NYT: Lieberman politicizes terror threat

Lieberman, on the Offensive, Links Terror Threat and Iraq - New York Times: "Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut seized on the reports of a terror plot yesterday to attack Ned Lamont, his Democratic opponent for re-election, saying that Mr. Lamont’s goal of withdrawing American troops from Iraq by a fixed date would constitute a “victory” for extremists.

“If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England,” Mr. Lieberman said at a campaign event in Waterbury, Conn. “It will strengthen them, and they will strike again.”

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Mr. Lamont denounced Mr. Lieberman’s remarks, and some other Democrats and political analysts questioned the senator’s use of a national security hazard to buttress a political attack, especially against another Democrat.

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In a telephone interview yesterday from his vacation home in Maine, Mr. Lamont said he was disappointed by Mr. Lieberman’s tone, and he questioned whether the war in Iraq had any bearing on terrorists’ designs on Western nations. Mr. Lamont also hit back by again connecting Mr. Lieberman to President Bush, whose war plans he has endorsed at times.

“Wow,” Mr. Lamont said, after twice asking a reporter to read Mr. Lieberman’s remark about him. “That comment sounds an awful lot like Vice President Cheney’s comment on Wednesday. Both of them believe our invasion of Iraq has a lot to do with 9/11. That’s a false premise.”"