BELTWAY PROSTITUTES RALLY FOR THEIR LIEBERHOUND

What the hell is poor old Dan Inouye doing with this disreputable bunch of corporate whores and fake Dems? That's how I was planning to start this story, mistaking Hawaii's other U.S. Senator, the progressive Dan, Akaka, with Inouye, whose voting record fits just fine with the other 4 right-of-center Democrats who have come rushing to the aid of George Bush's and Ann Coulter's favorite former-Democrat, Joe Lieberman. True, Inouye's record is the most moderate of the 5 right-wing Democrats, but it's definitely more in line with the Republican/corporate agenda than with the mainstream of the Democratic Senate caucus-- let alone the Democratic grassroots.

By far, the most reactionary of the Democratic senators stickin' with Joe is Nebraska's Ben Nelson, the most far right and Republican-voting of any Democrat. Nelson is virtually always there for Bush and the GOP Leadership when it counts and it wouldn't take much to figure out that Lieberman is his kind of former Democrat. Whenever it came to voting on the heart of the GOP agenda: corporate subsidies and disallowing the government to moderate corporate power, destroying the environment, unfair taxation, killing Roe v Wade, a catastrophic housing policy, destroying the labor movement, undermining Justice, Iraq policy... Ben Nelson votes to the right of every single Democrat and to the right of some Republicans. There is one reason to support Ben Nelson: he's be better on some issues than the right-wing maniac running against him and, presumably, he'd vote to organize the Senate with the Democratic Party. If I lived in Nebraska and the election came down to one vote-- mine-- I would never cast it for Ben Nelson. But do what you want.

The Democrat looking to take over Lieberman's role as Fox's in-house Quisling, another one who Bush can usually count on is Colorado's fake-Dem, Ken Salazar, has come out strongly for Lieberman. Hopefully he'll be spending his time campaigning in Colorado where there are 5 crucial, competitive House races instead of annoying people pointlessly in Connecticut where no knows or cares who he is or what he says. The other Beltway corporate prosties who rushed to defend the honor of the Lieberhound are Delaware's hideous Thomas Carper, Arkansas' Mark Pryor.

Pryor, Salazar, Carper, Nelson, and Lieberman (in fairness I'm excluding poor old Inouye from this part of the story) are right in their element as they aid and abet the Republicans in their attempt to paint Ned and the Democratic Party as soft on terrorism. (I'd say Wes Clark knows a little a great deal more about it than any of these 4 pathetic hacks and stooges.) Even though Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind proved conclusively that bin Laden did all he could to manipulate American voters into re-electing Bush (watch the video), Cheney, Rove, Mehlman, Lieberman, the Republican mass media smear machine and these 4 pathetic whores are all out there peddling their utter bullshit about Democrats emboldening al Qaeda.

"If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again."

Sounds like Rove, right? But it wasn't Rove (at least not directly). And it wasn't a Cheney quote or a Mehlman quote or a quote from any rubber stamp lying sack of Republican shit. It came right from a rubber stamp lying sack of former-Democrat shit, Joseph Lieberhound. The man who cares so much about the Democratic Party that he doesn't give a damn that his treachery is jeopardizing the 3 crucial congressional races in Connecticut.

Lieberman has never been a moderate. He's only be a Liebermanite. He didn't just smear Lamont; he smeared the entire Democratic Party-- as he does all the time anyway. If you want to know what a real moderate thinks about this Connecticut senate race, read what former Virginia Governor Mark Warner had to say about it:

I congratulate Ned Lamont on a great grassroots campaign, and wish him success in November. I and our PAC, Forward Together, will be supporting the Lamont campaign. Connecticut Democrats are mirroring the frustrations most Americans feel with this President's failed foreign policy and mishandled war.I also commend Senator Lieberman for his remarkable record of public service.

Republican wishful thinking notwithstanding, Tuesday's vote was anything but a Democratic party repudiation of a robust and determined defense of this nation's security. To the contrary, it is a call for a return to an American foreign policy that unites our friends and divides our enemies-- and a call that will inevitably sweep through November's elections.

Warner gets it. Carper, Salazar, Nelson, Inouye, Pryor ought to pull their heads out of their asses-- or out of the asses of whichever corporate lobbyists they're rimming today. Of course, Carper, Salazar, Nelson, Inouye and Pryor aren't alone. Much of the Inside The Beltway careerist corporate whore class is lining up behind their man Lieberhound. Just today, Long Island Big Money prosty Peter King told Connecticut Democrats what he thinks of them:

"Fortunately, the Third District is not composed of the left-wing bigots who went after Joe Lieberman." Join the Down With Tyranny and Firedoglake crew on Saturday afternoon (2 PM East Coast time) to meet Dave Mejias, the progressive Democrat who will give Long Island voters a chance to tell the rubber stamp King exactly what they think of his and Bush's disastrous policies. That's this saturday at Firedoglake.


UPDATE: ANOTHER FOX FORMER-DEMOCRAT ENDORSES LIEBERHOUND

Wanna guess who just crawled out from under his rock to spout a few ugly words for Lieberman? Hint: other endorsees from this Zell Miller Democrat have included George W. Bush, the worst president in the history of the United States, Al D'Amato, George Pataki, Rudy Guiliani... perfect company for Lieberhound. All endorsed by Ed Koch, someone who completely lost his mind quite some time ago.


UPDATE: INOUYE SAYS ALOHA TO HOLY JOE AND ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR NED LAMONT

Like all actual Democrats, Hawaii's senior senator, Daniel Inouye, an old, old, very old friend of Lieberman's-- but not a reactionary whore like the other Lieberman backers in the Democratic caucus-- has announced that he has withdrawn his support for the Lieberwhore and is backing Ned.

On a related note, a progressive friend in Little Rock called me yesterday to tell me that reactionary Mark Pryor will have a primary challenger in 2008.