The Bush plan gets some love -- and you can guess from whom

Joe Lieberman applauds the president, warns that "partisan rancor and division" will weaken America's will.

Published January 11, 2007 10:10PM (EST)

After having spent the day watching hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, we were struck by the fact that we haven't heard a single member of Congress express enthusiastic support for the president's "new way forward in Iraq." Then we realized our problem: We'd been listening to all sorts of Republicans and Democrats, but we hadn't heard from anyone from Connecticut for Lieberman yet.

Now we have.

In a statement released by his office, Joe Lieberman wraps his arms around the president's "correct and courageous" new strategy. "I applaud the president for rejecting the fatalism of failure and pursuing a new course to achieve success in Iraq," Lieberman says. He says that Bush has offered up "a comprehensive program to chart a new course in both winning the military struggle to establish order and in achieving the political and economic objectives to build a more promising future for Iraqis."

What about all those senators and representatives -- from both sides of the aisle -- who seem none too impressed with the president or his plan today? Lieberman says we must all remember that "excessive partisan division and rancor at home only weakens our will to prevail in this war."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

MORE FROM Tim Grieve


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George W. Bush Iraq Joe Lieberman Middle East War Room