The Senate Democrats allowed Joe Lieberman to keep his powerful chairmanship because Barack Obama personally appealed for mercy toward the conniving little bastard, an act that I comprehend but cannot condone. The disconnect has a simple explanation: the President-elect is a bigger person than I am. He decided to use Holy Joe as an example of how post-partisan, inclusive, and forgiving of slings and arrows he can be. Obama is mature; bloggers who wanted to see the Senator from AIPAC publicly flogged, humiliated, and evicted are petty.
Call it petty if you must, but to dole out no punishment – not even the milquetoasty wrist-slap of re-assigning him to a different committee – is inexcusable for a man who used the past nine months to make patently clear that, if neoconservatism had an erect penis, he would promptly renounce heterosexuality and choke on it.
Joe Lieberman does not deserve punishment for supporting John McCain or failing to tow his party line. Joe Lieberman deserves punishment for being among the most aggressive, amoral, and purposefully deceptive sources of vile rhetoric against Obama, never forfeiting an opportunity to get his patronizing mug on camera to lend legitimacy to every piece of right-wing talk radio nonsense by having it come from the lips of a 'Democrat'. There is a difference between supporting the other guy and becoming his hit man. There is a difference between being a person in a crowd throwing stones and being the person leading the mob, handing out stones, and pointing out victims of opportunity. Supporting McCain would be a venial political sin among Democrats; what Lieberman did is a mortal one.
This is a man who happily carried water for not only McCain but every paranoid Bircherite fantasy of the wacky right. He noted that it's a "good question" to ask if Obama is "a Marxist." He confidently asserted that the discredited, irrelevant Obama-Ayers "issue" was "fair game." He spent months running around West Palm Beach and Broward Counties telling elderly Jewish voters that Obama was the anti-Israel boogeyman (and black!). He went on TV again and again channeling George W. Bush about Iraq. The "most progressive man ever to come out of Connecticut" decided that McCain is plenty progressive on social issues for his liking. He went from "we can't drill our way out of problems" (2005) to "Drill, Baby, Drill!" (2008). He thinks waterboarding is swell because it puts people "in no real danger." He "feared" that America "would not survive" if the Democrats (the people he claims to caucus with) hit 60 seats in the Senate. He earnestly declared that Sarah Palin is "ready to be President" and "will win with God's help." He served on the board of "Vets for Freedom", a tax-exempt, pro-war front for Obama-will-surrender-to-terrorism idiocy in bulk. He went on a speaking tour warming up crowds for Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin. His support for old pal McCain apparently not craven enough, Lieberman worked his ass off to endanger Americans and the entire goddamn world by putting a vacuous hillbilly with a Jenny Jones makeover near the White House.
The Democrats, at the urging of the mainstream media, believe that centrist, stand-for-nothing "New Democrat" horseshit is the key to unlocking electoral success. "We can't expel Lieberman just to please Glenn Greenwald – we'll lose touch with Joe Six Pack!" Remember back in 2006 when Ned Lamont's primary victory over Lieberman was the harbinger of general election doom for the Democrats? It signaled a party over the edge, terrifying to mainstream America, and given over entirely to the rantings of socialist bloggers. We couldn't be too anti-War; Americans would never go for that! We have to take it easy; President Bush is still very popular and there is a Permanent Republican Majority, after all! The only way to win is to tone it down. Being Republican Lite is the best the other party can do. Such good advice. I would print it out and wipe my ass with it if doing so were not such a grievous insult to my ass and what passes through it.
The Democratic Party needs Joe Lieberman like I need a ballsack on my forehead; both are approximately as useful to their principals. What the Democratic Party needs is not 59 instead of 58. They need to take a goddamn stand on something, to have at least one principle for which they are willing to kick someone out of the tent. Joe Lieberman crossed every line he could find and Harry Reid and Obama have rewarded him with a political lifeline. Had they expelled him, he would have had to caucus with the GOP and essentially run as a Republican in 2012, at which point the Democratic candidate in CT would effortlessly dispatch him (if the recent loss by Christopher Shays is any indication).
The Democrats can never become like conservatives, constantly holding their own up to a battery of increasingly hysterical litmus tests. But in running from that paradigm they have risked becoming the Arizona State of political parties, resigned to churning out stupendous mediocrity by throwing open the doors and admitting every sentient mouthbreather who ambles through.
Fuck you, Joe. May you pay for your self-serving duplicity in the next life if not this one.
