Am I the only one who forgot--or perhaps never knew--that Holy Joe Lieberman was first elected to the Senate with the blessing of Bill Buckley?
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This isn't a stop-the-presses item. It has no news peg. I've just been meaning to mention it since my friend Peter mentioned it the other day, and I realized that I honestly didn't remember it. Probably everybody else remembers, and somehow I just haven't seen the fact mentioned.
Of course I remember that Holy Joe Lieberman slithered his way into the Senate by running, as a Democrat, to the right of the Republican incumbent, Lowell Weicker Jr.--a vastly better man in every imaginable sense, as we would all learn to our horror and shame. Weicker was a "moderate Republican" at a time when the term actually meant something. That is, something other than what it means now: not so far right that the person should be in restraints in the "extremely dangerous" ward of a loony bin--in other words, not quite so far right as what now qualifies as "mainstream Republicanism."
What Peter reminded me of was that when Holy Joe ran against Lowell Weicker, he was endorsed by the dean of the far-right-wing intellectuals, William F. Buckley Jr., on the ground that Weicker was too liberal. And the rest, as they say, is history. I can't speak for Bill Buckley, of course, but I sure can't imagine any reason he might have to be disappointed in his pick.
But I'm sure everyone else already remembered that. Holy Joe Lieberman--Bill Buckley's man in the Senate.
posted by KenInNY @ 10:09 AM
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When Lowell Weicker was in the Senate, he was not just a "moderate" Republican, he was in fact far more liberal than many Democrats. Lowell Weicker would, in fact, be far more liberal than a large block of Democrats serving in the Senate today.
In 1987, when Jesse Helms was pushing the school prayer amendment to the constitution, it was Lowell Weicker who led the opposition on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
When Weicker served as Governor of Connecticut in the 1990s, there was not much daylight separating the views of his administration and those of his neighbor, Howard Dean.
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Well Ken; I remember you telling me you prefer reality-bound pictures but sometimes even the ones Adam invents tell the story. The take off on Tod Browning's classic Freaks image has a smilling face furthest to the right that you should recognize. And back in February, when I was first trying to alert Democrats as to the real nature of Holy Joe, I tried reminding everyone that Buckley has been a Lieberman fundraiser and supporter right from the very beginning of his slimy and shameful career. Still, it can never hurt to hammer this home-- especially as eloquently as you just did-- as November 7 approaches.
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