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Audacity of Truth
Joe Lieberman’s John Hopkins University speech
Earlier today in an update to a post about Karl Rove’s reflections on the Democratic Congress and how it’s been a miserable failure, I mentioned that Senator Joe Lieberman, too, has been doing some reflecting about the Democratic party as of late, and linked up to a Powerline post which referenced a NY Sun article containing snippets of a speech he made at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
While powerful, the NY Sun article doesn’t fully do Lieberman’s speech justice. Here are his remarks in full (h/t: Marc Moore).
In his speech, you’ll see in his strongest language to date why he no longer identifies with the Democratic party, and it primarily has to do with their pacificist attitudes towards fighting terrorism, and their visceral hatred of the President, a hatred that consumes them and defies all logic.
Of course Lieberman’s not the first Democrat Senator since Bush was elected President to skewer his own party for their lay-down-and-take-it approach to counterterrorism and irrational hatred of the President:
Today — Today at the same time young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat’s manic obsession to bring down our Commander-in-Chief.
What has happened to the Party I’ve spent my life working in?
I can remember when Democrats believed it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny.
It was Democratic President Harry Truman who pushed the Red Army out of Iran, who came to the aid of Greece when Communists threatened to overthrow it, who stared down the Soviet blockade of West Berlin by flying in supplies and saving the city.
Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today.
Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today’s Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.
And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.
Tell that — Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers.
Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.
Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.
Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don’t just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home.
For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag who gives that protester the freedom he abuses to burn that flag.
No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn’t believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.
But don’t waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my Party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution.
They don’t believe there’s any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.
— Senator Zell Miller (D-GA), Republican National Convention – September 1, 2004. His entire speech can be viewed at that link, or if you have trouble with it loading, you can view it here as YouTube has it in three parts.
Joe Lieberman is the Zell Miller of the 110th Congress.
For this, they hate him.
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Could Joe be posturing himself as a potential republican running mate?
We could do a lot worse.
I’d respectfully disagree with you both. Lieberman’s never stopped listing his affiliation as “Independent Democrat“. Except for his views on fighting terrorism, he’s solidly in the mainstream left. Basically, he’s a throwback to the 1950’s and early 1960’s, when most Dems tacked left on social policy but could be counted on to stand up to the communists and other foreign threats. JFK was closer to being a Republican than Lieberman is today.
That’s why I can’t see him on the GOP national ticket. Think about it – many people think John McCain is a RINO, despite his steadfast support of the WOT. If that’s the case, how much more of a RINO would Lieberman be?
I agree with my friend GWR and would be interested to hear what y’all think as to how far apart he and Guiliani are?
I gotta tell you, re-listening to Zell Millers speech at the convention, I still get goose-bumps hearing this man talk about how ashamed he was of his party when it came to the defense of this nation.
It wouldn’t hurt if Lieberman AND Miller both spoke at next years convention.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – Web Reconnaissance for 11/10/2007 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention updated throughout the day…so check back often.
This is a weekend edition so updates are as time and family permits.
Agreed with GWR on this..
I think we all would agree that this country would be better if far more Democrats agreed with Joe.
I agree that Lieberman would not be a good fit in the Republican Party. What is a shame is that because he wants to defend this nation from attack and doesn’t viscerally hate Greoge Bush, he’s been expelled by the Democrats (although they are quite happy to have his vote, which apparently is not as radioactive as he is).
Even though the Republicans manage to infuriate me at least once per week, who else wants to be a grown up and defend what we all, on both sides of the political spectrum, appreciate and enjoy about America?
Oh I fully agree that there’s no question that on social issues, Joe Lieberman is a solid lefty, but seeing that the war against Islamofascism is the burning (no pun intended) issue of our time, and that it dominates the political landscape here is why I believe that Joe Lieberman no longer identifies with the Democratic party. Everything they do at this point – both on both domestic and foreign issues – revolves around their hatred of Bush, the appeasement of their far left base as well as terrorists both home and abroad, and a wishing of our defeat in Iraq. Lieberman doesn’t operate that way.
And I agree, I wouldn’t want to see him on a Republican presidential ticket.
ST, you’re right that BDS permeates everything the Dems do today. However, the way I read it, Lieberman isn’t taking the Reagan approach (”I didn’t leave the Democratic party – it left me”). He’s distancing himself from the nutroots while remaining hopeful that the Democratic party can be salvaged and the adults put back in charge with some sanity restored post-Bush.
Now, if the GOP keeps the White House next year and the hatred transfers to the new president – then you may see him make a serious move away from his party.