Sen. Lieberman's Isolation

This is what happens when a political party moves so far to the Left that it leaves the rational behind. Sen. Lieberman offers the possibility of a war cabinet. I think it's a flawed idea, and one that doesn't make any sense for the GOP to consider. After all, even Lieberman realizes that the Democrats are out of the Presidency for the next three years, but they could at least be a loyal opposition.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, increasingly isolated in his own Democratic party because of his strong support for the Iraq war, today called on the White House and congressional leaders to form a special "war cabinet" to provide advice and direction for the war effort.

The Connecticut Democrat's "Bipartisan Victory in Iraq Administrative Group," designed to take some of the political edge off the war debate, would be modeled after similar panels during the Vietnam War and World War II.

Lieberman, whom the Bush administration has praised repeatedly for his war stance, defended the president. "It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge he'll be commander-in-chief for three more years," the senator said. "We undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."

There was no immediate response from the White House or congressional leaders.

Lieberman made his comments to an audience at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a sympathetic Washington research group. The war debate, Lieberman said, is being too poisoned by partisanship.

He cited the mood after Bush's speech last week in Annapolis, where the president laid out a war strategy.

Instead of reasoned dialogue, Lieberman said, there were angry press conferences questioning the administration's tactics. But look more closely, he said, and "there is broad bipartisan agreement on the goals. There are disagreements about the tactics."

One would have to parse quite a few angry, and demogogic speeches by fellow Democrats, to find broad bipartisan support. You'd have to ignore Howard Dean, who said that the US can't win the war in Iraq. And Murtha thinks that the US military is broken and living hand to mouth.

Lieberman is increasingly isolated in his own political party. It's not a good place to be when the rest of the party has tacked so far to the Left. Heck, Barack Obama has to concede that the war has split the Democrats. Now isn't necessarily the time for the GOP to reach out and throw the Democrats a bone. It is time for the Democrats to clean their own house. If they want to be the anti-war party, that's their perogative, but they shouldn't try to pretend otherwise. If they want to be pro-war, they have to stop with the anti-war platitudes. Having it both ways only undermines whatever argument the Democrats are trying to make.

Meanwhile, Polipundit thinks that the idea of a war cabinet is a great idea. I don't think it is particuarly convincing. Yes, it may split and possibly break the Democratic party as a national party, but at the expense of the GOP giving up political power. This hasn't happened in prior conflicts that the US engaged in, and there's no reason to start now.

UPDATE:
Generation Why noted last Friday that a rift was developing in the Democrats, by specifically commenting on Dean and Lieberman. Today, he comments on Kerry's latest flashback to his Vietnam protest days. Not good for modern-day Democrats though.