0 users logged on

Tips: BlueJerseyDotCom (AIM) |

Cory Booker's Bunk About Joe Lieberman

by: Steven Hart

Sun Aug 13, 2006 at 01:03:17 PM EDT

Anyone who was puzzled by the decision of Cory Boker, newly elected mayor of Newark, to head up to Connecticut and thump the tub for Clueless Joe Lieberman will get no enlightenment from today's Auditor column about Booker's waffling over whether to back the voters' choice, Ned Lamont, or support Lieberman's ego-pumped independent candidacy.

"To throw this guy out because he has different views from the core of the party is absurd," Booker said during the interview.
Booker said Lieberman has been an outspoken advocate of issues that affect cities such as Newark. If voters are upset with Lieberman for his support of the Iraq war, said Booker, then they should also take a look at the other senators who also voted in favor of invading Iraq.
"You have to hold accountable more than half of the Democrats who voted for the war in the first place," he said, noting that Sen. Hillary Clinton had also supported the war.

Steven Hart :: Cory Booker's Bunk About Joe Lieberman

Well, mayor, if Lieberman "holds different views from the core of the party," then why not give him the old heave-ho? Booker himself had no qualms about asking Newark voters to hit the ejector button on Sharpe James, a man with even more seniority than Lieberman in the arena of city politics. And in Lieberman's case, those "different views" involved giving the GOP a chance to destroy Social Security, laughing off wingnut attacks on contraception for women and not even putting up a token fight against the appointment of reactionary Bush lickspittles to the Supreme Court. Lieberman's nonsense about not criticizing "the commander in chief" during a time of war, and his loony refusal to acknowledge the horrors unleashed by the Iraq invasion, sealed the deal. Connecticut voters concluded that the guy was out of touch at best and a Republican tool at worst. Lieberman's instant embrace of and acceptance by the GOP only proves the wisdom of their decision.

Does Cory Booker really want to keep his wagon hitched to this falling star?

Cross posted at The Opinion Mill.

Tags: Cory Booker, Joe Lieberman, (All Tags)

Print Friendly View

Send As Email

Cory Booker's Bunk About Joe Lieberman | 14 comments

Dear Cory - (4.00 / 1)

They didn't toss Lieberman out because "he has different views from the core of the party." They tossed him out because he has different views from the majority of Democratic voters in Connecticut.

That, my friend, is called democracy and it is by no means absurd. That you think it is really shrinks you in my estimation.

by: huntsu @ Mon Aug 14, 2006 at 01:12:48 AM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

and for not abiding (0.00 / 0)

with the results of a fair primary.

myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.blogspot.com

by: underdogdemocrat @ Mon Aug 14, 2006 at 13:20:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Who's writing Cory Booker's lines for him? (3.00 / 2)

Cory Booker repeating Fox News-quality right wing spin on why Lieberman lost the Democratic nomination in Connecticut. Doesn't inspire confidence in his political understanding or insight.

by: pyounghouse @ Mon Aug 14, 2006 at 12:32:00 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Corey, I Worry. (3.00 / 2)

Not about what you say so much, but about your tactics. Straw manning (nobody's kicking Joe out of the party because he disagrees. Absolutely no one is doing that. There may be some that want to kick him out for election)

Not only that but is it just me or is it WAY TO EARLY for Booker to be saying anything about politics outside of Newark. Fix the city, get it done, make the Newark Miracle happen, and then I'll listen to you. Right now, you are a man with a big job to do.

Leds me to believe this is just a stepping stone to a DLC future.

myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.blogspot.com

by: underdogdemocrat @ Mon Aug 14, 2006 at 13:19:34 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

All the slack I can muster (0.00 / 0)

In Mayor Booker's defense, his stumping for Lieberman was pre-primary, and these quotes, while appearing in yesterday's Auditor, were actually from last Monday night, again before the primary. The Lieberman primary campaign's message was "don't toss me out because of this one vote" - and, even though that was b.s., it was a message much of the democratic establishment was willing to go along with, then.

