Mixed feelings about the political future of Connecticut Democratic U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman

I'm really torn about my feelings about the political future of Connecticut Democratic U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman. On the one hand, he is a fairly pragmatic centrist, which I greatly appreciate. On the other hand, he's actually too far over center to the point that he is an ally of "The Right" and even "The Far Right" on foreign policy. I don't appreciate that at all. Although I am in no way a fan of "The Left", the hard-core anti-war movement, I actually do sympathize somewhat with the supporters of Ned Lamont who may be on the verge of defeating Lieberman in the primary.

My preference at this point would be to see Lieberman "wake up" and recognize that he has strayed too far from the principles of the Democratic party and pull back from his hawkish, Pro-Bush, Pro-Israel At Any Cost positions.

My particular beef with Lieberman is that that he supports the Bush camp on foreign policy, but that he seems to place the security of Israel ahead of the interests of American citizens. Most Americans really do want to see peaceful solutions to the myriad of problems in the Middle East, but Lieberman has aligned himself with the far-right hawkish neoconservatives for whom Israel seems to symbolize something far different than just another small country in a big world. In Liebeman's case, his conservative religious beliefs seem to be his "guide" for his positions on foreign policy in general and Israel and the Middle East in particular. The same is true for a lot of Christian fundamentalists who have the ear of the administration as well, so it's not just his particular religion per se, but a general unwillingness to keep a clear separation between religious and culural beliefs on the one hand and the intersts of citizens in general on the other.

Memo to Joe Lieberman: Please stop overlooking the interests of the majority of Americans and the vast majority of Democrats. I consider myself more of an independent and centrist, but I'll continue to support center-left political efforts. If you continue to position yourself as way-too-far-right-of-center on foreign policy, you won't have my support.

-- Jack Krupansky