From American Progress:
CONGRESS -- LIEBERMAN: 'BLOGGERS HAVE ADDED ANOTHER DIMENSION OF VITUPERATION TOXICITY' TO POLITICS:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) led a panel discussion yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute discussing "options for restoring civility in American politics."
Lieberman and Boehner both decried the harsh incivility in politics today while portraying themselves as paragons of independence and cordiality. Lieberman described his own politics as "stand[ing] up for what I believe is right and...work[ing] across party lines to get things done."
As for the rest of politics, "The majority of people are sick of it. They think our political system is sick." Lieberman blamed "attack ads, the kind of divisiveness of the cable news coverage of politics, talk radio," and bloggers who "have added another dimension of vituperation toxicity to it."
Boehner agreed, saying he has worked to "find ways of disagreeing without being disagreeable." He asked, "Where does all the partisanship come from?" and answered it by lamenting how blogs and other outlets have put "more information out in the public realm than there ever was, and some of it is to drive one point of versus other, dividing people more and more." He called this the "breakdown of America" (See the video HERE).
Iraq, more than any other issue, has contributed to the divisiveness in politics today. And on that issue, Lieberman and Boehner have acquiesced to a failing, unpopular Bush policy while harshly demeaning those who seek to change it.
Just this month, Lieberman stated that critics of President Bush's Iraq policy were engaging in "a kind of harassment."
Boehner said that people who oppose escalation are taking the "bait" of "al Qaeda and terrorist sympathizers" by using Iraq to "divide us here at home" and derided critics' war policies as simply "failure at any cost."
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