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November 18, 2008 08:37 PM UTC

Lieberman Keeps Chairmanship

  • 42 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

The AP reports:

Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign.

The Connecticut independent will lose a minor panel post as punishment for criticizing Obama this fall.

Lieberman’s colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday on a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel but lose a subcommittee chair on the Environment and Public Works panel.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was very angry by Lieberman’s actions but that “we’re looking forward, we’re not looking back.”

Added Reid: “Is this a time when we walk out of here and say, ‘Boy, did we get even?'” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Unfortunately there will be no list of “yes” votes forthcoming, so those of you so inclined will have to get clairvoyant in order to primary all 42 of them next time they’re up.

Excepting Ken Salazar, who somehow threatened and cajoled 41 of his peers into selling out everything you believe in.

Would one of you be kind enough to teach the new readers how to tell when we’re being sarcastic?

Comments

42 thoughts on “Lieberman Keeps Chairmanship

  1. Would one of you be kind enough to teach the new readers how to tell when we’re being sarcastic?

    Nah. Fuck ’em. Let’s leave them in the dark for awhile.

  2. Joe’s statement:

    And in that regard, I said very clearly, some of the statements, some of the things that people have said I said about Senator Obama, are simply not true. There are other statements that I made that I wish I had made more clearly and there are some that I made that I wish I had not made at all. And obviously in the heat of campaigns, that happens to all of us, but I regret that and now it’s time to move on.

    Apparently it’s ok to lie and call your opponent a terrorist lover in the “heat of the campaign.” Good to know.

    1. THIS is unacceptable.  lieberman should have disassociated himself with the McCain campaign when it went totally down the toilet (ie Ayers, terrorst, socialist).  

      To not hold him accountable for that is embarassing, but not shocking coming from a dem leadership in the senate that stood by and let the iraq war happen.

      1. And how about Obama’s very friendly respectful get together with McCain himself? Word is McCain really dislikes Obama and Obama knows it.

        McCain is more responsible than anyone for nasty attacks.  But they lost, Obama won and now Obama gets to call the shots and be generous and/or crafty.  

        If we wanted our own Dem version of Bush, Rove, Cheney, DeLay et al, with our team doing the earth scorching then we nominated the wrong candidate.

        I think we nominated and elected the most right (as in correct and beneficial, of course) candidate to come along in my life time and the first election I remember was Kennedy/Nixon.

        1. He’s not in the Senate anymore. It ain’t his business.

          I want accountability. You just shouldn’t be such a lousy committee chair and a campaign backstabber at the same time, and not suffer at least some measure of consequence. Losing a committee chairmanship (the real one, not the phony one nobody cares about) was a way of doing that in a measured, adult way. But no, once again, the Democrats do the Republicans a huge favor and capitulate all the while thinking they’re being “bipartisan”.

          Pathetic. I expect many more examples of this weak-kneed leadership in the Senate in the next 2 years.

  3. The left loves to beat up on Ken Salazar and Joe Lieberman.

    Where is the outcry over the clash between liberal environmentalist Henry Waxman and right wing Democrat John Dingell for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee?  How is Rep. DeGette going to vote? Is the left going to give her a pass when she votes for Dingell?  

    1. As has been pointed out Dingell isn’t right wing–he is pro detroit–which puts him at odds with the green parts of the democratic coalition in the past.

      However, everyone now knows green is the way forward so dingell isn’t a problem.

  4.     Some time in the next two years Joe Lieberman will do something to cross his party and his President. This will of course be a complete surprise and disappointment to the majority of the Democratic caucus.

    1. Why?  What possible advantage to him would that be?  His home polling is already in the toilet. Get over it already.

      He has no motivation to be anything but be a good little Lieberman, not that he will vote with the majority of Dems on everything but neither will the Blue Dogs.

      He doesn’t have the power to derail Obama and even if Obama DOES get derailed to the point of being vulnerable in 2012, Lieberman certainly won’t be in the running and the next Republican to run for President will not be McCain or Graham and is unlikely to be any particular friend of Lieberman’s. There is simply no good reason for devious evil plots here.  

