On Second Thought

Peretz may be on to something. Maybe Clinton, hatchet buried, appearing with Joe reminded everyone of what a pompous, self-righteous ass Lieberman was during BJgate. Maybe Joe's constituents remembered how their Democratic senator joined with hypocritical Republican philanderers like Bob Barr, Henry Hyde, and Newt Gingrich to attack a popular Democratic president over an indiscretion that, in retrospect, seems trivial compared to the crimes of Bushco. Maybe they recalled this speech:

Transcript: Sen. Joseph Lieberman Speaks On Clinton - Sept. 3, 1998

LIEBERMAN: I was disappointed because the president of the United States had just confessed to engaging in an extramarital affair with a young woman in his employ and to willfully deceiving the nation about his conduct. I was personally angry because President Clinton had, by his disgraceful behavior, jeopardized his administration's historic record of accomplishment, much of which grew out of the principles and programs that he and I and many others had worked on together in the new Democratic movement.

I was also angry because I was one of the many people who had said over the preceding seven months that, if the president clearly and explicitly denies the allegations against him, then of course I believed him.

Well, since that Monday night, I have not commented on this matter publicly. I thought I had an obligation to consider the president's admissions more objectively, less personally and to try to put them in a clearer perspective. And I felt that I owed that much to the president for whom I have great affection and admiration and who I truly believe has worked tirelessly to make life tangibly better in so many ways for so many Americans.

But the truth is that after much reflection, my feelings of disappointment and anger have not dissipated, except now these feelings have gone beyond my personal dismay to a larger, graver sense of loss for our country, a reckoning of the damage that the president's conduct has done to the proud legacy of his presidency and, ultimately, an accounting of the impact of his actions on our democracy and its moral foundations.

The implications for our country are so serious that I feel a responsibility to my constituents in Connecticut, as well as to my conscience, to voice my concerns forthrightly and publicly. And I can think of no more appropriate place to do that than on this great Senate floor.

Id quod circumiret, circumveniat, Joe.

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