Joltin' Joe Lieberman

Beinart takes a swing at Lieberman's critics.

Yet, if Lieberman's view is one-dimensional, so is that of his critics. If he only sees Bush through the prism of war, they only see the war through the prism of Bush--which is why they can muster so little anger at America's jihadist enemies and so little enthusiasm when Iraqis risk their lives to vote. Kos and MoveOn have conveniently convinced themselves that the war on terrorism is a mere subset of the struggle against the GOP. Whatever brings Democrats closer to power, ipso facto, makes the United States safer. That would be nice if it were true--but it's clearly not, because, sometimes, Bush is right, and because, to some degree, our safety depends on his success. National security will never be reducible to the interests of the Democratic Party.

For better or worse, views of politicians today have and will be shaped by their response and attitudes towards the Iraq war and in the greater sense on national security in general. No matter how liberal Liberman is on domestic and most foreign policy issues, and by all accounts he is fairly liberal, people who oppose the war and believe that our presence in Iraq is doing nothing to help resolve the situation will not support him because of his belief that Iraq is salvageable. Hanging our once nominated VP out to dry is not good politics.