This will probably kill his career, but I rise to praise Sen. Joe Lieberman,
the independent Democrat from Connecticut.
In a speech last week before Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced
International Studies, Lieberman said, "Since retaking Congress in November
2006, the top foreign policy priority of the Democratic Party has not been
to expand the size of our military for the war on terror or to strengthen
our democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East or to prevail in
Afghanistan. It has been to pull our troops out of Iraq, to abandon the
democratically elected government there, and to hand a defeat to President
Bush."
Dictionary.com defines "patriot" this way: "a person who loves, supports,
and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion." The key
words are "defends his or her country and its interests with devotion." By
this definition Joe Lieberman is a patriot.
Is it in America's interest to lose in Iraq? Is it in America's interest not
to have a strong enough military - in personnel and in weapons - to defend
us against the myriad threats confronting the country now and those that
will likely confront it in the near future? Is it in America's interest to
see Democratic politicians dedicated to making a lame duck president a dead
duck, not supporting him in any way for partisan political reasons just to
win the White House?
Lieberman doesn't think so, but he stands virtually alone among leading
members of his party.