Joe Lieberman's Rhetoric vs. Reality on Iraq

RHETORIC – LIEBERMAN CLAIMS TO WANT TO END THE IRAQ WAR: In his first campaign commercial after losing the Democratic primary in 2006, Lieberman said “I want to help end the war in Iraq.” [Source: National Journal, 8/11/06]

REALITY – LIEBERMAN VOTED AGAINST ALL LEGISLATION TO END THE WAR IN IRAQ: Lieberman has opposed every single resolution in Congress that would urge an end to the Iraq War. On 11/15/05, Lieberman was one of only 5 Democrats to vote against legislation “that would have pressured the administration to outline a plan to draw down U.S. forces in Iraq,” according to the Washington Post. On 6/22/06, Lieberman voted against two pieces of legislation pushing Bush to draft an exit strategy from Iraq. According to the Boston Globe, one was a “proposal to withdraw US troops from Iraq within a year” and another was a “nonbinding amendment that would have called on President Bush to begin withdrawing troops by the end of 2006 and to make ‘phased redeployments’ out of Iraq thereafter.” [Washington Post, 11/16/05; Senate Roll Call Vote #322, 11/15/05; Senate Roll Call Vote #182 and #181, 6/22/06; Boston Globe, 6/23/06]

RHETORIC – LIEBERMAN CLAIMS TO HAVE NEVER PUSHED THE IRAQ-AL QAEDA STORYLINE: Days after the release of a Senate report debunking the myth of ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, Lieberman appeared on Face the State to claim, “I have seen no evidence that Iraq was tied to 9/11.” [Source: Face the State, 9/17/06]

REALITY – LIEBERMAN PUSHED FALSE IRAQ/AL QAEDA TIES TO JUSTIFY THE IRAQ WAR: On 12/15/03, Lieberman went on national television to push the myth that evidence existed tying Iraq to the 9/11 terrorists. “I want to be real clear about the connection with terrorists,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of evidence on this. There are extensive contacts between Saddam Hussein’s government and al Qaeda.” [Source: MSNBC’s Hardball, 12/15/03]

RHETORIC – LIEBERMAN SAYS HE HAS STRONGLY OPPOSED BUSH ON IRAQ: On 9/9/06 Lieberman’s campaign claimed to the New Haven register that Lieberman “has repeatedly and harshly criticized the Bush administration” for the War in Iraq. [Sources: New Haven Register, 9/9/06]

REALITY – LIEBERMAN HAS BEEN THE CHIEF DEFENDER OF BUSH’S IRAQ POLICY: The New Yorker noted just last year that Lieberman has been “unapologetic about his defense of Bush’s Iraq policy.” Lieberman told the magazine that “Bottom line, I think Bush has it right.” [Source: New Yorker, 3/21/05]

RHETORIC – LIEBERMAN CLAIMS TO HAVE ALWAYS SUPPORTED GETTING MORE INFO ON IRAQ: After skipping a key vote to force the White House to provide more concrete reports on the status of Iraq, Lieberman told the Hartford Courant he has always supported that goal. “Why not have more information?” he asked. [Source: Hartford Courant, 9/13/06]

REALITY – LIEBERMAN CAST DECIDING VOTE AGAINST IRAQ REPORTING LEGISLATION: According to Senate records, in 2004, Lieberman cast the deciding vote against legislation “To require reports on the efforts of the President to stabilize Iraq and relieve the burden on members of the Armed Forces of the United States deployed in Iraq.” Had Lieberman not voted against the legislation, it would have moved forward. Instead, it died in a Senate debate decided by one vote. [Source: Senate Roll Call Vote #138, 6/23/04]

RHETORIC – LIEBERMAN DENIES HE EVER SAID HE SUPPORTED INDEFINITE DEPLOYMENTS IN IRAQ: As recently as August 20th, Lieberman has appeared on national television claiming “I’ve never been for an indefinite, unconditional deployment of American troops” and insisting that such assertions were a “distortion that my opponent managed to convince too many people” about. [Sources: CBS Face the Nation, 8/20/06]

REALITY – LIEBERMAN SAID HE SUPPORTS PERMANENT DEPLOYMENTS IN IRAQ: In 2003, Lieberman told CNN: “We may, over the long term, with the consent of the new Iraqi government, establish some permanent bases in Iraq. And wouldn’t that be a dramatic change, where we have an allied government there in Iraq, at the center of the Middle East, where we may have not a permanent police presence, but one or another military base that’s working in cooperation with the government there?” [Source: CNN, 4/20/03]

RHETORIC – LIEBERMAN SAID HE SUPPORTED IRAQ INVEASION BECAUSE OF WMD: Introducing the Iraq War Resolution on Oct. 2, 2002, Lieberman declared that Saddam ‘has continued, without question, to develop weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them on distant targets.’” As the Norwich Bulletin reported, “the weapons of mass destruction Saddam supposedly stockpiled [was] a key factor Bush and Lieberman cited in arguing for an invasion.” On 6/25/04, Lieberman told CNN that “Iraq did pose a threat to us” because “they had weapons of mass destruction.” He said this long after CNN reported that President Bush’s chief weapons inspector, David Kay, told Congress that “his group [of inspectors] found no evidence Iraq had stockpiled unconventional weapons before the U.S.-led invasion in March.” [CNN, 6/25/04; CNN, 1/25/04; Norwich Bulletin, 12/26/05]

REALITY – LIEBERMAN SAYS WMD WAS A “SIDE BENEFIT”; WOULD HAVE SUPPORTED WAR ANYWAY: On Glenn Beck’s national radio show on 8/22/06, Lieberman agreed with the host that the WMD rationale that he pushed as a justification for war was merely “a nice side benefit” and that the Iraq War was really a vehicle for other objectives. Beck said, “The weapons of mass destruction was a nice side benefit. We were trying to go and pop the head of the snake in Iran. That’s what we were trying to do. And I don’t think anybody had the courage or could actually come out and say that with world politics the way they are.” Lieberman immediately agreed, saying “You’re right.” [Glenn Beck radio show, 8/22/06]

RHETORIC – LIEBERMAN SAYS HE’S LONG WANTED RUMSFELD TO RESIGN: Lieberman has said he has long tried to push for a change of leadership at the Pentagon because of the Iraq War. In an 8/31/06 press release the Lieberman campaign said “three weeks ago on CBS’s Face the Nation, Senator Lieberman said unequivocally that the Bush Administration needs a change in leadership and a change in direction at the Pentagon, and repeated his call for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation.” [Source: Lieberman press release, 8/31/06]

REALITY – LIEBERMAN FOUGHT TO PROTECT RUMSFELD AND KEEP HIM HEADING THE PENTAGON: In the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal, Lieberman published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal subtitled “Why Rumsfeld Must Stay.” He wrote: “It is neither sensible nor fair to force the resignation of the secretary of defense, who clearly retains the confidence of the commander in chief, in the midst of a war…Secretary Rumsfeld’s removal would delight foreign and domestic opponents of America’s presence in Iraq.” Similarly, on 4/25/06, the New Haven Register reported that he specifically refused to call for Rumsfeld’s resignation. He said “Whether Don Rumsfeld should continue to serve … is up to him and the president at whose pleasure he serves.” [Source: Wall Street Journal, 5/14/04; New Haven Register, 4/25/06]