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How fitting. Joe Lieberman brings in
the reinforcements. On July 25 Bill Clinton came to Waterbury,
Connecticut. Mr. Iraqi Sanctions. Mr. Bomb Them to Send Saddam
a Message. Mr. Eliminate Welfare as We Know it. Mr. NAFTA Will
Protect Your Job. Mr.Lie About Camp David. Mr. There is No
Gulf War Syndrome. Mr. Bomb Khartoum and They'll Forget About
Monica.
They say Clinton has rock star
popularity, testament to the fact that millions of middle class
airheads have made the rebellious rock of the '60's the bubble
gum music of today. Rap rules. But I digress.
Bill came to cheer on his former
mentor, Joe "Mr. Morality" Lieberman. The state's
senior senator is behind in the polls to millionaire businessman
Ned Lamont. Lamont is tapping into heavy CT sentiment against
the Iraq war. Why pick on Joe, Bill says. "No Democrat
is responsible for the mistakes that have been made since the
fall of Saddam." Really? They vote the money to prolong
the war, don't they? They push for more war by screaming constantly
about Iran and Syria, don't they?
And what about the mistakes
before the fall of Saddam, like John Kerry refusing to let Scott
Ritter testify at the Foreign Relations Committee, like Bill
Clinton's own "mistake" of killing half a million Iraqi
children when he knew Saddam had absolutely nothing in the way
of WMD?
Still I think Lamont is blowing
it. Lieberman is pressing full steam ahead supporting the Israeli
blitzkrieg while Lamont's position is like ten day old celery.
Lieberman is in tune with CNN and Fox and the newly invigorated
War Against Terror. The only way to deal with this is with a
full scale counterattack. But Lamont? He's waiting for the
Lebanon invasion to blow over.
Lamont won't say one word of
criticism of Israel. Instead his "criticism" is to
fault the president for concentrating on Iraq and not dealing
with the Israeli-Palestinian situation. That's it. In his
one press statement on the subject after weeks of mad bombing
he doesn't even call for a ceasefire. He lamely talks about the
need to reengage "after the fighting stops" And how
about this brave statement, "It is not for the United States
to dictate to Israel how it defends itself." The Geneva
Convention? Never heard of it. Lamont says the "cycle
of violence" has to end based on Security Council Resolution
#1559 on Lebanon. The 60 or 70 Security Council resolutions
Israel defies? Forget about it.
The state's AFL-CIO was up
on the podium with Joe and Bill. It formally calls for "rapid
withdrawal" from Iraq and a scattering of its leaders have
spoken at anti-war rallies, but the immolation of 2,500 American
working class stiffs in Iraq evidently is just one issue among
many. You see Joe has delivered for labor. He fought hard to
keep the Groton sub base open, so vital to our defense against
.wait.waitit will come to me. That Joe went for NAFTA and all
the other sell-out bills on trade doesn't seem to matter. That
Joe and Bill never changed the labor laws to improve labor's
ability to organize is swept under the table.
I suppose if only middle class
whites go to the polls Lamont might win. I don't see anything
in his campaign to appeal to minorities. He says nothing about
immigration even though hundreds of Latino citizens might become
active if their relatives weren't branded "illegal aliens".
He says a word or two about support for affirmative action,
but not a sentence about the generation of black youth languishing
in Bill Clinton's prisons. [When Clinton took office one in four
black men were in some way in the clutches of the criminal justice
system, when he left it was up to one in three.] American schools
have re-segregated. They're as ethnically isolated now as they
were in 1975. Hartford public schools are all minority despite
a ten or 15 year struggle in the courts. But that's a non-issue.
It is emotionally satisfying
to think that Joe Lieberman can be defeated. Vice-presidential
candidate in 2000, out the door in 2006Wow. But what do we get
if Lamont wins? We once again give new life to the illusion
that the Democratic Party can become a peace party or a workers
party. How many times are we going to fall for that scam? The
Democrats are totally in thrall to corporate interests, hack
politicians and fanatic Zionist moneybags. Trade unions pony
up tens of millions for the party and are rewarded with an ever
smaller return. (In eight years of Clinton-Lieberman they received
a parental leave act. Whoopie!)
There is another candidate
running for Senate in CT. He's a truck driver who delivers for
a cookie corporation. His name is Ralph Ferrucci and he's running
as a Green. He understands the health insurance issue, because
he doesn't have any. When Israel starts an invasion or blows
a family to smithereens Ferrucci is out on the streets with us
protesting.
The Greens have to go out and
get signatures on petitions to get on the ballot. The deadline
is the day after the Democratic primary. They've collected 11,000
names so far and are confident of getting on the ballot. Ferrucci
vs. Lieberman. Now that's a contest!
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues,
as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.
