{news} "Single Issue" Candidate Knows What's Important

[clifford thornton]

"Single Issue" Candidate Knows What's Important

By Jesse Jackson

Chicago Sun-Times - August 1, 2006

http://www.suntimes.com/output/jesse/cst-edt-jesse01.html<http://www.suntimes.com/output/jesse/cst-edt-jesse01.html>

To this day, Joe Lieberman still doesn't get it. The
18- year incumbent Democratic senator from Connecticut
is in the battle for his political life in the
Democratic primary. He dismisses his challenger -- Ned
Lamont, a Connecticut businessman whose campaign is
grounded on opposition to the war in Iraq, as a single-
issue candidate.

But Iraq is not a single issue, it is a central issue
-- both for the country and for the Democratic Party.
It is a catastrophic foreign policy debacle. It has
alienated us from our allies and generated hatred among
Muslims across the world. It has weakened our military,
forcing our troops into an extended occupation in the
midst of a growing civil war for which they have
neither appetite nor training. It has proved a
recruiting boon for al- Qaida. It has sorely weakened
our foreign policy influence, as demonstrated
graphically in the current conflict in Lebanon. It has
cost nearly 2,700 American lives, over 20,000 Americans
wounded -- and an estimated 50,000 Iraqi deaths.

It has skewed our budget priorities. We've spent about
$300 billion already -- with the estimated cost likely
to exceed $1 trillion -- even as we cut support at home
for the still-displaced Katrina survivors, raise
interest rates on student loans and cut access to
preschool for poor children. The budget is a statement
of our moral choices -- and this is a deeply immoral
choice.

The Iraq debacle has featured the cronyism, corruption
and incompetence that is characteristic of this
administration. Billions have been pocketed in Iraq by
companies like Halliburton, which the Pentagon charged
with contracting abuse even as it renewed its no-bid
contracts. The administration cooked the intelligence
to get us into the war, and then launched the war with
no plan for the occupation, and with inadequate forces
and inadequate equipment.

The war has undermined our own democracy, with a
president claiming untrammeled powers to act above the
law for the duration of a war on terror that he says
will last for generations. And from this arrogance has
come shameful abuses, from the torture in Abu Ghraib to
the hidden prisons of the CIA to the locking up of
people -- too many of them innocent -- without hearing
or lawyer or charges in Guantanamo and elsewhere.
America, which has championed the rule of law
throughout the world, is now widely viewed as a rogue
nation that views itself as above the law.

Through all this, Lieberman has been, as the New York
Times termed it, the president's "enabler." He lobbied
early and hard for the pre-emptive war of choice. He
echoed the lies and dismissed the folly of the
president's men while questioning the patriotism of
those who raised sensible questions about our course.

Iraq is not a single issue; it is a central issue.
Lieberman's response has been to line up the Democratic
Club -- basking in the embrace of Bill Clinton, whom he
once called a moral disgrace, and enlisting fellow Sen.
Chris Dodd to mobilize other senators to support him.
The Democratic Senate Committee has rushed in political
pros and organizers to help "save our guy."

But across Connecticut, voters are saying "this is not
our guy." They are sending a message not just to Bush
but to the Democratic Party -- calling them to account.
Lieberman's opponent, Ned Lamont, has run a principled
campaign, devoid of personal attacks or gutter
politics. He has simply argued, correctly, that
Lieberman has not simply been wrong on the war, but has
been a leader of the war hawks, the president's
favorite Democrat and leading defender.

Workers in Connecticut -- which has witnessed a steady
hemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs -- have other
reasons to think Joe is not their guy. He's been a
leading promoter of the corporate trade policies that
have devastated U.S. manufacturing while racking up the
largest trade deficits in the history of mankind. He's
the single greatest defender of off-the-books, short-
term executive stock options, which contributed
directly to the worst corporate crime scandals in a
century.

Whatever happens in the primary next Tuesday, the
message has already been sent. Americans don't pay much
attention to politics. They are easily roused by
appeals to patriotism and fear. They tend to re-elect
incumbents. But periodically, democracy works. A
defining issue rouses opinion, and that leads to a
defining election. In Connecticut, the Democratic
primary is just that. And every member of the club had
better listen to what the voters are saying.

Email to: jjackson at rainbowpush.org<mailto:jjackson at rainbowpush.org>.

____________________________________________

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