Vote Lieberman-Cheney and support the permanent government. “Richard Cheney and Joe Lieberman are two of the most curious choices for vice president of recent times,” writes Sam Smith in the “Progressive Review” (August 22). He thinks the constituency they bring to their respective tickets “is not a collection of voters but the defense industry, which they can be expected to serve as faithfully as they have in the past. Lieberman comes from the land of the Sikorsky helicopters and told Connecticut voters as recently as last October that ‘In my view, one layoff is one too many because each and every worker represents the very heart and soul of our national defense.’ Selecting a couple of reliable Pentagon pimps is important at this time for reasons not widely reported: there is strong bipartisan support for a planned massive increase in defense spending. The build-up would raise the size of the Pentagon budget relative to GDP by about 50%.” The increases sought are said to equal almost the entire budget of the Education Department.
