Showing that the primary qualification for delivering the Saturday Democratic radio address is obviously not that the speaker be, well, a Democrat, Senator Joe Lieberman today gave the "Democratic" address and performed with a stunning degree of hypocrisy that showed he is indeed much closer to being a Republican than anything else in the political spectrum.

Lieberman, who is George W. Bush's only non-GOP ally in the Senate when it comes to the deadly, misguided war in Iraq, gave a talk in which he discussed the country's obligation to its Veterans and his dismay with the horrible conditions our wounded troops have seen at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"Recent reports in the Washington Post have uncovered completely unacceptable living conditions and inadequate services that some of our wounded warriors have been forced to endure at Walter Reed," said Lieberman. "While it is clear that our soldiers do receive the best state of the art battlefield and in-patient medical treatment for their injuries, that high quality care has not extended to their out-patient treatment and recovery."

Lieberman then went on to use flowery language to talk about the responsibility we have to American troops and the heavy debt we must repay in seeing that they receive top-notch care when they return home.

"Our nation has no greater moral and patriotic responsibility than to ensure that these brave Americans receive first class treatment -- not only immediately after their injuries, but for their entire lives, through the Veterans Administration," said the former Democrat from Connecticut. "We can all agree that taking care of our military veterans is one of America's greatest responsibilities. We are and must continue to be united as a country to ensure that our heroes - those who have served us - receive the care that they deserve. This is no less than our moral imperative."

Talk about your bad case of situational ethics and morals -- though we've become all too accustomed to that from a man who long ago gave up his commitment to Democratic ideals.

Like his Republican allies in the Senate, Lieberman talks a big game about taking care of our troops, but his rhetoric is kind of the reverse of the GOP's "love the fetus, hate the child" stance when it comes to abortion.

Republicans will fight to the death for an embryo but don’t give a damn what happens to a child after he or she comes into the world. Similarly, Lieberman is more than willing to be a war hawk and send our men and women off to fight and die for nothing in Iraq -- that's right, I said for nothing -- but is suddenly concerned for their lives when they manage to make it back home.

Despite the fact that the majority of Americans no longer support the Iraq war -- and no matter how much politicians may run from the truth that any future American lives sacrificed there are indeed a waste -- Lieberman continues to stand by the worst president in U.S. history and advocate a war that keeps killing our troops day after day.

It's nauseating enough to many of us that we actually worked so hard to try to make Lieberman vice president in 2000, but the least the Democratic party can do is not continue to sicken us by allowing a guy who has so clearly abandoned our principles to even appear to be our national voice.

As he almost always does, Joe Lieberman talked a lot like a Republican today. So why the hell was he giving the Democratic address?

You can read more from Bob at BobGeiger.com.