Colin McEnroe in the Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT, Lieberman's home state) ponits out that Lieberman has broken with his party, not only by campaigning for its presidential opponent but by engaging in "loathsome fear-mongering against the man he once begged to come and save him."
What he's referring to is that, when Lieberman was losing the Democratic primary in 2006 to Ned Lamont, he tried to get Obama to come and campaign for him. Obama did not -- but then neither did he work against him. He just didn't get involved trying to save a man whose position on the Iraq war he strongly opposed who was about to be defeated by a strong anti-war candidate.
The party owes him nothing. He turned against it when he ran as an independent against his party's nominee for senator from CT in 2006, he turned against it when he endorsed McCain, and he sealed his fate when he joined the negative smear campaign against our next president.
If Harry Reid and the Democrats don't show him the door, then they are indeed spineless and short-sighted. His vote is not worth the message of letting him do this without consequences. Let him stay in the caucus if he wants to; but take away his committee and, I would say, his seniority.
It is grimly ironic, as McEnroe points out, because of the seniority system in the Senate, this mealymouthed turncoat chairs one of the prestigious committees (Homeland Security), while Hillary Clinton does not chair a committee at all.
Ralph
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Josh Marshall at TPM suggests another reason for stripping HolyJoe of his committee chairmanship: he was terrible at it.
He chairs the investigative and oversight committee (counterpart to Waxman's committee in the House). I was wrong about which committee.
Marshall points out that, in contrast to Waxman's very active committee that has held hearings on numberous Justice Dept officials including Gonzales, Lieberman has not held any hearings in the Senate.
So -- even without his political sins, Lieberman doesn't deserve to continue as a do-nothing chair on merit alone.
Turns out I was right all along: HolyJoe's committee IS Homeland Security.
And now his spokesman is trying to categorize ousting him as "putting poltical retribution ahead of national security."
First of all, who's engaging in political retribution? What did you do, HolyJoe, when you lost the Democractic primary and then ran against your party's legally chosen candidate in the general election?
And who went all out as a political animal to oppose the leader of the Democratic presidential ticket?
You're shameless, HolyJoe, besides being incorrigible. Just shut up and sit down, yes, there in the back. Sit there.
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