Sen. Lieberman Endorses McCain

(CBS/AP)  The Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 endorsed Republican John McCain for president on Monday, scandalizing Democrats in Washington and giving the GOP hopeful a much-needed boost in New Hampshire where independents outnumber Republicans and Democrats.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said he chose his longtime Senate colleague because he has the best shot of breaking partisan gridlock in Washington. Both men also are strong and vocal supporters of the war in Iraq.

"On all the issues, you're never going to do anything about them unless you have a leader who can break through the partisan gridlock," said Lieberman, who was Al Gore's running mate seven years ago. "The status quo in Washington is not working."

Independents hold considerable sway in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 8, and they helped McCain win the state's Republican primary in 2000 over George W. Bush. As of March of this year, voters who are independent - undeclared is the official term - accounted for 44 percent, compared with 30 percent Republican and 26 percent Democrat.

Traveling with Lieberman Monday morning to Hillsborough's American Legion hall, McCain said the Connecticut senator is his answer to the people he hears in every town hall meeting who ask, "Why can't you all work together?"

Lieberman said McCain's approach to Iraq and his credentials on national security are the main reasons he is supporting a Republican for president.

But both men said the election seems increasingly about the economy and domestic issues rather than Iraq. On those issues, Lieberman acknowledged he does not always see eye-to-eye with his 2008 pick. But, said Lieberman, McCain is always straightforward about where he stands.

Leading Democrats weren't happy with his latest move.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a statement: "I have the greatest respect for Joe, but I simply have to disagree with his decision to endorse Senator McCain."

Al From, the founder and CEO of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said, "I am very saddened by Senator Lieberman's choice and profoundly disagree with it. We need to elect a Democratic president in 2008."

For McCain, behind in the polls here but gaining, the endorsement carries the risk of alienating conservatives who have been critical of his support for immigration and campaign finance reforms.

"If I get some criticism for aligning myself with a good friend I have worked with for many years, I will be more than happy to accept that criticism," McCain said.

For Lieberman, it marks another turn away from the Democrats.

"Political party is important, but it's not more important than what's good for the country and it's not more important than friendship," Lieberman said.

Lieberman won re-election to the Senate in 2006 as an independent, after losing the Democratic primary to upstart Ned Lamont largely because of his support for the war. High-profile Democrats abandoned him after the primary defeat, including his Connecticut colleague, Sen. Chris Dodd.

Although Dodd also is seeking the presidency, Lieberman backed McCain. He said he had intended to wait until after the primaries to make a choice for the 2008 presidential race, but McCain asked for his support and no Democrat did.

Word of the endorsement follows several other high-profile announcements for McCain, including weekend endorsements by The Des Moines Register and The Boston Globe.

McCain has largely ceded the Iowa caucuses to front-runners Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, but the Register said, "McCain is most ready to lead America in a complex and dangerous world and to rebuild trust at home and abroad by inspiring confidence in his leadership."

The Globe, while not based in New Hampshire, circulates in New Hampshire's vote-rich southern tier. McCain has focused his campaign on the Granite State, hoping to repeat his 2000 victory over George W. Bush.

"The iconoclastic senator from Arizona has earned his reputation for straight talk by actually leveling with voters, even at significant political expense," the Globe wrote.

McCain has also picked up endorsements from The New Hampshire Union Leader, the state's largest newspaper, and The Portsmouth Herald.

"U.S. Sen. John McCain will tell you the truth, even if it costs him the election," the Herald wrote.

McCain, campaigning Sunday in Florida, said he expected the endorsements would help him with undecided voters, especially registered Republicans.

"All of them say the same thing - that I have the experience and the judgment to lead this country and that I have been the one who is presidential," the senator said. "Obviously that will help me as we get down in the last few weeks before the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire primary, Michigan and South Carolina primaries and the Florida primary."

[gunnerv1]

The Dims have only themselves to blame.

[bhjoe44]

John McCain continues to show that he runs as a center, an independent voice. It''s interesting to see how it gauls specifically those on the left (and many on the right). It''s not very tough to move to either the far left or the far right... however, in politics today and especially in the primaries, it''s extremely difficult to stay in the middle. Those that continue to insult versus insight, trying to drive a wedge into the middle, should be seen as who and what they are... Whether a conservative democrat or a liberal republican... kudos... kudos to the McCain''s, Lieberman''s, Snowe''s, Nelson''s of the world who stand up and state that being an independent... is good for both themselves and for us.

[watcher269-2009]

Whatever happened to the mandatory retirement age - these 2 guys are walking talking corpses and should be removed from office - they are soooo out of touch!

