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Jewish World Review August 11, 2000 / 10 Menachem-Av, 5760

Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter
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The hand-wringing Hamlet from Hartford

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- AT LEAST we know Al Gore is still breathing. Choosing Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate may not be the amazingly bold stroke that the press is hyperventilating about, but it does show the presence of brain waves. At last -- Gore did something!

Gore has received wide acclaim for his "risky" move in putting a Jew on the ticket, amid none too-subtle insinuations that anyone who votes against Gore is an anti-Semite. Echoing other Gore campaign staffers, ABC's Cokie Roberts casually remarked on NPR the other day that any "hard-core anti-Semites" are not "likely to vote for the Democratic ticket" anyway.

She must be referring to all those registered Republicans like Louis Farrakhan and Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson. Indeed, in light of recent allegations about her potty mouth, the only vote Al Gore may have lost by putting a Jew on the ticket is Hillary Clinton's.

The press has been demure in listing Lieberman's many accomplishments. He is not only the first Jew on a national ticket, but also has the distinction of being a member of the World's Smallest Group: Orthodox Jews for Partial-Birth Abortion.

No doubt he's troubled about sucking the brains out of a half-delivered baby. Lieberman spends half his life being troubled. Always troubled, but never troubled enough to do anything.

He was, of course, famously troubled about President Clinton "willfully deceiving the nation about his conduct," -- conduct Lieberman called "not just inappropriate," but "immoral," "harmful," "sad" and "sordid." Lieberman said his "conscience" compelled him to express his "concerns forthrightly and publicly." His conscience did not, however, compel him to vote to remove the source of his troubles from the office of the presidency.

This is the way liberals always avoid taking action against other liberals. They furrow their brows and dutifully register some vague consternation, for which they expect great admiration. With their impeccable consciences duly placed on the record, they believe no further action should be required of them.

Sen. Joe Lieberman is the master of agonizing before inaction. Explaining his acquittal vote to Tom Brokaw on "NBC Nightly News," Lieberman suggested he had seriously considered voting to remove Clinton, noting that "every time I've been forced to go into the facts of this case, I get repulsed, and I get troubled and torn up." Gee, thanks for that display of scruples.

When asked on "Fox News Sunday" about a passage in the Starr report in which Clinton and Monica discuss the possibility that their phone sex was being tapped by a foreign government, Lieberman said: "Yes, that part of the report troubled me deeply."

At a National Press Club lunch on Oct. 1, 1998, Lieberman allowed as to how even his daughter was "troubled" by the president's behavior, and a woman he had met on the beach was also "very troubled." But of course, amid all this sense of "trouble" in the world, he voted to keep Clinton in office.

Lieberman was also troubled by Anita Hill's accusations against Clarence Thomas. (If Hill's unsupported allegations against Thomas had been all Clinton were forced to admit to, he would have been dancing a jig). But somehow Lieberman managed to emerge from his anguish and vote the party line. In a letter to constituents explaining his vote against Thomas, Lieberman assured them that he had spent "many agonizing hours of deliberation," before casting his vote.

In 1995, Sen. Lieberman signed a letter with Bill Bennett urging corporations to establish standards of decency for the airwaves. They wrote they were "deeply troubled" by trash TV. Then a year later, Lieberman joined with Rep. Lamar Smith in a similar campaign against Fox -- this time saying they were "especially troubled."

The one great thing about Gore's choice of Lieberman is that it is now beyond cavil that claims of Clinton's invincible popularity have been greatly exaggerated. Gore can't go to the bathroom without taking a poll, and somehow he ends up with a running mate who is the most vociferously anti-Clinton Democrat in the U.S. Senate. How did that happen?

It happened because the polls were wrong -- maybe wrongly interpreted or wrongly reported, but wrong. Clinton never got 50 percent of Americans to vote for him. But according to the polls, upon discovering that Clinton was molesting interns and hiding evidence, suddenly 80 percent of Americans adored the man. That's not possible.

Because Clinton was never punished, there's a deep sense of unfinished business in the country. This election is the Fred Goldman civil suit of politics. Gore taking Sen. Lieberman as his running mate is as good a strategy as O.J. hiring one of Nicole Simpson's relatives would have been. It's good, it's just not going to be good enough.


JWR contributor Ann Coulter is the author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton. You may visit the Ann Coulter Fan Club by clicking here.


Up

08/07/00: The Democratic party's white face
08/04/00: Hillary's potty mouth
08/01/00: The hole in the story
07/28/00: Cheney's detractors can't get their story straight
07/25/00: AlGore: Elmer Blandry
07/21/00: The tyranny of non-objectivity
07/18/00: The state's religion
07/14/00: Reform it back
07/11/00: Keating for veep
07/07/00: Gore invented 'Clueless'
07/04/00: The stupidity litmus test
06/30/00: O.J. was 'proved innocent' too
06/27/00: The last guys 'proved innocent'
06/23/00: Serious Republican candidates don't get serious press
06/19/00: They weren't overzealous this time
06/16/00: Evolution of the strumpet
06/13/00: Actual journalistic malpractice
06/09/00: I did not have sexual
relations with that ... man!
06/06/00: IRS turns Bubba's screw
05/30/00: Too corrupt to be an Arkansas lawyer
05/26/00: Choose liberalism
05/24/00: Violence against coherence
05/22/00: Developmentally disabled Republicans
05/16/00: For womb the bell tolls
05/12/00: Asylum from Georgetown
05/10/00: The truth is out there, even for the clueless
05/08/00: Barbie is a liberal Democrat
05/02/00: Moving the goalpost
04/28/00: The bastardization of justice
04/25/00: How Monica Lewinsky saved the constitution
04/24/00: It's sunny today, so we need gun control
04/19/00: No shadow of a doubt -- liberal women are worthless
04/14/00: It takes a Communist dictator to raise a child
04/11/00: The verdict is in on Hillary
04/07/00: Vast Concoctions III
04/04/00: 'Horrifying' free speech in New York
03/31/00: Campaign finance reform brings out worst in senators
03/28/00: All the news that fits -- we print!
03/24/00: Net losses all around
03/20/00: To protect, serve --- and be spat on
03/16/00: Thank Heaven for the consigliere
03/13/00: Vast concoctions II
03/09/00: The bluebloods voted against you
03/07/00: The Tower of Babble
03/03/00: Vast concoction
03/02/00: Hillary's sartorial lies
02/28/00: You have to break a few eggs to make a joke
02/22/00: I've seen enough killing to support abortion
02/18/00: A liberal lynching
02/15/00: McCain and the flag
02/11/00: The Shakedown Express
02/08/00: To mock a mockingbird
02/05/00: Summing up Campaign 2000: 'Oh, puh-leeze!'
02/01/00: A Confederacy of Dunces
01/28/00: Dollar Bill's racist smear
01/24/00: How high is your freedom quotient?
01/21/00: Numismadness
01/18/00: How dare you attack my wife!
01/14/00: The Gore Buggernaut
01/10/00: The paradox of discrimination law

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