PAUL KRUGMAN SERVES UP A KNOCK-OUT PUNCH FOR BUSH'S FAVORITE DEMOCRAT, HOLY JOE LIEBERMAN

Paul Krugman has the Lieberman/Lamont contest all figured out. One thing about Krugman, he gets things right. His NY TIMES story, "Talk-Show Joe," lays bare the whole fraud that is Lieberman. "What happened to Mr. Lieberman?" asks Krugman, after explaining the jeopardy Lamont's showing at the convention has put his campaign in. "Some new reports may lead you to believe he is in trouble solely because of his support for the Iraq war. But there's much more to it than that. Mr. Lieberman has consistently supported Republican talking points. This has made him a lion of the Sunday talk shows, but has put him out of touch with his constituents and with reality." Bush's approval rating in Connecticut is 31%, one of the lowest rankings in the country. Krugman thinks Lieberman's upbeat vision of the Iraq situation, which is exactly the Bush Regime's upbeat vision, is "delusional" and his column makes reference to Lieberman's labeling of Democrats (and others) who questioned the war and occupation as "unpatriotic." There are a LOT of "unpatriots" in Connecticut ready to let Mr. Lieberman know what they think of him. In fact, the kind of people who vote in Connecticut primaries are these very "unpatriots." And they're pissed.

He also refers to the now-infamous corporate-whore Hillary letter that backfired on them both. "A letter sent by Hillary Clinton to Connecticut Democrats," writes Krugman, "credited Mr. Lieberman with defending Social Security 'tooth and nail.' Well, I watched last year's Social Security debate pretty closely, and that's not what happened. In fact, Mr. Lieberman repeatedly supported the administration's scare tactics. 'Every year we wait to come up with a solution to the Social Security problem,' he declared in March 2005, 'costs our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren $600 billion more.' This claim echoed a Bush administration talking point, and President Bush wasted little time citing Mr. Lieberman's statement as vindication. But the talking point was simply false, so Mr. Lieberman was providing cover for an administration lie."

Not many Democrats were sympathetic to the psychosis of Frist and Santorum and DeLay and the Bush Brothers in regard to the Terri Schiavo tragedy. Most Democrats-- on both sides of the Beltway for a change-- were repulsed by what the Republicans were doing. But Holy Joe was right there with them. But, fossilized hypocrite that he's always been, interfering in people's personal lives has always been a hallmark of Lieberman's reprehensible political career. Krugman reminds us that "Lieberman showed far more outrage over Bill Clinton's personal life than he has ever shown over Mr. Bush's catastrophic failures as commander in chief."

Krugman rightly takes issue with the media constantly calling a confirmed right-winger like Lieberman a "moderate," when all he's ever been in a self-serving shill for corporatist power and wealth. "Mr. Lieberman's defenders would have you believe that his increasingly unpopular positions reflect his principles. But his Bushlike inability to face reality on Iraq looks less like a stand on principle than the behavior of a narcissist who can't admit error. And the common theme in Mr. Lieberman's positions seems to be this: In each case he has taken the stand that is most likely to get him on TV. You see, the talking-head circuit loves centrists. But a centrist, as defined inside the Beltway, doesn't mean someone whose views are actually in the center, as judged by public opinion. Instead, a Democrat is considered centrist to the extent that he does what Mr. Lieberman does: lends his support to Republican talking points, even if those talking points don't correspond at all to what most of the public wants or believes. But this "center" cannot hold. And that's the larger lesson of what happened Friday. Mr. Lieberman has been playing to a Washington echo chamber that is increasingly out of touch with the country's real concerns. The nation, which rallied around Mr. Bush after 9/11 simply because he was there, has moved on and it has left Mr. Lieberman behind."

You probably already know this, but you can click right here to help our whole nation leave the wreck of Lieberman permanently behind.