Lieberman: Obama's Alleged Endorsement By Hamas Shows "Difference" With McCain

Lieberman: Obama's Alleged Endorsement By Hamas Shows "Difference" With McCain

By Greg Sargent - May 12, 2008, 9:23AM

It was only a matter of time, really. If you ever doubted that Joe Lieberman would be using what's left of his "Independent Democrat" credentials to legitimize the GOP's bogus "Hamas endorsed Obama" attack, here he is on CNN doing just that...

When Wolf Blitzer pointed out that Obama also labels Hamas a terrorist organization, making his position the same as McCain's, Lieberman said, "that's true," adding that Obama "clearly doesn't support any of the values and goals of Hamas."

Then, with depressing predictability, came the inevitable caveat:

But the fact that the spokesperson for Hamas would say they would welcome the election of Senator Obama really does raise the question, "Why?"

And it suggests the difference between these two candidates.

Lieberman is clearly emerging as a chief attack-dog for McCain on foreign policy, and here he is echoing McCain's talking points with unerring precision: While we all know that Obama doesn't in any way support Hamas or its goals, it's okay to use the group to tar the Illinois Senator anyway, merely because McCain and the Republicans want to.

One wonders whether Harry Reid will keep this sort of stuff in mind when considering committee chairmanships in 2009.