Joe Lieberman. Who is he? Is he an opportunist? Does he have any loyalty or allegiance? Is he a Republican or a Democrat? Hard to answer. But i came across something really interesting on whereIstand, which has a nifty feature where you can compare one public figure to another. Lieberman agrees with John McCain 70 percent of the time. And he agrees with Barack Obama 70 percent of the time, too. Maybe he is the centrist and independently minded politician he says he is….Let’s take a closer look.
Lieberman and Obama agree on abortion issues and gay rights issues and disagree on foreign policy issues like justified torture, waterboarding, how to deal with Iran and should Iraq be the central front in the war. They also disagree about outsourcing. Lieberman thinks it improves the economy. Some pretty hefty issues….
Lieberman and McCain agree that the National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska should not be drilled for oil. (Though, interestingly, Sarah Palin led the crowd at the Republican Convention chanting, “Drill! Drill! Drill!” Football or politics? I couldn’t tell.) They also agree that global warming can be stopped, that torture as interrogation is justified, and that the Iraq invasion was justified. They disagree on gun control, contraceptive coverage from insurance companies and on making the federal tax cuts permanent. These are also big issues.
But it’s clear that Lieberman is very hawkish on foreign policy and security issues. Those are the causes he is constantly trumpeting, not tax cuts, guns and contraception. And where Lieberman makes the biggest difference is in direct correlation with his biggest issues. For example, he is the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a member of the Armed Services Committee.
So, even though Lieberman seems to be down the middle statistically, his main power lies with foreign policy, defense and security issues, which are more conservative than even some Republicans.