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Joe Must GO!!: Countdown to 2012: #1

November 5, 2008, 11:51PM

Now that Barack Obama will officially be the next President of the United States, Joe Lieberman finds himself in a tough spot. He put all his chips down on John the Gambler and lost big, or so it would seem. There's no doubt that Sen. Lieberman will now begin his big mea culpa tour to try to convince the nation that:

He had no choice but to support his dear friend John McCain in his miserable failure of a Presidential Campaign.
He never crossed the line into personal attacks of President Obama during his time on the trail for McCain.

Now there may be some truth in 1), no question they were dear friends for many years but any reader of TPM knows that 2) is not true by any stretch of the imagination. There were the embarrassing campaign stops, the even more embarrassing television appearances, and of course the shockingly over the top speech at this years RNC that has Harry Reid now reportedly moving to remove his leadership positions in the Senate.

This is not enough. Joe Lieberman must pay a price for his behavior on behalf of John McCain during this election season. He must lose his right to represent the people of Connecticut in the United States Senate. Nothing short of this will be acceptable as far as I'm concerned. I have decided to dedicate my efforts to the sole purpose of throwing Sen. Lieberman out on his ass in the CT election of 2012. But until that date, I will use this blog to build the case against Sen. Lieberman as he begins his about face and tries to make amends for his actions. I submit to you, Joe Lieberman yesterday:

Nov. 4^th:

"If McCain went to a house of worship where the clergyman was saying the kinds of anti-American, racist things that Reverend Wright was saying, trust me: they would have been all over John (not to mention Ayers and all the rest). So yeah, I think in the end you have to hope the American people have some common sense and do what's in the national interest, and that is come on out and vote for John McCain. Your future depends on it."

And now today.

Nov 5^th:

"I sincerely congratulate President-elect Obama for his historic and impressive victory. America remains a nation of extraordinary opportunity and the American people are a people of extraordinary fairness. Now that the election is over, it is time to put partisan considerations aside and come together as a nation to solve the difficult challenges we face and make our blessed land stronger and safer. I pledge to work with President-elect Obama and his incoming Administration in their efforts to reinvigorate our economy and keep our nation secure and free."

This is only the beginning, more to come in the future. Joe must GO!!! Let it begin!!

5 Comments

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We didn't get to 60, so we're still going to need the SOB for a while. Actually, I think we might want to see if we can convince GOP Maine Sen. Collins to switch parties or go independent. She's one of the few Republican moderates left, and I don't think she's going to get much joy if the rest of the party goes the Palin route.

Posted by hoosiertransplant
November 6, 2008 8:35 AM | Reply | Permalink

Lieberman doesn't need to be chairing his committee. I say, strip him of his chair and let him decide whether he still wants to caucus with the Dems. He will want to, of course, because that's where he'll have the most influence, not by becoming a Repub.

So, while it may be prudent for the Dems. to not totally reject him, it would be a mistake for Lieberman not to suffer some measure of punishment for his personal attacks on the Dem. president elect.

Posted by new10
November 6, 2008 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink

The democrats face a true dilemma here. And even if Franken wins the recount and Chambliss loses the runoff, they are still one shy of 60 votes, because Ted Stevens was reelected. (That bit of news was utterly stunning to me.) They'll need moderates to get beyond 60 votes; some of the more liberal policies may have trouble passing, and they'll need to flip at least 2 republicans or 1 plus Lieberman, and that assumes zero defections on the democrat side. The end result here is that from a legislative standpoint, Obama will need to govern from a more centrist position, at least for now, and I don't think the democrats can be too harsh with Lieberman without risk.

Posted by AlaskaSense
November 6, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink

Alaska is still counting votes. I don't know that we will get to 60 but I don't care. Joe needs to lose his chairmanship and then it's up to him. The democrats are going to need to build more bridges with republican senators. The sick, manipulative relationship Lieberman has with the democratic caucus needs to end.

Posted by Synchronicity in reply to a comment from AlaskaSense
November 6, 2008 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink

Vindictively removing him from his committee, because of the things he said, is a bit like what the republicans did when they assumed control in 1994. Eventually, this backfires, as does the path of exclusion. I think the best thing to do is take the high road. Lieberman is up for reelection in 2012, and so is Obama. Wait and see...

Posted by AlaskaSense in reply to a comment from Synchronicity
November 6, 2008 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink

Joe Must GO!!: Countdown to 2012: #1

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