Thoughts on this Lieberman Brouhaha

OK - the air this week has been rife with declarations that the Democrats have sold themselved down the river with their mean-spirited, divisive purge of Joe Lieberman in a Democratic primary this Tuesday. These declarations, which emanate from many of the crusty old beltway scions of the Party's moderate wing, are totally insane. I repeat, insane.

The list of politicians who have been more wrong about American foreign policy in the last years than Joe Lieberman is mercifully short. Applaud him all you want for "standing by his beliefs," but those beliefs were obviously wrong. Lieberman was punished for his continuing support for a horribly mismanaged war which is proving counter-productive in our war against Islamic terrorism. Yes, there were a lot of liberal monkeys slinging poop at Joe; that's the way the system works these days. But to conclude that Connecticut voters did anything wrong by holding Lieberman accountable for his consistent support for a failed policy - well, I don't know what to tell you. Democracy works that way, pal.

Even if I think Lieberman's a tool, it doesn't mean I think he's a bad man - he seems decent, relatively incorruptible, someone who takes moral issues seriously rather than using them as a platform. The needless vitriol directed at him seems ridiculous - he could be quaint and clueless, but I'm not sure why people found him as repugnant as, say, Bill Frist.