Scott says:
"Well of course everything looks bad if you remember it…"
I completely understand the position that Lieberman needs some kind of punishment and I agree that leaving Lieberman with a power Senate committee chairmanship is rather odd. On the other hand, what is the point of punishing him? It's not like the Democrats could force him out of the Senate; he would still be there casting votes and serving on committees. Are we hoping that this would act as a deterrent against Democrats from campaigning for Republicans in the future?
Our team won – our president has a clear mandate, we turned a lot of red states blue, and increased our majorities in both the House and Senate. Going after the traitors now accomplishes nothing towards the goals put forward by Obama and the other Democratic leaders.
vghoul says:
Bravo.
Kulkuri says:
Ed, tell us how you really feel! I agree that he should have recieved some token punishment and forced to declare for the other party for the next elecion providing he runs again.
Ed says:
I think this sets a very bad precedent. Go ahead – sell out and give 110% effort on the Hannity/Beck/Limbaugh circuit to destroy the Democratic party. Your job will be waiting for you when you're done.
Given this example, what's to stop anyone in the Senate from going balls-out to position himself as the VP or Sec of State for the next Republican candidate and then saying "OK, bygones!" when the election's over?
Myconfidence says:
Wasn't part of the point of this whole thing that Lieberman, for all that he is the archetypal political sleazy weasel, did a shit job as chair of the HS committee? In other words, why did he keep a job that he didn't deserve to keep on the merits, let alone the fact that he has/had neither the support of his state's Democratic constituency nor the principles evolution and Jeebus gave a female praying mantis?
Personally, I fucking hate him…a lot. He very much reminds me of Robert the Bruce's dad in Braveheart.
Brandon says:
I probably come down somewhere between Scott and Ed on this. I don't have quite the level of animosity towards Liebman that Ed does (although I do sympathize with Ed's views), but I do think that stripping him of his HS chair would have been an appropriate punishment. Not only for his behavior during the campaign, but also, as Myconfidence points, because in the position of HS chair he has bascially towed the Bush administration line.
Michael says:
"I would print it out and wipe my ass with it if doing so were not such a grievous insult to my ass and what passes through it."
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!
You are fabulous. If you ever renounce your heterosexuality, you let me know!
Scott says:
I think the context of this matters quite a bit. Had this been a close election, when the Democrats just barely won the presidency – or lost the presidency and gained a of couple of seats in the Senate, I could see punishment meaning something because the ACT meant something. Kicking him out the caucus would do nothing but satisfy our lust for vengeance.
The Democrats saw the same polling numbers we all did and knew that Lieberman support for McCain wasn't going to help him, and while I haven't seen any numbers on this, may have hurt him in some places (I'm thinking of New Hampshire, but there might be others).
Keep in mind that the end result of this is going to be the same had the Democrats actually punished him – a chairman of the Homeland Security committee that does exactly what the Senate leadership and President Obama wants. Lieberman owes his political life to President Obama and Harry Reid and we aren't going to hear anything out of his mouth unless it conforms to what the rest of the party wants.
BK says:
Great post Ed, although I do disagree with one of your paragraphs.
I don't believe that the Dems have bought into a mainstream media mantra of centrism for two reasons.
If you look at the leadership of the national party and the two choices we had to be our party's nominee I think you would agree that none of the three (Dean, Obama and Clinton) are centrists. Further, the Speaker of the House comes from one of the most liberal house districts in the country. Ried may be the exception.
Secondly, I don't think the mainstream media has a centrist/left bias. In listening to the talking heads (which I try to avoid) and reading the major newspaper editorials I don't think there was a lot of "hey everyone move to the middle."
Ed, if you have any studies or information to further prove that point I would love to read it.
And otherwise, I am with you 110%. If Holy Joe has had a change of heart or ideology, that is fine. I know people who freaked after 9/11, left behind their previously liberal belief structure and haven't come back. All I ask is that you be honest about it.
Harx says:
This gave me quite a good bit of lolz.
Christina says:
Jeff Fecke actually makes some good points for putting away the pitchforks.
http://moderateleft.com/?p=5052
Now, if the people of CT reelect that sonnufabitch, all bets are off on putting the pitchfork away.
j says:
Arizona State : Hot Chicks :: Democrats : Election Victories
chris c says:
Lieberman could get reelected because 100% of republicans will vote for him and the same fucktards democrats that support keeping him the caucas would send him over the top- Obama better pull an economic miracle out of his ass because he just started his presidency taking a R Kelly type wizz in the face of his strongest supporters