Toxic Joe

At the confirmation hearings for General Petraeus, the Senator from the Sewer, Joe Lieberman, irked Glenn Greenwald. I am no fan of Joe Lieberman's (who could be) and, as Glenn says in his post today:

Joe Lieberman has probably become the single most poisonous Beltway voice when it comes to the war in Iraq. The Bush administration's principal rhetorical tactic for the last five years, of course, has been to equate opposition to its policies and criticism of the Leader with love of the Terrorists. But when it comes to the debate over Iraq, Lieberman -- time and again -- has managed to descend even further into the rhetorical sewer than the administration itself.

Lieberman, of course, spent several years warning Americans not to criticize their Leader with regard to the War. Just two weeks ago, Lieberman went on Meet the Press and prompted an angry outburst from Chuck Hagel after Lieberman sat there smugly accusing Hagel and anyone else who opposes the Glorious Surge of wanting the U.S. to lose in Iraq. In the same appearance, Lieberman also looked straight into the camera and said that the U.S. was "attacked on 9/11 by the same enemy that we’re fighting in Iraq today" -- a claim so transparently false that even the President long ago abandoned it.

[...]

And while it is encouraging, I guess, that the media is beginning to point out these fundamental flaws more expressly, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that this scrutiny is due more to the President's pervasive unpopularity than it is to any re-awakening by national journalists with regard to their responsibilities. Kicking a President with Nixon-level approval ratings is easy. Americans have already figured out that the President is a fraud. The real need for this scrutiny was back when 70% of Americans cheered on the invasion -- and the subsequent occupation -- because they had been led to believe that it was Saddam who helped fly those planes into the buildings along with his good friend, Osama bin Laden.