In 48 Hours Joe Lieberman Flip Flops On Waterboarding

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:44 pm

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Two days ago, during an interview on Fox News Sen. Joe Lieberman proclaimed his support for waterboarding, but on Wednesday he, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham signed a letter to President Obama that stated their opposition to waterboarding.

The letter argued against prosecuting the authors of the memos, and also opposed waterboarding, “We disagree, however, with Administration statements suggesting that the lawyers who provided such counsel may now be open to prosecution. Some of the legal analysis included in the OLC memos released last week was, we believe, deeply flawed. We have also strongly opposed the overly coercive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, that these memos deemed legal. We do not believe, however, that legal analysis should be criminalized, as proposals to prosecute government lawyers suggest.”

Here is the video of what Lieberman said two days ago:

Yep, that is the same Joe Lieberman arguing that the effects of waterboarding are psychological, so the government should be allowed to use it. I don’t get it. Waterboarding is torture on one day, but not the next? Does Lieberman even know his position? I understand that Lieberman signed the letter because he doesn’t want Obama to prosecute the attorneys, but he should have read it first. If Lieberman supports torture, then he should not have signed McCain’s letter.

McCain clearly opposes waterboarding, so Joe should have known that some statement of McCain’s position on the issue would be included. Lieberman has done so much flip-flopping between the two parties that no one should be surprised if Lieberman himself doesn’t know his position on waterboarding.

I think that if the Democrats get over 60 seats in the Senate next year, they ought to help Lieberman end his confusion by showing him the door. The only reason he is caucusing with the Democrats is so that he can keep his committee chairmanship. He belongs with the GOP, so the Democrats should send him there.

(h/t: Think Progress)

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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