The Clintons and Leiberman

Friends are puzzled that Bill Clinton would stump for Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary in Connecticut. The Clintons-- althought I prefer them to the current regime-- have always been DNRs, or Damn Near Republicans. Bill's charm and the repulsiveness of the competition blinds a lot of people to that fact.
I personally like the guy, but politically both Clintons ought to have their asses kicked from here to Harry Truman for their compromises-- excerpt that the American fascists on the right are so much worse. i just hate to see Clinton enabling the Republican enbablers like Leiberman, who was a mistake as a VP nomination and is a mistake today.
Clinton, i imagine, would answer that high principles don't do you much good if you can't get elected, but there's a line where the price you pay in compromise is not equal to the return, and both Bill and Hillary have crossed that line more than once. That happens when you confuse your own re-election with your political goals.
What "achievement" of the Clinton years was so great that it was worth the compromises with Wall Street, with the military industrial complex? None. They produced a heath care plan that was unreadable and impossible to pass. They diddled with Bin Laden and never quite "went all the way" in the hunt out of political concerns.
The blinders of nostalgia and the horrors of the current administration have obscured what a compromiser and placater Bill Clinton actually was-- perhaps acting out his "child of an alcoholic" role just as much as Bush acts out his "dry, mean drunk" on the world stage. I fear the Clintons will be remembered for selfishness and ambition more than principle.

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