Redstate

Posted at 10:03am on Jun. 13, 2008 McCain's Top Surrogate Is Senate's No. 1 Porker

Pork Projects Make a Comeback

By Bluey

New data on congressional pork-barrel spending reveals that Sen. Joe Lieberman, a top surrogate to Sen. John McCain, has requested the most pork in the defense authorization bill.

Lieberman leads the way with 14 earmarks that cost $292 million, according to a report in the Washington Post that cites data from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The contrast between the anti-earmark crusader McCain and the pork-loving Lieberman couldn't be more stark. If elected president, McCain has promised to veto legislation that includes pork-barrel spending. Earmarks have a corrupting influence on Congress, and McCain sees eliminating them as a key component to cleaning up Washington.

The next two weeks are likely to feature several debates on pork-barrel spending with Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) wanting the House GOP to hold a conference-wide vote that bans earmarks.

Posted in Congress | Earmarks | Joe Lieberman | John McCain | Pork-Barrel Politics — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:50pm on Jun. 5, 2008 That Ned Lamont thing? It just keeps paying dividends, boychik.

*Dividends*.

By Moe Lane

Latest payout?

Citizens for McCain.

John McCain knows he is going to be the President of all Americans, not just the ones that voted for him. No matter what party you belong to or who you supported during the primary campaign, we want you to be part of our team.

And do you who's helping Senator McCain with that?

(slow, mocking smile)

Guess.

Lieberman launches grassroots organization
From CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Joe Lieberman – who has taken on increasingly high-profile campaign roles on behalf of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain – announced Thursday that was launching and heading a new grassroots organization, "Citizens for McCain," with a direct appeal to Hillary Clinton’s disappointed supporters.

“The phones at the campaign headquarters have been ringing with disaffected Democrats calling to say they believe Senator McCain has the experience, judgment, and bipartisanship necessary to lead our country in these difficult times,” Lieberman wrote in a message sent to the Arizona senator’s supporters. “Many of these supporters are former supporters of Senator Clinton.”

Over the past few weeks, some supporters of Hillary Clinton – whose campaign announced Wednesday that she would be suspending her presidential run this weekend — have said that they would consider voting for McCain if she were not the Democratic nominee.

Lieberman highlighted McCain’s “very good working relationship with Senator Clinton” – which he said would continue in the future – and his comments praising her in a speech at a Louisiana campaign event Wednesday.

Oh, I'm sure that once Senator Clinton concedes the race Saturday...

- by which I mean that she: explicitly drops out of the race; explicitly endorses Senator Barack Obama by name for President; formally and explicitly releases her delegates to vote for Senator Barack Obama; and promises to give Senator Barack Obama all the help that she can, explicitly including her contribution lists and whatever general election money that she can legally transfer. That's what's going to happen Saturday, right? -

...this will all be, as they say, moot. But until then, hey, lots of fun all around. Not to mention a blatant reminder how Lieberman got away and continues to get away with breaking away (at least in public) from the Democrats over the Iraq War. But, hey: the Democratic Party will no doubt promise that they'll be stripping the apostate of all his chairships with the new Congress. And you can believe them when they say that: after all, when was the last time that they lied to the netroots?

(pause)

Ah, 7:50 PM, Eastern Standard Time. Why do you ask?

Posted in 2008 | Joe Lieberman | Kneel Before Zod | The Best Democratic Primary EVER | The Great Netroots Betrayal — Comments (44)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:11pm on Mar. 30, 2008 It's No Longer Your Father's Democratic Party

What Happened To "Pay Any Price, Bear Any Burden?"

By California Yankee

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Senator Joe Lieberman, the Democratic Party's Vice Presidential nominee in 2000, succinctly described the sad devolution of the Democratic Party:

Well, I say that the Democratic Party changed.

The Democratic Party today was not the party it was in 2000. It's not the Bill Clinton-Al Gore party, which was strong internationalists, strong on defense, pro-trade, pro-reform in our domestic government. It's been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist and basically will --and very, very hyperpartisan. So it pains me.

I'm a Democrat who came to the party in the era of President John F. Kennedy. It's a strange turn of the road when I find among the candidates running this year that the one, in my opinion, closest to the Kennedy legacy, the John F. Kennedy legacy, is John S. McCain.

Watch the following video of the exchange between Senator Lieberman and George Stephanopoulos:

Michael Scherer gets it very wrong when he attributes Lieberman's critique to revenge against the antiwar radicals who rebelled against Senator Liberal during his reelection campaign in 2006. The Senator was reelected because he taken a strong principled stand seeking victory in the war the Islamic extremists continue to wage against America. It's really too bad the Democratic Party is now controlled by the same type of left-wing Liberal/Progressive radicals that tried, and failed, to defeat Senator Lieberman. Lieberman's description of the small left-wing cabal that has steered the Democratic Party away from Kennedy's "pay any price, bear any burden," is exactly right.

He's my Senator and I'm glad he is.

Posted in 2008 | Democrats | Joe Lieberman | John McCain — Comments (35)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:02pm on Jan. 10, 2008 "The Surge Worked"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Indeed it did. And it will continue to work if we continue to let it.

Posted at 7:50pm on Dec. 16, 2007 Think Of It As Netroots Fury Fodder

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Behold. After we get over all of the predictable talk about how Lieberman is "yet another neocon who can't be trusted and never really was a Democrat and should be drummed out of the party and would have been drummed out of the party if only Ned Lamont could live up to the netroots' fantasies," let us get an answer to the following question: How is it that a former Vice Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, the man praised nearly eight years ago as being a pathbreaker, has ended up departing from the Democrats on so crucial an issue? Oh sure, maybe Joe Lieberman departed in some ways from the Democratic Party. But maybe--just maybe--the Democrats departed in some significant ways from him as well.

And maybe Democrats who identify closely with Lieberman feel the same way. They might vote how they feel too.

Posted in Joe Lieberman | John McCain | Republicans | The Netroots — Comments (40)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:18pm on Dec. 16, 2007 Lieberman to Endorse McCain

By California Yankee

The Weekly Standard reports Connecticut's Independent Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman will endorse Republican John McCain for president.

Coupled with today's newspaper endorsements, Lieberman's backing improves the odds for McCain's resurgent campaign. New Hampshire is critical for McCain:

"We've got to win New Hampshire," he says, or at least exceed expectations there. "And then I think we can do well in South Carolina. In South Carolina we've got the base this time.

Some might wonder if Lieberman is looking for a cabinet position. I think Lieberman's endorsement has more to do with both Senators steadfastness on the war.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Presidential Campaign | Endorsement | Joe Lieberman | John McCain — Comments (26)/ Email this page » / Read More »