This Is A Good Start

I want Senator Obama to shut down the FISA compromise and show some leadership within his party. It has little to do with FISA, but this is a good start.

Furthermore, during a Senate vote Wednesday, Obama dragged Lieberman by the hand to a far corner of the Senate chamber and engaged in what appeared to reporters in the gallery as an intense, three-minute conversation.
While it was unclear what the two were discussing, the body language suggested that Obama was trying to convince Lieberman of something and his stance appeared slightly intimidating.

Using forceful, but not angry, hand gestures, Obama literally backed up Lieberman against the wall, leaned in very close at times, and appeared to be trying to dominate the conversation, as the two talked over each other in a few instances.

Still, Obama and Lieberman seemed to be trying to keep the back-and-forth congenial as they both patted each other on the back during and after the exchange.

Afterwards, Obama smiled and pointed up at reporters peering over the edge of the press gallery for a better glimpse of their interaction.

I'll bet Lieberman and his buds McCain and Huckleberry Graham will be going over how he should have sucker-punched Barack in the Senate locker room later today.

As gratifying as this is to see someone stand up to Holy Joe, this was because of a personal attack. Lieberman criticized Obama's AIPAC speech today (I would too, but gently and from the other side as Lieberman) and Obama wouldn't put up with it. But defending the Constitution is not personal. It is, however, more necessary.

UPDATE: Incidentally, Lieberman's substantive critique of Obama's AIPAC speech is ridiculous.

The crux of Lieberman's argument, however, was that Obama was putting the blame for Iran's rise in the Middle East on America's doorstep, pushing the argument that the Iraq war had strengthened Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's standing in the region and left Israel left secure.

"If Israel is in danger today it is not because of us foreign policy, which has been strongly supportive of Israel in every way," he said. "It is not because of what we have done in Iraq. It is because Iran is a fanatical, terrorist, expansionist state and has a leader and a leadership that constantly threatens to extinguish the state of Israel."

The remarks fit into a traditional GOP rallying cry, that the Democrats have a blame-America-first mentality. But there are outstanding factors that could muddle Lieberman's message. For starters, most objective metrics indicate that Iran has, in fact, been strengthened by America's involvement in Iraq. The Persian nation, after all, has increasingly meddled in Iraqi affairs.

There's no question that Iran won the Iraq war. If anything it's been understated in the American press. Lieberman is trying to use a rah-rah jingoism here, and it falls flat.