Lieberman and Lynne Cheney....the new McCarthyism

Published on Thursday, December 13, 2001 in the San Jose Mercury News

Lynne Cheney-Joe Lieberman Group Puts Out a Blacklist
by Roberto J. Gonzalez

AN aggressive attack on freedom has been launched upon America's college campuses. Its perpetrators seek the elimination of ideas and activities that place Sept. 11 in historical context, or critique the so-called war on terrorism.

The offensive, spearheaded by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a Washington-based group, threatens free speech, democratic debate and the integrity of higher education. In an incendiary report, ``Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America,'' the American Council claims that ``colleges and university faculty have been the weak link in America's response'' to Sept. 11. It also asserts that ``when a nation's intellectuals are unwilling to defend its civilization, they give comfort to its adversaries.''

The report documents 117 campus incidents as ``evidence'' of anti-Americanism. More than 40 professors are named, including the president of Wesleyan University, who suggested in an open letter that ``disparities and injustices'' in American society and the world can lead to hatred and violence.

Other examples abound. A Yale professor is criticized for saying, ``It is from the desperate, angry and bereaved that these suicide pilots came.'' A professor emeritus from the University of Oregon is listed for recommending that ``we need to understand the reasons behind the terrifying hatred directed against the U.S. and find ways to act that will not foment more hatred for generations to come.''

(snip)

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni was founded in 1995 by Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

(more)

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1213-05.htm

a student gathering that he wished a 1,000 Mogadishu's on our troops. Translating, he wanted 30,000 deaths. Yeah, that sounds pretty unAmerican to me.

So being unAmerican is a crime now, is it? Well lock me up and throw away the key, because if assholes like Lieberman and Cheney are representative of America, than I fucking hate America.

But when you "wish" that 30,000 young Americans die in a war that they had nothing to do with, that is absolutely, positively unAmerican. No matter what, we should stand behind our our soldiers.

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I don't do this very often.
This letter was reprinted in The Nation, January 17, 2002.

December 18, 2001

Jerry Martin
President
American Council of Trustees and Alumni
1726 M Street NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036-4525


Dear Jerry:

I am writing in regards to the Council's recent report, Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It.

In the past, the Council has often sent me advanced copies of its publications before they have been released and asked for my support. In this case, though, I was never given the opportunity to review the Defending Civilization report before it was made public. I first learned of it through a call to my office from a reporter in Connecticut about a controversy the report had stirred at Wesleyan University.

If I had been given an advanced copy, I would have objected to its content and methodology and asked you either to revise it or make clear that I had no involvement with it. But because that did not happen, and because I have been incorrectly listed on your website as a co-founder of the Council, a number of news accounts and commentaries have associated me with the report and incorrectly asserted or implied that I endorse it.

This letter is meant to set the record straight about my disapproval of this report, which I consider unfair and inconsistent for an organization devoted to promoting academic freedom. To avoid any future confusion, I would ask you to remove any reference to me as a "co-founder" of ACTA from your website or other Council documents. And I would ask that you note in any future public statements that I do not support this specific report. Thank you.

Joe Lieberman

Once again the short version-0--
he can disassociate himself as "co founder" but the fact is that he was in from the beginning and anyone in the mid-90s who did not know Lynne Cheney and her campaigns for "excellence" which seemed to find fault with any "liberal" content in any forum and no "bias" no matter how wing-nutty was asleep. "Academic Freedom" was never and is never defended when it isn't a conservative.And Holy Joe knew. That they went absolutely beserk in the wake of the attacks of September 11th does not erase his involvement from the beginning

check the lexis-nexis and chronicle of higher ed announcements of this group, Lieberman was there and so were all the usual buzzwords that say "liberal hunting"

And, you can "spin" this anyway you like. I have a box of documents and a big legal bill not to mention a damaged career for assigning not ONLY rightist books on government policy but one lone book out of seven for the class in question by a democrat.

