Wednesday, August 9, 2000

         PERSPECTIVES ON SEN. LIEBERMAN'S POLICIES

RABBI MICHAEL LERNER, [log in to unmask],
http://www.tikkun.org, http://www.commondreams.org/views/080700-103.htm
Editor of Tikkun magazine, a bimonthly Jewish critique of politics,
culture and society, and author of "Spirit Matters: Global Healing
and the Wisdom of the Soul," Lerner said today: "It's great that a
Jew is on a major party ticket but unfortunately, just as many
African Americans noted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
did not represent the interests of their community, so many Jews
have mixed feelings about the selection of Lieberman. Sen. Joseph
Lieberman joined with Bill Clinton and Al Gore to create the Democratic
Leadership Council precisely to transform the Democratic Party from
its traditional New Deal role to better the lives of working people and
minorities into a party that caters to the interests of the corporate
elite. He represents the tendency within the Jewish world to abandon
the moral vision that has led generations of Jews to work to end
poverty and oppression. Rather, he has championed escalations of
the military budget while finding savings by reducing domestic
social spending. Identifying Lieberman as a moral hero only makes
sense when we narrow our vision of 'morality' to the sphere of sexual
ethics and abandon the Biblical insistence that social justice is the
core of ethical life."

BARBABA LUBIN, [log in to unmask], http://www.mecaforpeace.org
Lubin, director of the Middle East Children's Alliance, said today: "The
selection of Joe Lieberman as Al Gore's running mate is frightening to
me. His role in the Gulf War was not just as a supporter but as one
who was in fact pushing for that war. He has continuously, for the last
10 years, functioned as a backer of the sanctions against Iraq (as has
Al Gore), where over 5,000 children a month have died as a result.
Lieberman is one of the largest recipients of funds from AIPAC, and it's
hard for me to see him as an honest negotiator between Palestinians
and Israelis."

PAUL BASS, [log in to unmask],
http://www.newhavenadvocate.com
http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/articles/lieberman.html,
http://www.newmassmedia.com/nac.phtml?code=new&db=nac_fea&ref=8776
Associate editor at The New Haven Advocate, Bass has been writing about
Lieberman for 20 years. He said today: "Lieberman is a very good student
of finding where power lies and using that. You won't find many people in
Connecticut who don't like Lieberman -- personally, he's very friendly. But
in his first Senate run, Lieberman attacked liberal Republican Lowell
Weicker from the right on school prayer and red-baited him for his support
for normalizing trade with Fidel Castro. He was the first Northerner to lead
the Democratic Leadership Council, which moved the Democratic Party to
the right by co-opting Republican issues. He's been for the death penalty
and capital gains tax cuts. His biggest financial backers are military
contractors, financial services companies and pro-Israel groups. He's a
supporter of aggressive foreign military intervention -- he's called for the
assassination of foreign leaders. He's been very skillful at building a
national
fundraising network, he was one of the first to realize that the influence of
the traditional party structure was waning and you had to set up your own
machine. He has voted for the McCain-Feingold bill to ban soft money, but
has stockpiled funding even when he had only token opposition."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini or Norman Solomon, (415) 552-5378

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface
----------------------------------------------------------------------------