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Still the Peace Party
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Aug 09, 2006 05:29pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| Media | Weekly News Magazine - Weekly Standard, The |
| News Date | Wednesday, August 9, 2006 11:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Weekly Standard article by Fred Barnes.
An excerpt...
"DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE. In the early 1970s, they rejected their hawkish tradition on national security with the nomination of George McGovern for president. The resulting weakness on national security issues has haunted them ever since. Democrats didn't recover until the 1990s when the Cold War was over and national security was no longer the paramount national issue.
Now, after 9/11 and with Islamic jihadists still threatening America, Democrats are purging the hawkish remnants in their party. That's the meaning of the primary defeat in Connecticut yesterday of Senator Joe Lieberman to Ned Lamont, an antiwar Democrat. Lamont is the epitome of a peace Democrat: force averse, naively trusting in diplomacy, and firmly opposed to a strong national security policy.
The sacking of Lieberman is all the more striking because of his position in the Democratic party. He is not only the most prominent advocate of peace through strength, but also the foremost Democratic champion of Israel. It was because of his national security stance that he was chosen as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000.
Six years later, he's been pushed aside by a party sprinting to the left. Meanwhile, the man who picked Lieberman in 2000, Al Gore, has also flipped on national security. Gore himself was chosen as Bill Clinton's vice presidential running mate for the same reason Lieberman was, his credentials on national security: Gore had been one of 10 Senate Democrats who supported the first Gulf War.
For Democrats today, no good can come from the rebuff of Lieberman, who is running now as an independent to keep his Senate seat. His race will draw enormous media attention as Lieberman attacks Democrats for fostering "the old politics of partisan polarization." That charge, along with the national security issue, will be exploited by Republicans as they try to stave off a Democratic landslide in the midterm el |
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