Crossposted at Preemptive Karma:
Josh Marshall illustrates why the DLC/Lieberman approach to policy and politics makes it so insanely difficult for Democrats to win national races:
While Lieberman has concerns about the idea, he is continuing to study it while hoping for more details on Social Security from the president, a Lieberman aide said today. "He's still in a listening and learning stage and is keeping an open mind, but he does have concerns about private accounts as carve-outs that would potentially undermine the guaranteed minimum benefit and worsen our fiscal health and debt load," a Lieberman aide said today.
Take a stand for crying out loud, Joe.
(more after the jump)
It's this sort of mealy mouthed, wishy washy approach to dealing with issues that have served, in part, to erode away the Democrats.
I have long advocated on this blog for Democrats, liberals and progressives to articulate their beliefs and then stand up for them. This lack of standing up for the core belief set is typical of Lieberman...who seems to constantly stick his finger in the breeze to test the trade winds.
Having a "concern" about the idea is meaningless. You either like the idea or you don't. Joe isn't stupid and he hasn't surrounded himself with stupid people (we hope). Private accounts aren't a mystery that needs to be solved with Scooby-Doo and those meddling kids. The basics involved in such a plan are out there to be read and digested. Take a stand.