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Lieberman Highlights

-By The Reluctant Republican

For those of you who don’t know who Joe Lieberman is, let’s do a brief recap. Lieberman was Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 Presidential election. He has always had a bit of an independent streak and has more often than not voted his conscience regardless of what his party was doing. As a result, in 2006 the Democratic party went after him hard and stripped him of his nomination for re-election in their primary (something that is almost unheard of for an incumbent candidate). What the democratic party failed to take into account was Lieberman’s popularity and the level to which the people of Connecticut respected him as a man of conscience. Undeterred, Lieberman ran as an independent and smashed his Democrat rival. I disagree with Lieberman on almost everything except national defense and the war on terror, but he is definitely a Democrat I can respect. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at some of his comments last night at the Republican National Convention (you can read the full transcript here).

What, after all, is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?

Well, I’ll tell you what: I’m here to support John McCain because country matters more than party.

I am here tonight for a simple reason. John McCain is the best choice to bring our country together and lead America forward.

And, dear friends, I am here tonight because John McCain’s whole life testifies to a great truth: Being a Democrat or a Republican is important, but it is nowhere near as important as being an American.

 

Sen. Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who I think can do great things for our country in the years ahead, but, my friends, eloquence is no substitute for a record, not in these tough times for America.

In the Senate, during the 3½ years that Sen. Obama has been a member, he has not reached across party lines to accomplish anything significant, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party to get something done.

And I’d just ask you to contrast that with John McCain’s record of independence and bipartisanship, but let me go one further. And this may make history here at this Republican convention.

 

We all know it: These are tough times here at home, and we have dangerous enemies in the world. And what America needs now, frankly, is not more party unity. What we need now is more national unity.

And this is especially true, of course, because we are a nation at war. We need a president we can count on to fight for what’s right for our country, not only when it’s easy, but when it’s hard.

And I was there, so I can tell you, when others were silent about the war in Iraq, John McCain had the guts and the judgment to sound the alarm about the mistakes we were making in Iraq.

You know… when others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, which would have been a disaster for the USA, when colleagues like Barack Obama were voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield, John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion, advocate the surge, support the surge, and, because of that today, America’s troops are coming home, thousands of them, and they’re coming home in honor.