The Lieberman Effect?

By Lee Russ

Saturday, August 12, 2006 at 04:33 PM

Now what do you suppose would make a Republican Congresswoman suddenly join "the growing chorus of those who believe Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should be out of a job?"

Couldn't be the new phenomenon known as the Joe Lieberman effect, could it?

The Congresswoman is Jo Ann Davis (R Va), who says she has felt this way about Rumsfeld "for awhile."  But consider the temporal proximity to Joe Lieberman's primary defeat, and add in the fact that Jo Ann Davis's opponent, Democrat Shawn O'Donnell, is already on record as wanting Rumsfeld fired.  She thinks Rummy should have listened to Shinseki when that General said they'd need several hundred thousand troops for Iraq.

Uhhhhhh...could be part I of the Lieberman Effect, I think.  I really do.  I think "awhile" means since those scary Connecticut primary results came in.

Davis also addressed the kind of guy Rummy is, initially saying "He's probably a nice guy, but I don't think he's a great secretary of defense."  That pretty quickly got amended to a description of Rumsfeld as appearing arrogant in her dealings with him.

Davis, of course, voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq.  Now, however, she says:

All of the intelligence we were given says we should be over there. If I had known that the intelligence they gave us wasn't correct, I don't know how I would have voted.

MY GOD, TELL THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE, TELL THE PRESIDENT, TELL CHENEY!!  RED ALERT--RED ALERT--RED ALERT!  TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER SPOTTED...on the Republican side of the aisle.