// Read more here: // https://my.onetrust.com/s/article/UUID-d81787f6-685c-2262-36c3-5f1f3369e2a7?language=en_US //
You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.
Skip Navigation

The Right Kisses Up To Lieberman

Those of us who follow the career of Weekly Standard writer and ex-journalist Matthew Continetti have noticed that he enjoys parroting the line taken by his boss, Bill Kristol. For example, Kristol will go on television and mouth some Republican talking point, and then a couple of days later, Continetti will echo the sentiment. (An alternate theory is that they receive talking points from the same source). Anyway, a few days ago, Kristol wrote a blog post lauding Joe Lieberman's healthcare obstructionism; Kristol concluded with some pathetic brown-nosing:

Reid tried to throw a Hail Mary. It looks as if Lieberman has broken up the pass.

But there will be more Hail Mary's to come--and a massive assault from the left on the principled and responsible Lieberman.

After reading this I wondered how long it would take for Continetti to bravely second his boss. Later that same day, Continetti wrote a blog post about healthcare that ended with this cheesy prediction: "It may all come down to Scoop Jackson's heir." But now there is more. In a new Weekly Standard piece (portentously titled "The Power of One: The Return of Joementum"), Continetti has this to say:

Lieberman has displayed the courage and independence necessary to tell his party it's on the wrong track. In 1998, he pointed out that President Clinton's affair with an intern was a moral transgression that deserved rebuke. From 2006 to 2008, when Democratic politicians and commentators ran away from an Iraq war that was going badly, Lieberman stuck with his principles and backed the surge of troops and counterinsurgency strategy that has put Iraq on the (bumpy) road to normalcy. Lieberman's reward was a left-wing primary challenge in 2006 that succeeded in depriving him of the Democratic nomination. Running as an independent, he nevertheless won the general election. In doing so, he became even more free to do what's right regardless of political calculation. [Italics Mine]

And then, putting the stamp on this moist love-letter, Continetti concludes:

If Lieberman blows the whistle, surely other Democrats, who know how bad this legislation really is, will follow. Someone has to go first. That's Joe. And then bipartisan majorities can pass sensible health care reforms next year. That's what we call Joementum.

The whole paragraph reads as if it were written by some sort of machine. No matter: Expect to see a lot more of this if Lieberman keeps dithering.