Not Playing the Party Line

Let's hear it for JoeMentum. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-CT, has this to say about the situation in Iraq:

I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.

Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle, geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.

There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

How have Congressional Democrats not found a way to muzzle the last remaining sane voice in the Democratic caucus? He, alone among Senior Democrats, gets it. And he even notices the media bias:

Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.

The leaders of America's military and diplomatic forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zal Khalilzad, have a clear and compelling vision of our mission there. It is to create the environment in which Iraqi democracy, security and prosperity can take hold and the Iraqis themselves can defend their political progress against those 10,000 terrorists who would take it from them.

Even the criticism he offers is the constructive kind. He, along with Sen. Warner, wants President Bush to outline more of the accomplishments made, so that people realize what we have actually accomplished in Iraq, both in terms of nation building and the global war on terror.

And the New York Times? It has the AP story online, but doesn't prominently display Joe's comments on the front page, or even the national page. Curious. Why would the Times limit the coverage of Joe's statements? After all, Connecticut is part of the NY Metro region and the local coverage for the paper. Connecticut is quite liberal, and Joe's comments would seemingly be out of step with what those folks believe. Curious.

UPDATE:
Others blogging Lieberman's comments [and updated regularly]: titusonenine, AI, AJ Strata (who also notes Daschle's rationale for voting for the war - it was about the votes), WMET1160 Talk Back Blog, Mark Kilmer, GOP Bloggers, D.F. Moore, and Overtaken by Events (who wonders when the maverick label will begin appearing next to Lieberman's name). Also blogging: Decision '08 and Unconsidered Trifles. Captain Ed has an extensive posting, and also notes that the WaPo and NYT both consider Lieberman's comments lacking in significance to provide anything other than an AP report.