I'm not trying to be argumentative here at all -- I really want to understand your opinion (in hopes that I can beat you -- ``enemies closer'' and all).

I don't think you're being argumentative at all. If I hadn't wanted this discussion I wouldn't have posted. Believe me, I’m the worst of your worries! (as I fear there are a great many people who just vote how their church /friends/ TV tell them to)

I must admit I don’t follow politics as well as I should, so a quick skimming of a web site where everything is stated in positives leaves me with only a few I can mention without further investigation. And before I list these, please, let’s not debate them! I’m just trying to give you a fair understanding of where I stand on the political scale and these reasons are hastily written:

Specifically from Lieberman’s site:
-I’m against hate crime legislation.
-I’m for racial profiling (as long as the presumption of innocence remains intact).
-I’m against affirmative action now (though I’ll concede it once was necessary
-I’m for Drilling the ANWR.
-I’m Pro Choice

There are some other, generic stances as well that I won’t go into because I didn’t see anything about them on the web site, however I’m sure that Lieberman adopts them (or most of them) as well. Of the above items, though, the only really strong one that would make or break my vote is the “Pro Life/ Pro Choice” stance. That one is very hard to reconcile.

Admittedly I’m still talking out of my nether regions a little bit because (as I said) I haven’t really been following the specific issues lately. I’m pretty firm on where I stand on various principles, though, and I’ve rarely met a Democrat with which I can agree on the big ones. (Actually I've rarely met a Democrat with whom I can have a pleasant, non-explosive conversation, but I'm sure you can say the same about Republicans).