Kos gives the Slickster the kid-glove treatment for his JoePa support
Shock me that the Slickster, Democratic Leadership Council darling that he is, would campaign for Joe Lieberman in the tight Connecticut primary.
Read the Slick Dog’s obfuscation of the Iraq issue, as reported by the AP:
Democrats “don’t agree on everything. We don't agree on Iraq," Clinton said, calling the conflict the "pink elephant in the living room."
But "the real issue is, whether you were for it or against it, what are we going to do now. And let me tell you something, no Democrat is responsible for the mistakes that have been made since the fall of Saddam Hussein that have brought us to this point.”
Just what all did this ignore?
First of all, how Lieberman is failing to distance himself enough from Bush even to say what he would do differently.
Second, and much worse His Slickness ignores that Democrats, especially those like Lieberman who are almost the Democratic version of neocons, have made the war worse by giving Bush carte blanche on every detail.
Third, and perhaps even worse yet, Tricky Slicky lets people like JoePa totally off the hook for “collateral” damages … i.e. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc.
And, to borrow a phrase, about the “kewl kids” of the knee-jerk pseudo-progressive blogosphere, let’s see what Chief Kewl Kid Kos says about his Slick Dog hero schilling for the rightly-disliked JoePa.
As you might expect, it’s a mix of Clinton suck-up, Lieberman bashing, and working on other political scores (such as Barbara Boxer) with a shiv. It’s not pretty.
The cynic might say that Bill Clinton is going to Connecticut, despite being trashed by Lieberman during the impeachment saga, to protect a fellow member of the elitist establishment's insider's club. They may say that the DLC called in the biggest favor it can offer Lieberman (its patron saint) — a visit by a former popular president. They may try to find a tortured explanation of why this helps Hillary.
B. Clinton's visit may have been arranged by the DLC (didn't they have some sort of "annual conference" this past weekend? Did anyone care?), but what it tells me is that Bill is a far bigger man than Lieberman ever was or can be.
Despite being on the withering receiving end of Lieberman's sanctimonious public screeds during the impeachment saga, on the floor of the Senate AND in television studios all over the place, Clinton is willing to come to the senator's aid. He could've held a grudge and none would think less of him.
Instead, he repays Lieberman's backstabbing with kindness.
So I actually respect Bill for doing this one event for Lieberman. In a funny way it makes Lieberman look even smaller, pettier, and pathetic than he already does.
On the other hand, Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is sneaking into Connecticut today for a Lieberman fundraiser, hoping that Clinton's visit overshadows hers and no one notices she's in town, is suddenly a profile in cowardice.
First, note that Boxer is sneaking, while Clinton isn’t. Of course, Kos has also occasionally come off in the past as a misogynist; I don’t get why he doesn’t label Boxer (whom I agree is wrong-headed) as “bitchily sneaking.”
Second, she and Clinton have the exact same stance on Lieberman re Iraq: The war isn’t THAT big of an issue and the Democratic Party is a big tent. So it’s not OK for Boxer to say that, but Slick Dawg can?
Third, claiming that Connecticut Democrats won’t be swayed by Clinton. Then why doesn’t he, in the same breath, outrightly say, “Slick, you should have just stayed home?” Again, Slick gets the slick glove treatment, not the Boxer gloves. (Elsewhere, Kos shows thin skin when Mickey Kaus chides him for giving former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner the Slick treatment, not the Boxer one, when he campaigned for JoePa.
Fourth, Clinton ignores that JoePa has done a fair amount of Bush enabling on domestic issues, too, but Kos doesn’t nail him there either.
Fourth, the amount of spin, that Clinton might be getting an underhanded pound of flesh by making Lieberman looke “smaller, petter, and more pathetic.” It is “reaching” for an incumbent senator to call in a former president for primary help, I’ll agree, but “smaller, petter, and (more) pathetic”? I think not.
If anybody is that, it’s Kos, for the way he must turn everything his own point of view.
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