Lieberman vows to fight violent video games

Joe Lieberman visits with the Mendoza family at Ryan's on Woodruff Road. (Tanya Ackerman/Staff) e-mail this story

Lieberman, D-Connecticut, said at Springfield Baptist Church that he supports rating systems for television programs and video games to give parents more information about entertainment.

He singled out "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," a video game he said rewards players for attacking, beating and killing women.

"It's awful," Lieberman said. "If you saw it, you'd be disgusted and outraged."

After his stop at church, Lieberman went to Ryan's Family Steak House on Woodruff Road, where he drank sweet tea and courted potential voters at tables next to the buffet line.

Reaction to his anti-violence message was mixed.

Edward Kagler, 27, said he's rented "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," but he sent his 5-year-old son out of the room while playing it.

"I would support the fight to regulate (video games), but I don't want to see them completely gone," he said after the church service.

Chris Anderson, a Furman University junior, said he's wary about consistent regulation for all forms of entertainment, not just rap music, rock 'n' roll and video games.

"Violence in Westerns is just as bad as the violence Marilyn Manson talks about," Anderson said.

In a news conference outside the restaurant, Lieberman criticized former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean for comments he made about the Confederate flag.

Dean, a Democratic presidential hopeful, was quoted in Saturday's Des Moines Register as saying, "I still want to be the candidate for the guys with the Confederate flags in their pickup trucks. We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross section of Democrats."

Lieberman said he agrees with the message of broad appeal, but the flag is offensive to blacks who equate it with slavery and whites who see it as a symbol of the past.

"The way he said it was just plain wrong, divisive, hurtful," Lieberman said. "I'm troubled that he didn't just admit he made a mistake in his follow-up statement."

In church, Lieberman, who is Jewish, clapped to gospel music and recited the "Our Father" with parishioners. He told the predominantly black crowd that he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C. and helped the civil rights fight in Mississippi in 1963.

"The work of the faithful is not done," he said. "We've made a lot of progress, but there's so much more to do to achieve the goals of Dr. King's march on Washington for jobs and freedom."

Lieberman is one of nine Democrats running for the nomination. South Carolina's Feb. 3 primary is expected to be pivotal because it's the first in the South.

The candidates will debate at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 29, five days before the primary.

The other candidates hoping to face President Bush in the election are Sen. John Kerry, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Rep. Richard Gephardt, Sen. John Edwards and retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who is scheduled to speak in South Carolina on Thursday. Clark hasn't yet decided which city in the state he will visit, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

Paul Alongi can be reached at 298-4746.