The Political Chase

Joe Lieberman Calls Illegal Wiretapping Petty Partisanship

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week”, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I/D-CT), was asked for his comments on Sen. Richar Lugar (R-IN) abandoning the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. Lieberman said he disagreed, it is “too early to give up on the surge.”

Employing the same tactics as the Bush administration when asked about the car bombs in London this weekend, Lieberman employed the Bush administration’s tactics of fear-mongering, invoked 9/11, and reduced the administration’s illegal wiretapping program to “petty partisanship.”

On the attacks in Great Britain this weekend, Lieberman said he “hoped the terrorists attacks in London and England wake us up here in America.” With respect to the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping program, Lieberman said, “We’re still fighting over electronic surveillance….Some of the fight is ideological, some of it I think is just plain misplaced trust in the administration….We’re fiddling while our enemies are are getting ready to attack us….We’re at a partisan gridlock over the question of whether the American government can listen in to conversations, or follow email trails, of non-American citizens.”

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Lieberman is flat out wrong. The President’s illegal wiretapping program has everything to do with the Bush administration breaking the FISA law, and nothing to do with partisanship. Congress has told the President on numerous occasions they would amend the FISA law if it was an impediment to prosecuting the war on terrorism. Moreover, there are thousands of incidents where the surveillance has been found to be purely domestic and not international as Lieberman suggest.This is the first of three segments TPC will publish on Lieberman’s interview.