Joe Lieberman May Endorse Trump

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut ... told Fox News he's thinking of supporting Republican Donald Trump.

He's still undecided in this year's race between Trump and Hillary Clinton, he said, adding, there are "a lot of us, I think, who can't feel quite comfortable either way yet."
“I’ve been spending a lot of time with a group called ‘No Labels,’” he said. “Jon Huntsman and I, former Republican governor of Utah, [are] really trying to do something that may seem naive or idealistic, but to sort of build the groundwork of people in both, parties who after the war is over -- the war [which] is this campaign -- will be prepared to try to build a peace that will enable our government to get something done for the American people.”
And building the groundwork for cooperation after the election means possibly supporting ... Donald Trump?

Yes, Lieberman says. Slate's Isaac Chotiner tried to get Lieberman to explain this in June, but his rationalizations were preposterous:
Isaac Chotiner: In the age of Trump, how do you view the role of No Labels?

Joe Lieberman: I have been supportive of No Labels from the beginning, but I really got active in it, really active, in 2014 when they asked me to become essentially the Democratic co-chair, or one of the co-chairs, with Jon Huntsman. I think that some of the same reactions and emotions that have given strength to Trump’s campaign and to Bernie Sanders’s campaign were felt by those who founded No Labels.

You’re not counting racism, I guess.

No. Not at all. Give me a moment. I’m going to come to that. Maybe I should close that quickly. The common denominator between No Labels and Trump and Sanders is discontent with the political status quo, which is that it’s not doing anything. The people in Washington are not doing anything. We’ve tried in a very different way than Trump, obviously, or Bernie Sanders, to disrupt the current system....
Lieberman explained to Chotiner that Trump met with No Labels earlier and the year and pledged to support its goals. Chotiner was unimpressed:
If Trump is willing to make the pledge, is that maybe a hint that the pledge doesn’t have any meaning?

Well, look, Trump, to put it mildly, like most political candidates but even more so, is a complicated candidate. It may mean on one side, and he stresses this some of the time, but it doesn’t get as much attention: He knows how to make a deal. He’s going to negotiate. He’s going to spend time at it. This, if it ever happened, is all good. Obviously, on the other side ...

Right, the other side.

And now I’m trying to keep my No Labels hat on, Isaac, without getting personally into it. He’s obviously done other things in the campaign that have been extremely divisive and would make it hard for him. With which I disagree personally and publicly and substantively.
So, y'know, Trump might be a hatemongering, mentally ill demagogue-wannabe, but he gave credibility to this ridiculous organization Lieberman co-chairs, and he says he's really a pussycat who likes to get to yes, so it's cool.

A decade ago, Lieberman began to be treated in some circles as The Last Principled Man because of his support for the Iraq War. Trump attacks the Iraq War at every opportunity -- he dishonestly says he never supported it. Lieberman doesn't care. John McCain is Lieberman's close friend. Trump attacked McCain last fall. Lieberman doesn't care.

Or maybe he just doesn't care when he's wearing his No Labels hat -- when he takes off the hat, he cares. That's the gist of his interview responses to Chotiner. If so, then that's some set of inviolate principles he's got.

To be fair, Lieberman hasn't endorsed Trump yet, unlike his co-chair Jon Huntsman, who endorsed in May. How do you think that going to work out for you, Jon, if you ever want to run for office again in your home state of Utah, where they despise Trump?

****

UPDATE:



Joe, why did you even have to think about this?
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