Much more than necessary has been written about the record and character of Senator Joseph Lieberman over the past several weeks. I personally was not terribly sorry to see him lose the primary, as I do believe he had his head up his ass on many matters related to the Iraq war, often showing more obsequiousness to Bush's failing war strategy than some Republican members of Congress (Hagel comes to mind). Given that record, and the overall unpopularity of the Iraq war today, his loss is quite reasonable and understandable to me. Nevertheless, I had to respond to this ridiculous hatchet job of Lieberman, performed by one of this site's most talented hyperbole artists.

First of all, Siddique does not seem to understand the concept of moral relativism. Moral relativism is "the belief that nothing is objectively right and that the definition of right or wrong depends on the prevailing view of a particular individual, culture, or historical period." Lieberman clearly believes that some things are objectively right and wrong; any cursory review of his record and rhetorical style would illustrate that he is not a man afraid of absolutes. He simply believes that Islamic jihadist ideology is as wrong and as evil as Nazi ideology. That is an arguable point. However, given that Islamic jihadist ideology encourages the murder of innocent civilians on a massive scale, aims to establish a pan-Islamic theocracy and impose religious law in such a manner so as to create one of the most oppressive systems of government known to mankind, I hardly can see how it is an "absurd" point.

Secondly, the fact Islamic jihadists are not currently as powerful or threatening as the Nazis or Soviet communists once were totally misses the purpose of the comparison that is being made here. The whole point in likening the character and ideology of Islamic terrorists to that of the Nazis to call out the danger in appeasing or downplaying the threat that they pose today.

Seventy years ago, in 1936, the Nazis had also not "murdered six million people in an effort to exterminate an entire race of people" nor had they "conquered sizeable areas of any continent, subjecting populations to slavery and eugenicist extermination policies." Only because the West chose to ignore them at some times and capitulate to their demands at others were they ever able to gain the strength they needed to accomplish those heinous acts.

I believe the point that Sen. Lieberman made here is that the Islamic jihadist movement carries an equally evil ideology as the Nazi movement - and is capable of an equally evil threat to civilization if they are not opposed vigorously and prevented from gaining further strength. Again, it's an arguable point, but hardly an unreasonable one, given the nature and aims of the enemy we face today.

The fact that Siddique would assert that Joseph Lieberman, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants who themselves survived the holocaust, is somehow intentionally minimizing the evil of Nazism - well, that is the only thing "sickening" and "disgusting" here.