Zach

I may be mistaken, but I believe the ESRB was largely created as a result of Joe Lieberman's video game hearings in the early 90s. That is to say, the industry created the ESRB as a compromise with the Senate to stave off direct government regulation. I also seem to recall that throughout the 90s Joe Lieberman had almost universally positive things to say about the ESRB and the video game industry's job regulating itself. It's only in recent years, with Hot Coffee and such, that political hay has been made attacking the ESRB.

Which is to say, I don't think this is a flip-flop, insofar as Lieberman has always been supportive of the ESRB, only threatening government regulation when he believed the industry was failing to properly self-regulate.