[taotxzen]

The Politics of Religion in America
by James Carroll

What in the name of God is going on in American politics? Mitt Romney%u2019s %u201CFaith in America%u201D speech, riddled with mistaken assertions about religion, was itself a warning. But other presidential candidates, debate moderators, pundits, and religious leaders all share a dangerous confusion about questions of faith and citizenship. Here are only a few:

Is America%u2019s goodness grounded in God? When Romney and others assert that American virtues, generally summed up in the idea of %u201Cfreedom,%u201D are based on faith, a cruel fact of history is being ignored. The politics of human rights, like the idea of individual freedom, were born not in religion but in the Enlightenment struggle against it. When Thomas Jefferson located %u201Cinalienable rights%u201D in an endowment from the Creator, he was decidedly speaking from outside the mainstream of any denominational faith. Jefferson%u2019s point was not to affirm God, but to deny King George.

(CONT)

[taotxzen]

(CONT)

It is not an accident that %u201CGod%u201D does not appear in the Constitution. Following the American lead, religions, too, learned from the nonreligious improvements of modernity, but it is dishonest to claim after the fact that religions somehow sponsored them.

Were %u201Cthe Founders%u201D religious? It is a convention of political speechmaking to ascribe faith to the Founders, but what kind of faith, and what Founders? The Pilgrims, for whom %u201Cfreedom%u201D and %u201Crights%u201D meant nothing, wanted a theocracy. One hundred fifty years later, the Deist revolutionaries assumed a distant God whose interest in creation, much less the young nation, was minimal. By Lincoln%u2019s time, traumas of war drove piety, and it was only then that present notions of public devotedness were born. (It was Lincoln who established the motto %u201CIn God We Trust.%u201D) In truth, the power of faith in American politics has waxed and waned. There is no consistent tradition to be upheld or to be betrayed.

Is %u201Csecularism%u201D dehumanizing? When Mitt Romney praised vital American religion in contrast to Europe where churches are %u201Cso grand, so inspired, so empty,%u201D one could wonder what the collapse of institutional faith in Europe actually means. Romney condemned the %u201Creligion of secularism.%u201D

(CONT)

[taotxzen]

(CONT)

Yet such American smugness seems to miss the largest point of difference between the Old World and the New. In the very years that majorities of Europeans were walking away from organized religion, they were resolutely turning away from government-sanctioned killing, whether through war or through the death penalty; they were leaving behind narrow notions of nationalism, mitigating state sovereignty, and, above all, replacing ancient hatreds with partnerships. All of this stands in stark contrast to the United States, where the most overtly religious people in the country support the death penalty, the government%u2019s hair-trigger readiness for war, and the gospel of national sovereignty that has made the United States an impediment to the United Nations.

Does God send people to hell if they vote wrong? You would think so if you listened to the American Catholic bishops, who said in November that forbidden political choices %u201Chave an impact on the individual%u2019s salvation.%u201D The five Catholics running for president all hold positions that, in the bishops%u2019 view, might earn their supporters eternal damnation. Whenever preachers appeal to hellfire as a way of reinforcing injunctions, you can bet they have failed to make a persuasive moral argument.

(CONT)

[taotxzen]

(CONT)

What is discouraging here is that the bishops, aiming to reinforce their squandered moral authority, are resuscitating an image of a threatening, violent God that religious people generally, and Catholics in particular, have struggled to leave behind. Religion aims not to %u201Csave%u201D from an unmerciful God, but to reveal that God%u2019s mercy is complete.

Is Mormonism a religion of myth? The answer, of course, is that every religion is a religion of myth. The symbols, rituals, and sacred texts of every faith grow out of contingent historical circumstances that seem at odds with the transcendent claims that religions make. Joseph Smith%u2019s origins in upstate New York might seem disqualifyingly banal, yet so did Jerusalem to those who lived in Rome, as did Galilee to those who lived in Jerusalem. Religions claim to be above such history, and that myths are revelations - but the glory of God is that God reveals through human invention. What Mormons believe is outlandish - which is the point.

Politics and religion, like art and music, aim to accomplish the same thing, which is to overcome absurdity with meaning. Religion does this by seeing God%u2019s hand in history. Politics does it by affirming that, if history is all there is, it is enough.

James Carroll%u2019s column appears regularly in the Globe.

[neoconrcrazy]

lieberisrael suks big time - send him home to his illegal settlements.

[sgtrds]

Both of these men are very decent . That what makes some of you upset.

Posted by hamiltongrad at 12:57 AM : Dec 18, 2007

Both of these men would sell their ideals, their mother and their own soul in exchange for a shot at the White House. That''s what upsets people about them.

[notbuynit]

Next he will be eating pork chops.