President Clinton Defends Lieberman

Speaking at an Aspen Institute conference last Friday, former President Bill Clinton went out of his way to defend Joe Lieberman and in the process punctured several holes in the irrational campaign to purge Lieberman from the Democratic Party.

First, Clinton, who strongly backed the war in Iraq from the outset, called the efforts of some Democrats to punish other Democrats who supported the war "the nuttiest strategy I ever heard in my life." Second, he took Lieberman's side in opposing a fixed timetable for removing troops from Iraq, saying, "it’d be an error to say we’re going to leave by X date."

And third, in noting Lieberman's strong Democratic credentials, Clinton said, "you think of all the other issues – he got endorsed in Connecticut by labor, by the environmental groups, by the gay groups, by all these other groups – we’ve got a world of differences between ourselves and the Republicans. So, I think the Democrats are making a mistake to go after each other."

All of which raises some obvious questions. Does this make Bill Clinton, whose positions track pretty much across the board with Joe Lieberman, a shill for the President Bush and the Republicans? Are the angry Lieberman-haters now going to suggest Bill Clinton is a disloyal Democrat? If not, how can they justify this obvious double standard?

FYI, below is the full transcript of Clinton's comments and the question that preceded them:

SPEAKER: As you know, the area where Democrats have, for the last, say, two decades been bedeviled – and telling the story involves the whole realm of national security, international security. Of the three elements of President Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ – Iraq, Iran, and North Korea – on any two of them, what would be the line the Democrats should tell, or even three?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Well, let’s go through them. On Iraq, first of all I think that we oughta be whipped, we Democrats, if we allow our differences over what to do now in Iraq to divide us instead of focusing on replacing Republicans in the Congress; that’s the nuttiest strategy I ever heard in my life. I mean look, there are a few Democrats, and Senator Lieberman – my friend – is one, who genuinely believed what the President believed, and Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld believed, and apparently what Senator McCain believes, and a number of other people, which was “we should just get rid of Saddam whether he’s got any weapons or not, and it doesn’t matter if we let the U.N. inspectors finish.” That was also the position of every Israeli politician I knew, by the way. There were a lot of people who believed that; most Democrats didn’t.

But the question is, once you break the eggs, you have some responsibility to make an omelet, or as General Powell used to say: “If you take it you own it.” What? If you break it you own it, so we gotta make an omelet. So, the issue is, what should we do? I like what the Levin/Biden/Reid crowd that Hillary was involved in; I like that resolution. They said, “We don’t think it’s right to have a fixed timetable for withdrawal.” Why send a signal to the people that are trying to keep Iraq divided and tear it up when we’re gonna go? Would you make any political deals if you knew you could just hang around and maybe get what you want? On the other hand, I think staying forever in what is now a political as well as a military situation is an error. So, I think we oughta say what the Levin thing is, but I don’t think we ought to demonize the people that say we should set a fixed date for withdrawal.

And in a case of a guy like Lieberman, you know, you think of all the other issues – he got endorsed in Connecticut by labor, by the environmental groups, by the gay groups, by all these other groups – we’ve got a world of differences between ourselves and the Republicans. So, I think the Democrats are making a mistake to go after each other instead of…for a situation none of them created; it’s bewildering to me – we ought to be talking about our differences. But what I favor on Iraq, basically I think it’d be nice if we could draw down, it’d be nice if we had some more special forces to send there, it’d be nice if we could, you know, we can make this work. But, the main thing is they’ve got a new government; we’ve got to give them a chance to resolve the political situation, and I think my own view is it’d be an error to say we’re going to leave by X date.