Earlier this week, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed blasting the Democratic party — the “party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy” — for no longer being “unhesitatingly and proudly pro-American.” He wrote that Democrats “should embrace the basic framework the president had advanced for the war on terror as our own.”
Today, Sen. Joe Biden (D-RI) appeared on various morning talk shows and sharply criticized the notion that progressives are weak on national security. On MSNBC he responded to Lieberman, stating, “[C]an you imagine Franklin Roosevelt, can you imagine President Truman, can you imagine President Kennedy conducting the kind of policy this outfit has?” From the exchange:
This administration is the worst administration in American foreign policy in modern history, maybe ever. The idea that they are competent to continue to conduct our foreign policy, to make us more secure and make Israel secure, is preposterous.
Ever since they got in office the only thing on the march in the Middle East has not been freedom, it’s been Iran. Every single thing they’ve touched has been a near disaster.
Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2008/05/bideeen333msn.320.240.flv]
Biden also responded to Lieberman in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, where he added that the right wing’s national security policies actually betray doubt about U.S. capabilities:
The worst nightmare for a regime that thrives on tension with America is an America ready, willing and able to engage. Since when has talking removed the word “no” from our vocabulary?
It’s amazing how little faith George Bush, Joe Lieberman and John McCain have in themselves — and in America.
In his interview on NBC’s Today Show, Biden acknowledged that some members of the Democratic party are strongly anti-war, but added, “20 percent of the Republican Party is probably ready to go to war on any circumstance.”