thinkprogress.org — Today, the Wall Street Journal joins Sean Hannity and Karl Rove in promoting Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) for Secretary of State in a McCain administration. Speaking in Poland after a trip to Georgia with fellow McCain ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Lieberman proposed kicking Russia out of the G-8:
Aug 21, 2008 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountAug 21, 2008
Why dumb? Seems like a great idea.
wilarsenyAug 22, 2008
Hm, push to be McCain's VP, or just sheer idiocy? The thing I don't get about all this is that working with Russia against fundamentalist regimes would seem to be on Israel's--and thus the neoconservative right's--agenda. Am I missing something here, other than the inertia from so many years of antagonistic rhetoric?
Closed AccountAug 22, 2008
The G-8 is a group of liberal democracies with a stake in the international trading system. Russia is a dictatorship with a limited extraction based economy and a wretched record of harrassing international business. Lieberman (our next Secretary of Defense) is right on. The Ruskies must go.
babywookieAug 22, 2008
In 2007, Russia's GDP was $2.076 trillion, the 6th largest in the world, with GDP growing 8.1% from the previous year. Growth was primarily driven by non-traded services and goods for the domestic market, as opposed to oil or mineral extraction and exports. Despite higher energy prices, oil and gas only contribute to 5.7% of Russia's GDP and the government predicts this will drop to 3.7% by 2011.Russia is mildly authoritarian, but it's a far cry from a "dictatorship". It doesn't even begin to compare to China or the former USSR. Russia is about as much of a "liberal democracy" as the US and Georgia are. If Russia goes, so should the US. Also, Liebermann is an Israeli spy and a traitor to the United States. Only in your delusional neocon dream will he ever become a part of the next US cabinet.