Lieberman used the news about the foiled terror plot in the UK to attack Ned Lamont.
"If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England," Mr. Lieberman said at a campaign event at lunchtime in Waterbury, Conn. "It will strengthen them and they will strike again."
The coordinated strategy of Joe Lieberman and the White House is to argue that the war in Iraq and Al-Qaeda are linked and a withdrawal of troops from Iraq is tantamount to surrender and would be interpreted by the "enemy" that America is weak and will back down. Lieberman takes it one step further by scolding the American people, saying (paraprasing) 'a lot of people inside of politics and out don't appreciate the threat we face'.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Lieberman is in this race for the long haul. Bush/Rove and Joe believe this is their last stand. Lamont will have to ratchet up the intensity and all Democrats are going to have to get together and delink the war in Iraq from the 'war on terra'. People will soon forget about this latest threat foiled. But Bushco will continue to use the power of the government to remind people of the threat that lurks.
After observing the coordinated response of the White House, Lieberman, and the comment from the WH printed by Kos, I now have no doubt that the White House planned for Lieberman's defeat and intended all along to embark on a terror scare tour immediately after the Lamont victory to put Democrats on the defensive and give Lieberman a lifeline to stay afloat. Whether this latest threat reported out of the UK was real, phony or partially exaggerated is irrelevant. You can expect a lot of color coded alerts and Media blasts from the White House about this issue in various forms.
Democrats have to fight fire with fire.
First, this is the time for people like Murtha, Kerry, Edwards and all those who have committed to an exit strategy to attack the White House for linking Iraq and 9-11. Second, they must explain why the continued presence in Iraq is giving strength to the enemy.
Second, we must exploit every incidence of violence in Iraq as an example of how the war is a failure, it has made us weaker, and what we are facing is civil war, which in which the US military has no effective role to play.
Third, we must completely discredit this notion that 'we have to fight them over there so that we don't fight them over here'. This plot and all other plots are proof that Bush's policy has failed. Killing Iraqis does not impede the ability of Al-Qaeda to act in any significant manner.
Fourth, we have to start hitting back hard. Lieberman, Bush and Cheney are liars and chicken hawks and we should play smash mouth politics and get after them all at every instance.