GHOST-WRITTEN by William Jefferson Ulysess Pleasanton farmer, low-power AM broadcaster, commentator, friend to some, enemy to...
NOTE: those using the Optional Manual Blog with Sound System please put on some light banjo plucking music now...
Boy, Mr. Lieberman that was some speech last night. Speech-fying, I'd say!
Having seen you at yer particular craft in Florida in 2000, Reckon I was surprised to see you contest a free and fair election like that! Gave 'em hell you did, where "em" is defined as all the registered Democratic voters of the state many of 'em who worked their butts off to put you where you was and even tried once to put you in the 2nd highest office in the land!
In speakin' of your Florida performance, I used to paraphrase a fellow who will be one of your new Republican friends, Bob Dole, and say 'Where was the outrage?' But not any more. I see it now. You just needed something to be outraged about. When somebody picks on your buddy George W. Bush, the fists get up, and I see the vein-popping outrage loud and clear and hear the shouting, the kind of shouting that drives those cheap hotel microphones into distortion.
I reckon you can say you are justified doing what you are doing, cuz it was real close. 4 percentage points. That's awful close. Ain't too many elections get decided by just 4 measly percentage points. Sure is closer than Carter Ford in 1976, or Gore-Bush in 2000, Kerry Bush in 2004.
Or Weicker vs. Lieberman in 1988, fer that matter. I mean you clubbered him by 18 points then, didn't you?
I got to tell you Mr. Lieberman, you were never good at standing up to actual people in Washington. But when it comes to takin a stand against Bickerin' in Washington, i really saw the fire in the belly.
I've never seen you as the "fitin'" type. But when it comes to "fitin' against fitin" you are an unstoppable Hulk of a Man. Even if somebody just thought about bickerin right then, they couldn't. Why you'd stop them just by looking at them funny; that'd shed them of their bickering-wanting-to-ness real quick. Why you could get James Carville and Tom Delay to sing Kum-Freakin-BaY-Ya if the voters of the Nutmeg State would just let you.
Just one problem, though, with this bickerin' about bickerin' and fitin' about fitin'...
I don't know if you noticed that there aint that much bickerin in Washington these days. Bickerin' is kinda old fashioned now. Seems a new leader came to town in 2001 and since then, an awful lots been getting done. It just ain't good stuff. So if I take what you mean to say as what you mean to say, you'll stop the fitin' and allow more of the bad stuff to happen. Like with this Social Security.
"There is a whole attitude out there, 'Just say No!,'" [Lieberman] said. "In other words, 'Let the president sink with this proposal. We are winning.' But we are not winning because the victory here is to solve the Social Security problem."
Hmm.. aint that an example of where doin' nothing was probably the right thing to do? Where bickerin' was needed?
But I know. This isn't really about you. As you phrased it last night. "You have to run" to save your party and your state and your America. This particular phrase brings up a rather large pet peeve of mine. And that is this: political types saying they 'Have to Do' something when it's usually something they had a choice about, but they'd like the audience to think some great force or Dewey ex Machina or concept of justice is pulling the strings.
Simply said, what we call that out West is a rationalized, self-serving rhetorical construction. And there needs to be decidely less of it in American Poltiics. But that's not really what I'm saying, a Daily Kos Diary ain't hardly the place for pet peeves and digressions....
I'll be dinged why you didn't just come out and say you were makin the choice to run, rather than bringing up invisible and philosophical third parties.. Nobody's pulling your strings, I'll say that much about you.
You can always be counted on to do what's best for The Great State of Liebermecticut.