Democrats: Punk-Ass Bitches or Hostages to Lieberman?:
The Rude Pundit thinks that the whole goddamn compromise on the war funding bill, which is really about the blood and bones and brains of soldiers forced to fight for another $100 billion or so worth of time, comes down to Senator Joe Lieberman, that boil Connecticut inflicted on us last year. Keith Olbermann hinted at this the other night on Countdown while talking with Howard Fineman, who quickly dismissed the idea that Joe Lieberman had anything to gain by jumping to the Republican caucus. But what Fineman's not getting about Lieberman is that it ain't fun to have power if you never use it, and what's more pleasant than to threaten to dick over the very people who need you.

So, with no real evidence (unless that pair of Congressional aides the Rude Pundit shared ecstasy tabs, Wild Turkey, and condoms with - hope the handcuff marks are gone, S. - wants to call up for another round of "whistleblowers and the whistle" and drop the dime on the Senator), one would not be wrong to think that the most forceful reason Harry Reid would so clearly contradict himself on the funding bill is having been put in a nut vice by Lieberman.

Check out the man of Lieber's May 16 comments to the Republican Jewish Coalition, as reported in the Hartford Courant: "It is to the everlasting credit of President Bush that in the war against Islamist extremism he has shown the courage and steadfastness to stand against the political passions of the moment...I believe that each of us should be grateful that we have a commander-in-chief who does not believe that decisions about war should be driven by poll numbers. And each of us should be grateful that we have a commander-in-chief who does not confuse what is popular with what is right for our security as a nation." If one is so willing to prostrate oneself, Kissinger-like, before the mad leader, one is willing to play hard ball to make sure that the war continues.

In the same speech, he chided Democrats and Republicans as "delude[d]" for thinking that ending the war won't cause political consequences. Shortly after threatening that anti-war politicians will "be held accountable," Lieberman said, "I know that we can rise above the anger and smallness of our politics." So, just to follow the ball bouncing off the rubber walls of the crazy room, Joe Lieberman says that politicians are fucking their political careers over if they defund the war, but he wants them to rise above politics. Lieberman added, "Now is not the time for reflexive partisanship and pandering to public opinion. Now is the time for the kind of patriotism and principle America’s voters have always honored."

But, wait, wait, wait just a fuckin' second here, Joe - you just said that the public will hold politicians accountable for not supporting the war. And in that one sentence you said that the public is against the war, but the voters will love you if you support it. The ability to hold contradicting thoughts in one's head that you assert are both true? That's called "motherfucking insanity."

Of course, this was just after Lieberman had related a story about how "dramatically transformed" Anbar province has become in the last six months, with "shops and schools have reopened, Al Qaeda is on the run, thousands of Iraqis have joined the local police, and—yes—no less than the New York Times reports that we have turned the corner there." Of course, one never knows what's around that corner. And, today, ABC News is reporting that "Thousands of U.S. troop reinforcements have been sent to Anbar, one of the most dangerous regions in Iraq for U.S. soldiers, as part of a broader military initiative seen as a last effort to avert all-out civil war." Can a brother get a "D'oh"?

Still, is this the rhetoric of a man who would allow the war to end? Fuck, Lieberman won't be happy until he's bathing in a tub of Shi'a blood on the floor of the Senate, with Orrin Hatch and a few others telling him to scoot over and pass the loofah. And then Lieberman can give Bush the most lubricious fellations, and, wiping his mouth, telling the President that Hadassah never does that to him, the two of them can sit there and figure out which one of them is the most bloodthirsty.

While the right is crowing about the President having "won" this round, well, the Rude Pundit's pretty damn certain that at least some of the "victory" belongs to Joe Lieberman, and that the families of the coming dead Americans owe him much thanks.