Lieberman Agonistes
August 21, 2008
It's hard to tell whom Joe Lieberman is causing more heartburn these days -- Democrats or Republicans.

The Independent Democratic Senator has infuriated his Democratic colleagues because he's planning to speak at the Republican convention next month for his friend John McCain. Ask Mr. Lieberman -- the last of the Democratic foreign-policy hawks -- about Barack Obama's credentials to be President, and he pulls no punches. The betting is that Majority Leader Harry Reid will take revenge and strip Mr. Lieberman of his committee chairmanship if Democrats have a larger majority in 2009.

Meanwhile, the Republican blogosphere is erupting over rumors that Mr. McCain might choose Mr. Lieberman as his vice president. Our email box is full of panicky reports that the Arizona Republican is giving it serious thought, and that this would doom Mr. McCain's chances in November. Mr. Lieberman is pro-choice on abortion, he's a liberal on this or that, and in any case isn't there any Republican who could fill the bill? Or so goes the anticipatory outrage.

Our own view is that Mr. Lieberman would make a fine Secretary of State, and that, given the political risks, making him vice president would probably be too great an election gamble. But Mr. Lieberman's national security credentials are first-rate, and we've known him long enough to remember his opposition to an income tax in Connecticut, and his support for lower capital gains taxes, school vouchers and private Social Security accounts. Liberated from having to run as a Democrat, he might recall those policy instincts.

We have no doubt he'd be a better vice president than many oft-mooted Republicans, including some of those who are favorites of the anti-Lieberman alarmists.

See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.

Lieberman is a scumbag and a douchebag. He is an Israeli nationalist who would never pick up a gun himself to defend this country.