Joe's Corner

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• New London Day Editorial: Sen. Joe fights ban

  11.22.10 at 10:34 AM

  
  
  A pat on the back for U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut for playing a leading role in the effort to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and allow gay soldiers and sailors to serve openly. As a defense hawk and political moderate, Sen. Lieberman is in a particularly good position to help end this unfair policy.
  
  Among the chief problems with "don't ask, don't tell" is that it is, in practice, the "live a lie" policy, running counter to the military code of honor and honesty. To cover up their sexual orientation, homosexual soldiers often pretend to have opposite-sex partners. Since the military punishes few soldiers for "asking" but boots many from the service for "telling," gay military personnel must deny the reality of their nature or face expulsion.
  
  It is long past time that this outmoded construct go the way of segregation. Its foundation is already crumbling, with a district judge ruling it unconstitutional, a decision now under appeal. ... Read More »

• Back to a Bipartisan Foreign Policy

  11.17.10 at 4:59 PM

  
  By Joe Lieberman
  
  This year's midterm elections marked the first time since 9/11 that national security was not a major consideration for American voters. But it is precisely in the realm of foreign policy and national security that we may have the greatest opportunities for bipartisan cooperation between President Obama and resurgent Republicans in Congress.
  
  Seizing these opportunities will require both parties to break out of a destructive cycle that has entrapped them since the end of the Cold War and caused them to depart from the principled internationalist tradition that linked Democratic presidents like Truman and Kennedy with Republican presidents like Nixon and Reagan.
  
  During the 1990s, too many Republicans in Congress reflexively opposed President Clinton's policies in the Balkans and elsewhere. Likewise, during the first decade of the 21st century, too many Democrats came to view the post-9/11 exercise of American power under President B... Read More »

• Lieberman takes the lead today in 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' debate

  09.21.10 at 9:16 AM

  
  By Deirdre Shesgreen
  CT Mirror
  Sept. 21, 2010
  
  WASHINGTON-An emotionally- and politically-charged showdown is set to unfold in the Senate today over whether gays should be able to serve openly in the military.
  
  Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, will be defending his proposed repeal of the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which bars gays from serving openly in the military.
  
  His main opponent in the fight is Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., whom Lieberman endorsed for president in 2008, a move that fueled liberal distrust and dislike of Lieberman across the country. Neither lawmaker would predict the outcome of this long-simmering issue. But the fate of the gays-in-the-military policy will be complicated by myriad other factors, including the short congressional calendar and a hot-button immigration proposal that Democrats hope to attach to the underlying defense bill.
  
  Lieberman said it should be a str... Read More »