Orwellian Joe

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Why do I even bother blogging about Joe Lieberman? Honestly, there's no good answer to that question.

Perhaps the sheer extremism of his foolishness and inanity attracts my attention.

And here's the latest, via Think Progress:

Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) used the foiled terror attempts in London to call for greater domestic spying here in the United States. Lieberman said, “I hope these terrorist attacks in London wake us up here in America to stop the petty partisan fighting going on about… electronic surveillance,” in apparent reference to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subpoenas for documents related to Bush’s NSA warrantless wiretapping program.

He apparently wants the U.S. to be like London, where there are cameras everywhere (which is true, and deeply troubling, and why the U.K. could do with a formal bill of rights) -- this is "common sense," in his view, but what about civil liberties? What about the Constitution? No matter, it would seem. Lieberman has reached a point where he regularly plays the fear card, just like any good authoritarian: Give the government more power, or else the enemy will be upon us. Allow the government to use that power to protect the people, or else the enemy will vanquish the people. But who or what is this enemy? Is it an enemy that requires such a response, that requires that freedom be given up in the name of freedom? Not to dismiss the genuine threat of jihadist terrorism, but the war on terror, such as there is one (however defined), will not be won by turning America (or Britain, for that matter) into a neo-Orwellian state.

But that is too much for Lieberman, too complicated. He would rather play the fearmonger -- and not so much for partisan gain (for what is his partisanship now, other than to kiss the collective GOP ass while trying to stick it to the Dems?) but because he actually believes that the Orwellian response to terrorism -- or to the threat thereof -- is the right one. Which aligns him with many of the world's worst tyrannies past and present -- including that one in Germany back in the '30s and '40s.

Aside from this, Lieberman was just plain wrong on a couple of key points. Steve Benen explains at TPM.

Libby has more over at Cernig's place.

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And, as if to show just how far removed from reality he really is, he said this about Iraq: "The surge is working." Again, why do I pay attention to such nonsense?

For more on Lieberman's delusional views on Iraq, see here.