Former Democratic (turned independent) Senator Joseph Lieberman appeared on Fox News Sunday today as part of the panel discussion segment. It’s one thing to disagree with President Obama’s actions and inactions over Syria. It’s another thing for a former Democratic vice presidential candidate and U.S. senator who caucused with the Democrats (even if he did flirt with running as a Republican) to get in bed with Fox News’ inflammatory, anti-Obama rhetoric.
Throughout the show, host Chris Wallace attacked President Obama for announcing that he plans to seek Congressional approval before attacking Syria, with such “questions” as, “Haven’t you handed Syria and Iran at least a temporary victory?” to Secretary of State John Kerry and, to military analyst Retired General Jack Keane, “What message is the president sending to our friends and our enemies in the region with all this talk you just heard …(about) the restrictions on what we’re going to do in Syria and then putting the whole process on pause for more than a week to wait for congressional approval?”
So when Wallace turned to Lieberman, it’s almost impossible to believe he didn’t know where Wallace was trying to lead him. Wallace asked, “Senator Lieberman, I looked it up, you were a senator for 24 years. Have you ever seen anything like this where a president seems about to take us, if not to war, to a serious military action, and then says, wait a minute, I’m going to wait ten days for Congress to come back from vacation?”
Lieberman bit: “I was looking back myself, Chris, over the 24 years—never saw anything like it.”
Later, Wallace “asked,” “How much trouble are we in in the Middle East right now? …I mean U.S. policy.”
Lieberman replied:
I’m sure that our enemies are cheering now as a result of this decision ‘cause they realize it’s not clear that the president will get authority, and our allies are worried, …our allies in the Arab world and Israel. It’s not just in the Middle East. It’s in Asia, where a lot of countries depend on American strength and credibility.
If Lieberman is angling for a job at Fox, he almost surely got off on the right foot.
Video below via Crooks and Liars, which also noted that Lieberman said he'd urge his "amigos," Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham, to approve the strike. Full transcript of the show here.
Any bets on how fast Slanthead will turn on a dime tomorrow and smear Obama as a coward, when just last week he was attacking the president for rushing into an “unconstitutional” attack?
Obama = shorthand for “I can’t win for nothing!”
http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Syrian-state-run-daily-calls-Obama-move-a-retreat-4779017.php
http://www.businessinsider.com/syria-state-run-newspaper-obama-move-the-start-of-the-historic-american-retreat-2013-9
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/01/217846873/syria-obamas-call-for-congress-ok-on-force-a-retreat
I’m looking into this rag- Seems that all they publish is ways to further conflict for the regime, it’s allies, and profiteers they favour, so that they can further their control and make it harder to topple them without turning the area into the next Mad Max.
If Fox is quoting these people in an agreeing context, then we have a very serious problem. Especially since some of the outlets that are desperate for a ratings boost are following their example.