Turncoat Joe
I just wanted to pause for a moment, I wanted to stop and think. When Al Gore chose Senator Leiberman to be his running mate for the 2000 election, do you think he had any idea how much of a turncoat his to be Vice President would be in the future?
Al Gore, who has become something of the Alamo for Democrats, who’s recent movie, An Inconvenient Truth, has given him unquestionable Going Green street creds, whose criticism of how bush has handled the Iraq war has gotten more than a little of my own adrenaline pumping, Al Gore, the latter day saint of a Good Democrat chose, of all people, Joe “Benedict Arnold” Lieberman seven years ago.
We can never know how that would have ended. It is possible that the terrorist attacks that changed American would have never happened, and we most assuredly wouldn’t have gone into Iraq and still be there to this day.
And let’s not forget that it is hardly likely that Turncoat Joe would be one tenth as powerful as Arch Chancelor Dick Cheney. But, assuming an Al Gore term would be as beneficial as one may think, it does make you wonder how Joe Lieberman would play out.
Perhaps he’s always been a Republican in Democratic clothing. Or maybe he just had his drink spiked with the kool-aid, and is now acting out the well known side effects. Maybe, following two years of an Al Gore presidency, Turncoat Joe wouldn’t be a turncoat after all, but instead the ascending president getting ready to offer wise and tempered stewardship of the bolstered nation Al Gore handed over to him.
Or maybe it really is in his skin, and in the 2004 election could have been Joe running against Al… as a Republican. But these are all questions we can never know the answer to.
On the other hand, PSoTD poses a question that we will eventually know the answer to, one that could prove highly significant in the outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election:
Well, yeah. Of course he will. I wouldn’t be shocked in the slightest. His verbal fellatio of the President and his policies in Iraq is only part of the equation. I honestly think it began back in 2000, with the loss, and the picking of the president by the Supreme Court.
I can’t say for sure what switches went closed in his head that dead, but I think something right then and there snapped for the Democratic Senator. It’s almost as though he saw for the first time that, hey, Republicans actually know how to win.
He hawked for the Iraq war, and when his own seat in the Senate came up, he was snubbed by his own party, losing the Democratic primary. This was fine, though, it just helped move along the transition to his new life. He changed the D behind his name to an I, and based largely on the fact that the Iraq War was nowhere near as unpopular as it is now, and based largely on the rule of incumbancy, Turncoat Joe kept his seat.
Since then, Joe has continued to be a Gopper lapdog, even hopping on the “Let’s Bomb Iran” train, as well as taking a McCain-esque Baghdad shopping trip. It is growing increasingly clear that his bridges with the Democratic community are on fire.
So yeah, he’s going to back the Republican nominee next year, especially if we’re still in Iraq. He’s going to do it just because it fits the narrative he’s been building since the invasion of Iraq started.
It’ll be Zell Miller all over again.
Also, one has to wonder about Lieberman’s own aspirations for the White House. Does he see himself sitting in the Oval Office? Is it possible that sucking up to the GOP seems the best way to do it, much like Deion Sanders went to whatever team he thought would get him to the Super Bowl?
One thing is clear, Republicans are still far superior to Democrats at playing politics, and he could be trying to gain their favor, perhaps even announcing himself as a Republican sometime within the next ten years. Maybe they would even allow him to have that massive political machine, who knows?
So that’s my take, now it’s time for the rest of the blogroll to jump in:
Copeland Institute for Lower Learning
The Divided States Of bu$hmeriKa 2
Drinking Liberally in New Milford
Independent Bloggers’ Alliance
Last Left Turn Before Hooterville
Making Conservatives Cringe since 1977
The Online Magazine Formerly Known As Rob’s Blog
The Strange Death of Liberal America
No Responses to “Turncoat Joe”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- University Update - Al Gore - Turncoat Joe - [...] Clark Contact the Webmaster Link to Article al gore Turncoat Joe » Posted at Comments From Left Field on…
- PSoTD - Dawn of the Lieberman... On Monday, I asked this question: Will Joe Lieberman support the Republican candidate for President in…
Leave a Reply