That said, it is still sad and disappointing that Booker missed the opportunity to join with those who rejected that nonsense pre-primary, and is now missing the opportunity to rebuke Lieberman for his absolutely outrageous post-primary rhetoric.

Not exactly the future party leader that's been advertised.

by: Jeff Gardner @ Mon Aug 14, 2006 at 15:25:44 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Is this what happens... (0.00 / 0)

...when we elect a candidate because: A.) He's a movie star, and, B.) He's not Sharpe James?

by: Bill W @ Mon Aug 14, 2006 at 15:35:19 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Six months from now ... (0.00 / 0)

... absolutely no one but Joe Lieberman and his friends will remember what Cory Booker did or didn't do or say.

Cory has plans, both for Newark and himself. And Joe Lieberman, and Joe's Democratic-conservative constituency, could be of help to Cory at the state or the national level. They will remember. Everyone else will forget.

If Cory Booker can fix 1/10th of Newark's problems in one term, he's as good a candidate for senator as Barack Obama was after seven years as an Illinois state senator. Lautenberg won't live forever ...

Finally, if you can't play realpolitik you shouldn't be in the game at all. That's what Cory is doing. I wouldn't judge his progressive credentials soley by his courting Joe Lieberman's favor. This is a guy who has lived in a Newark high rise project of his own free will for five ... years ... and I'd like to hear about the adventures of all the progressives on his case in this forum who have done the same.

When Newark's crime rate drops, its student scores increase, its budget is under control,and industry is moving in, tell me again about what a two-faced slimeball Cory Booker is. Personally, I'm willing to give him his chance in Brick City, and a pass for supporting Joe Lieberman.

And if it turns out Ned Lamont is just holding the door for the new Lowell Weicker to walk onto the US Senate floor, well, you're gonna miss Joe when he's gone ...

by: denniscmcgrath @ Mon Aug 14, 2006 at 17:36:21 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Great Defense of Booker (0.00 / 0)

Let's hope yer right, for Newark's sake.

by: Nick Lento @ Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 11:21:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Miss Joe? Not in the least. (4.00 / 1)

Lowell Weicker had the guts to speak out against President Nixon and President Reagan during each incumbents scandals. Lieberman won by running to Weicker's right, and has been using that strategy even when the Northeast was becoming more anti-Republican and it clearly was no longer necessary.

He's not in power anymore, he won't be in power because the Republican Party left Lowell Weicker long ago. And Joe Lieberman is a crafty politicain in that he figured he could run to Lowell's right and pick up some dissaffected R's.

However, he continued this strategy even as the Northeast got more blue and the Republican party more conservative and frankly anti-Northeast. That was his downfall.

In terms of Booker. I think you can't find a guy in NJ that everybody is rooting for more than Booker. I find it difficult to believe he needed to support Lieberman to get help. But okay, let's say its real politick. Let's say he's a true progressive, give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's give him a pass like you say. But if this is what real politick is, I don't want to see a lot more of it.

myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.blogspot.com

by: underdogdemocrat @ Wed Aug 16, 2006 at 13:27:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Freedom isn't free Corey (3.00 / 2)

Haven't you read all those magnetic ribbons? This time the price for freedom was Joe Lieberman's incumbency. Time for you an all those other Lieberman supporters to realize that Lieberman just became the new Ralph Nader, except with less conviction.

Media In Trouble

by: Media In Trouble @ Wed Aug 16, 2006 at 03:54:15 AM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Lamont victory and 2008 (0.00 / 0)

Please see my diary entry about the Lamont victory and the prospects for Corzine in 2008.
-proud2Bliberal

by: proud2Bliberal @ Thu Aug 17, 2006 at 04:08:24 AM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Booker is not a progressive (2.00 / 1)

Booker's support for Lieberman is another demonstration of the fact that he is not a progressive, he is a Liberman Democrat, the right wing of the Party.

by: Keith Joseph @ Mon Aug 28, 2006 at 16:08:33 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

favor (4.00 / 1)

he was returning a favor for a friend.

by: Juan Melli @ Mon Aug 28, 2006 at 16:46:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

at what expense? (0.00 / 0)