Yippee for Joe! Once ACTA went absolutely nuts after September 11th he tried to disengage. Good for him. Good for his supporters but don't try saying that he was an innocent victim. He knew who he was getting into bed with in 1995

Freedom Summer

No other candidate had his courage.

wellstone_democrat: please take it easy on Lieberman; he has no chance of winning anything nationally, so please don't take part in the diatribes against him. I realize it seems to unite everyone here, but it's negative man and that can't be good.

My dream is for the resurrection of Wellstone and a Wellstone/Kucinich ticket, BTW.

Thanks for reading this (I hope you are, anyway!) :loveya:

(snip)

Lieberman has also been a leading opponent of affirmative action preferences. As chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, Lieberman held a press conference to call for an end to affirmative action: “The current system of group preferences has to end,” he said at the August 5, 1995 conference. “They were only intended to be temporary, aimed at combating racism. But it’s actually fueling division between the races.”

“Affirmative action is dividing us in ways its creators could never have intended because most Americans who do support equal opportunity and are not biased don’t think it’s fair to discriminate against some Americans as a way to make up for historic discrimination against other Americans,” Lieberman said on the Senate floor. “For after all, if you discriminate in favor of one group on the basis of race, you thereby discriminate against another group on the basis of race.”

Lieberman was a co-founder of ACTA along with Cheney, and remains an active member of its advisory board. “These are not just two members of our council, but our two most active members,” said Jerry Martin, ACTA’s president.

(snip)

http://www.theamericanscene.com/pubs/tdr91800.html

I'm not going to defend his support for the invasion of Iraq, either.

However, this is about Lieberman's association with ACTA. Yes, it was bad judgment for Lieberman to join forces with the likes of Lynne Cheney in the first place. He should have known nothing good could come of that. I will not address any defense of what he thought he was accomplishing by such a move.

Nevertheless, Lieberman was unaware of this particular report issued by ACTA in the wake of the September 11 attacks. That report is every bit as bad as some here make it out to be. When Lieberman became aware of it, his disassociated himself from ACTA. That was the right thing to do.

As far I'm concerned, this is a dead issue. There are, of course, many, many issues on which one could thump Lieberman and find me thumping him, too. But not this one.

My "problem" with being a target was in 1999 based on the complaint of a student who got a (generous) C-.

Well before this report which was so excessive that all pretense to being some sort of "academic excellence" outfit fell in the wake of the WTC and the other sites of terrorism ACTA was running their own little outfit for orthodoxy. And, this is when Lieberman was fully associated with it. It isn't a "dead issue" many people were and are effected by an organization that he helped found, promote, and which was on its merry crusade long before the moment he decided it was a political liability.

I do notice that there is a little crowd on DU that loves trotting this public letter out and declaring the subject dead and their "regret" over the predicament that some of us are in.

I am amused that it is the same group always defending Lieberman and almost to a man they claim they aren't big supporters but that they are interested in only fairness. Guess that is relative, eh?

during the last election? He was practically worshipping the Republican thug Dick Cheney. He never even bothered to ask Dick Cheney about his vote against releasing Nelson Mandela. To keep referring back to his freedom summer days masks his change to cozy up to the right wing fundamentalists, possibly because he realizes that liberals will ask questions about the repression of the Palestinians in Israel. This is one reason why he does not warm up to Mandela or Bishop Tutu who both strongly condemn Israel's repression.

He was unaware of ACTA's report calling academics the "weak link" of America's post-September 11 defense. After the report was made public, he disassociated himself from ACTA. That was the right thing to do.

All else is a red herring. That I characterize it as such should not be contrued as support for Lieberman's other actions. I take issue with Lieberman far more often than not.

Please see the other thread the author of this one posted re Lieberman and my response thereto.

a nasty case of treason! I will never forgive anyone for voting for this manipulative bogus lyin' drumbeat for the attack on Iraq...least of all you.

So easy to send our Soldiers to die for your vote.

He deserves worse than he gets here on the DU. :puke: