The Moose examines why and who they hate.
The lefties loathing of Lieberman is deep and obsessive. It is ultimately not just about the Iraq war.
The hating, of course, has much to do with President Bush. The real passion of the left is the loathing of the President of the United States. The left's beef with Joe is that he believes that there should be some limits on political attacks on the Commander-in-Chief during wartime. However, it is an honorable tradition - exemplified by the late Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg - that politics should stop at the water's edge when the country is confronted with a hostile, aggressive enemy.
The Bush Administration should absolutely be subjected to tough accountability and scrutiny. It has made many grievous errors in this war. The Bushies have too often divided the country. But, should we lose all perspective? Radical Jihadism poses an existential threat to liberal civilization. And there should be some semblance of bi-partisan unity against this clear and present danger.
The left's irrational hatred toward Joe is indicative of their view that the President is a greater threat to America than Jihadist fascism. Indeed, the Moose wonders whether the left truly believes that there is any danger from the radical Islamic reactionary force that is opposed to all liberal values.
The degree of left hatred toward Joe sometimes betrays something deeper. One can see it on the threads on left wing web sites where they routinely refer to "Holy Joe" and charge him with dual loyalty to Israel. Anti-Semitism will often not speak its name directly, but there is a distinct undercurrent that may explain some of the irrational venom.
Anti-Semitism is certainly not a primary factor driving the opposition to Joe. But, it is there. If you seek hostility to Jews and Israel, you will find it in the same left wing blogosphere that spreads the vile venom against Lieberman.
Morton Kondracke recently wrote,
"Even before the current Middle East conflict, Lieberman was subjected to anti-Semitic attacks on liberal blogs DailyKos and Huffington Post. One commentary declared, "Ned Lamont needs to beat Lieberman to a pulp in the debate and define what it means to be an American who is NOT beholden to the Israeli lobby."
"Such comments - and there are worse - aren't those of site operators Markos Moulitsas Zuniga or Arianna Huffington, but they also are not edited out as extreme or tasteless."
This is from the Jewish weekly, the Forward,
"Support- and donations - for Lamont have built across a string of left-leaning blogs, such as Daily Kos, MyDD and Huffington Post, on which comments posted about Lieberman sometimes wax vitriolic.
"Many of these diatribes have raised the specter of dual loyalty, attacking him for supporting Israel. (Here's a flavor of such rhetoric, from a reader of Huffington Post: "Has anyone considered that the loyalties Rabbi Joseph Lieberman is talking about, is to Israel, where he is also a citizen. The Rabbi believes that going into Iraq is good for the security of Israel and that is why he has steadfastly supported this immoral and illegal war.")
And it means little that some of Lieberman's critics are themselves Jewish. For over three decades, the Moose has witnessed the phenomena when Jews on the left and decent leftists turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism for the "good of the greater cause." The New Left had in its ranks many Jews who were silent or even abetted this evil.
It is revealing who isn't the regular target of the left blogosphere's hatred. They don't vent rage against Hezbollah or Hamas. At best, they are agnostic about Israel's war of self-defense. There is little anger expressed toward the Jew-hating leader of Iran. The nutroots and activists rarely articulate any rage toward the Jihadists. All of their passion and hatred is directed toward the Administration and anyone who is considered as aiding and abetting them.
In the nineties, some on the right were consumed by a similar hatred toward the President. This animus led them to oppose a just intervention in the Balkans and support the unjust impeachment of the President. At the time, Republican Congressman Peter King took a very lonely, risky and courageous stand against the madness.
The loathing was wrong then, and it is wrong now. -- | 
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