I believe in the Lincolnian ideal that you serve your party best by serving your country first, and I can't think of a better way of serving our nation than by re-electing Lieberman to the U.S. Senate. As a Republican, I don't want the Democratic Party to lose a Scoop Jackson Democrat and become isolationist in the face of Islamic fundamentalism with its message of jihad, hatred, and blood libel against America and Israel.
Vice President Cheney was right to say that the election of Lamont is a terrible signal to those who mean us harm. He was correct to say that we are at war with al-Qaida and they're watching what we do. For us to walk out of Iraq as we did in Somalia, Lebanon and Vietnam would be a terrible signal to the world that the West won't keep its commitments to the cause of freedom and democracy. It would turn Iraq into the megalomania of President Ahmadinejad of Iran.
To criticize American foreign policy or to criticize this administration is not unpatriotic. I've been critical of the rush to war; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been a frequent critic of the lack of a strategic vision and too few troops on the ground to defend the borders. But for those who supported this war to dump on a man of integrity and honor with world-class civil rights credentials is hypocrisy of the lowest type and does hurt our nation's foreign policy.
Lieberman does not need me to defend his record, but having worked with him as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the late 1980s and early '90s on issues of affordable housing, homeownership opportunities for low-income families, enterprise zones for urban and rural America, and access to capital for men and women of color, I believe his re-election to the U.S. Senate is necessary to expanding the war on poverty by including private enterprise.
For all these reasons and more, I look forward to helping re-elect Sen. Joe Lieberman.