You Don’t Understand. Joe Lieberman Wants to Be a Uniter

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I’m back from two weeks in Africa and what better way to get back in the saddle than by nailing Joe Lieberman for being a hypocrite and a phony? On Meet the Press, Lieberman discussed the possibility of speaking at the Republican convention by saying, “If Sen. McCain feels that I can help his candidacy…I will do it.” But he insisted his motives are pure:

I’m going to go to a partisan convention and tell them — if I go — why it’s so important that we start to act like Americans and not as partisan mudslingers.

For some reason, I don’t know that I believe Joe. Maybe it’s because he once speculated that Obama is a socialist, despite the fact that after serving with Obama in the Senate for three years, he must know he isn’t. Or that he once suggested electing Barack Obama would lead to an attack on America, because terrorists would try to test a new president as unprepared as Obama supposedly is. Or that he pushed the Obama-is-endorsed-by-Hamas nonsense and said it “suggests the difference between these two candidates.” Or that he actually believes (or is willing to say publicly) that Obama is choosing to lose the Iraq War.

That sounds like an awful lot of bad faith and mudslinging from a guy who plans on going to the Republican convention as an envoy for comity and bipartisanship. Also, for the record, if Joe Lieberman fancies himself such an effective advocate for clean, friendly politics, maybe he could have a word with the man he’s shilling for.

It feels good to be back in my “mother’s basement and ranting into the ether.”

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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