Lieberman challenges Lugar's negative assessment

By S.A. Miller
The Washington Times
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut yesterday challenged Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar's ballyhooed assessment that the U.S. troop surge in I
raq is doomed to fail.

"The early evidence is that [the surge] is working," said Mr. Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee who was forced to switch party affiliation to independent last year partly because of his hawkish stance on Iraq.

"We've got a fight ahead of us. We're not deceiving ourselves," he said at a Capitol Hill press conference.

"But in the end," he said, "it's just unfair to our troops implementing the surge, to Gen. [David] Petraeus, who helped create this totally different strategy — which is working — to essentially pull the rug out from under them, to take away their reason for fighting before they even have a chance."

Mr. Lugar did not return calls seeking comment.

Mr. Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he agreed with parts of Mr. Lugar's speech Monday, which Democrats seized upon as evidence that Republicans were defecting from President Bush.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who vows to force an early end to the war, called Mr. Lugar's speech a "turning point" in the Iraq debate, which is scheduled to resume today as the Senate takes up the defense spending authorization bill.

Mr. Lieberman said that Mr. Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, observed correctly that several vital national-security interests rest on the outcome of the war, including the need to keep Iran and al Qaeda in check and stop sectarian violence from spilling across Iraq's borders.

Logan: Well, it would be nice if the surge is working, but all indications seem to indicate the opposite.

Yeah,and He is going to whip Irans' butt too.All by his little self. Wonder when those boys of his are going?

I think Joe Lieberman's credibility is so questionable that anything he says really doesn't matter.

I wonder if Al Gore ever wonders about how much more successful the ticket might have been in 2000 if Joe Lieberman hadn't been his running mate. I mean face it, Gore actually won the election - and without Lieberman it might not have been close enough to go to the Supremes.

i wonder if connetticansare proud of themselves.

they had a choice.

they picked the bum.

They couldn't stomach a democrat either:)

Remember McCain's comments, "you can walk thru Bagdad without security....lol...well, Libermann's comment is just about as stupid as McCain's...The Iraqis are not doing JACK....

Yo, "doc", whats up with that, "I mean face it, Gore actually won the election - and without Lieberman it might not have been close enough to go to the Supremes.", shit, boy?

I think YOU need to "face it" sport, IF, "Gore actually won the election" as you state, the matter wouldn't have gone to the Supremes at all, would it?

I take it from this dillusional babble of yours you do not approve of our electorial system and would prefer these matters be resolved through a simple majority vote, which is fine, but sadly for you, not how it is done. Therefore, Gore simply did not "actually win" anything.

Sorry.

What has that got to do with the price of bananas? lol...damn, this place is boring as Hell....someone chew on my ass

When he said, "We've got a fight ahead of us.", he really didn't mean "We", he meant anyone else but him, or his kids, or his family, or friends, or anyone he knows, in fact anyone else on the planet except for the circle he infests.

Wouldn't you love to strap him to the front of a Humvee and surge it through Baghdad.

Yep. He doesn't care how long we are there or what it costs.

fool that he is. Whenever they want to float a lunatic-fringe trial balloon, they give it to Ol' Joe. They know he's too thick to resist and they have the added benefit of perhaps sending enough negative Democratic fire Ol' Joe's way, that he might consider flipping caucuses.

fairlane, oh buddy, what's happenin? I'm in the deepest of the deep south right now in Tenessee, near Georgia and Alabama. This tour of America has been quite interesting, but I'm looking forward to settling in Virginia soon after all this training is over. And, yes, I know Virginia is becoming purple, and perhaps that is good, neither the Dems or the Repubs have all the answers.

Lieberman strikes me as something of a Zionist, and needs to realize that Israel is not our 51st state. he is a U.S. Senator, not an Israeli Senator. I hope he is right about the surge working...I wouldn't count on it.