Election 2004: What the Fuck is Wrong with these people?
Pity Joe Lieberman. The man once referred to as "The Conscience of the Senate" has been tossed to the wolves by his political brethren, cast into the wilderness to die a lonely death from cold and hunger. Joe would do well to remember the old adage about sleeping with dogs --- sometimes you wake up with rabies. Fleas are a minor inconvenience.

Joe once compromised his principles for a shot at the Big Time and hitched his wagon to the Clinton Machine via Al Gore. Now Gore, who once said that Lieberman would make a terrific President if the opportunity arose, has gone and given his endorsement to Howard Dean. How sad, rejected and thoroughly used Joe must feel now. I feel sorry for him because he is genuinely a good man who just made some mistakes. We all do that when tempted. If I were Joe now I would try to rinse the filth off with Brillo and try to regain some measure of self respect.

Dean, in the meantime, continues to be obnoxious and Hitler-esque in his pronouncements and his behavior. He has nothing really important to say except that "I'm not Bush, Dammit", and the only reason I still watch him is because I'm waiting for him to bust a blood vessel during one of his tirades.

There was an interesting observation made about Dean the other night on "Special Report with Brit Hume" by Jeff Birnbaum. The subject was John Kerry's assertion that Dean "flip-flops", i.e. changes his positions to suit the political mood (Duh!), as if Kerry never did. Brit trotted out various quotes from Dean proving that he does, indeed, change positions more often than some people change their sheets. It was then that Birnbaum dropped his bomb, and it was so subtle as to have probably been missed by most folks. Birnbaum explained the phenomena of Dean and the willingness of democrats (small 'd' intentional) to forgive his, ahem, dissembling ways, because he (paraphrase) "exhibits some sort of fight".

I see. It's okay to lie, to change principles, to change positions as long as one seems to be "fighting". Fighting for what is still an open question, but it reinforces an axiom about democrat party politics that is as old as mankind itself: these people do not care as long as they win, or at least seem to be winning.

As George Bush, Senior once said, "Character counts". Apparently not if you're a democrat.