DSM's unsolicited advice
Joe, take the midnight train to Georgia and help knock off Saxby Chambliss.
Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman, once a Democratic nominee for vice president but this year a vocal backer of John McCain, during the campaign said that Barack Obama’s “got some positions that are far to the left of … mainstream America.”
Never mind Lieberman’s other transgressions in boosting the Iraq War and loving Bush, his behavior in the 2008 campaign is enough to make a good case for throwing Droopy Dog out of the party and at the very least taking away his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
From TPM Election Central: “In an interview with the right-wing site NewsMax a little over two weeks ago, Lieberman endorsed GOP attacks against Obama over Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright: “And one of the things you want to know is who have they associated with, because it may help you know who they’ll listen to when they get into office.”
• In the same interview, he left the door open on switching parties: “Well, I’ve thought about it. But this term is about over, so I’ll take up this question again.”
• During his speech at the Republican Convention, Lieberman repeated the smear that Obama “was voting to cut off funding for our troops on the ground.”
• While campaigning for McCain back in August, Lieberman said that Obama does not “put the country first.”
Of course, now that Obama is president and Dems control the Congress, Joe is making nice and demanding that he keep his chairmanship. He needs to go beyond makeup talk, however. Some acts of penance would help raise his standing as a supporter of the Democratic majority.
Here’s a suggestion: Get down to Georgia and campaign for Jim Martin (D) in his run-off election against Saxby Chambliss ® for one of the state’s US Senate seats. Getting Martin in would bring the Democrats that much closer to the needed 60 filibuster-proof majority and it would show that Joe might be reliable on cloture votes. At the very least he can spend some time stumping for the party he’s trying to please to counteract the time he spent campaigning against it.
Given his record in 2008, Joe on the campaign trail for Martin might actually hurt. He could of course give money, too. For that matter so can the rest of us.
Personally, I’d like to see Martin win without Joe’s help. I’d also like to see Harry Reid throw Joe to the Republicans as an object lesson not only in bolting the party but also in playing up the worst of the right’s culture war smears on war and patriotism.
But this is politics, not high school. Reversing the charges on Joe Lieberman for sucking up to last year’s cool kids (the Republicans) might have to be set aside if he proves himself to be helpful to the Democrats and President Obama.
Get down to Georgia, Joe. The new cool kids are watching.
Dwight “Sausage” McGraw
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Reader Comments (1)
1) I agree that the Dems should oust Lieberman from their caucus. No party can expect any politician to toe the party line all the time and I think it would be bad if they did. Thinking and individuality, even by members of the Congress, is a good thing. But when you actively campaign for the other party's Presidential candidate I think the time has come to part ways.
2) Why do people think that if there are 60 Democrats in the Senate that will be able to always vote closure? All Democrats don't agree on everything. One of the virtues of the new more national Democratic Party power base is that it moves the party to the center. Many of the newer House and Senate members (from 2006 as well as 2008) are more conservative than the stereotypical Democratic Senator or Congressperson.