      1.    Your asking me to explain the actions of a man whose only guiding principal the last few years has been the politics of resentment. Lieberman has demonstrated again and again that his main goal has been to spit in the eye of the Democratic establishment. I’m sure he will vote with the caucus a majority of the time but that was really never the point. He advanced the Right wing frames of Democrats being unpatriotic and Un-American and he blatantly lied to his constituents on multiple occasions. For these actions his punishment was, nothing. Not even a slap on the wrist. Why would Lieberman cross the Democrats again? How about because he’s already learned that he can with absolutely no repercussions?  

        1. ..is why some Democrats definition of bi-partisanship or strength is to have no strong convictions what so ever. I’m guessing the fact that I have these convictions makes me “shrill”. Boo hoo.

          1. This isn’t a matter of convictions. This is a matter of whether you piss away the goodwill of the right-wing douches (which you’ll need to get anything done without a filibuster-proof majority) over someone who, in the grand scheme of things, just doesn’t matter all that much.

            You know what was weird? Obama met with John McCain yesterday. That guy campaigned for McCain even more than Lieberman! And there were rumors that Obama might put him in the cabinet. How come there was no great freakout?

            Not everyone who disagrees with you is a total sellout. (Well, I am, but I’m sure there are some lefties around here who aren’t.)

            1.    that letting Lieberman keep his chairmanship will keep the goodwill of right-wing douches, or Lieberman himself, you haven’t been paying attention to the evolution of the Republican party the last 15 years or so.

                Also, while McCain being in the cabinet is highly unlikely, the comparison is not an equal one. There is nothing wrong with building a “team of rivals”, as sick as I am of that phrase. There is nothing wrong with reconciliation with those on the other side. But I don’t see anyone suggesting that we should let James Inhoffe chair the the Energy & Natural Resources Committee either. Committees and their chairmanships, by default of Democrats having majorities in Congress, should be run by Democrats and advance the priorities of Democrats. Maybe some people have forgotten, but Joe Lieberman is not a Democrat, hasn’t been one for a couple of years.

              1. I may dislike Lieberman even more than you do (he was one of the reasons I refused to vote for Gore). But he’s not comparable to Jim Inhofe.

                Inhofe is a genuine right-winger, against us on everything, and did a lot to push his pro-global warming agenda.

                Lieberman is an attention-seeker above all, and is utterly incompetent at everything he’s tried. Couldn’t get Gore elected, couldn’t get himself elected, couldn’t get McCain elected. He’s annoying but harmless.

                And yes, seeing Lindsey Graham and John McCain and a couple of the other less-batshit Republicans wanting to help out is encouraging to me. Will they be there when we need them? Maybe, maybe not. But shouldn’t we be trying to peel off a few of those cloture votes we’ll definitely need from the other side?

                1. http://www.washingtonmonthly.c

                  “Let’s not forget, Lieberman owed Obama and Democrats before. Lieberman begged Obama to come campaign for him in 2006, and he did. Lieberman begged the leadership to let him keep his seniority and committee positions, even after he ran against the Democratic nominee in Connecticut, and they did. He was in their debt for the last two years, and how did he repay them? How much respect did he show? Lieberman’s offensive conduct speaks for itself.

                  And therein lies the rub: Lieberman expected to get away with it, and he did. So, yes, he once again owes Obama and is in the Democratic Party’s debt. But he’s also seen firsthand that there are no consequences for betrayal. With the vote yesterday, the Senate Democratic caucus gave Lieberman no incentive to be a team player.

                  I’d like to think Obama may have some leverage with Lieberman in the future, but if Lieberman had a sense of loyalty, he wouldn’t have gotten into this position in the first place.”

  5. but let’s keep it in perspective here.  

    He votes with the Dem caucus more than Ben Nelson, Mark Pryor, Bob Byrd and Mary Landrieu (possibly more than Salazar, too).  Granted, none of them bounded around the country campaigning against our presidential candidate—but, with the exception of Byrd, they didn’t go out of their way to support him either.

    Bottom line, I support what the caucus did today (although I’d love to see who the 14 were that voted against him).

  6. 16,000 of the remaining 24,000 have been counted and it looks like the Democrat is the winner in Alaska.

    I love how the left will defend a dinosaur like John Dingell. Slightly to the left of Henry Waxman! Please.  This is a Congressman who has gutted clean energy standards,appeared in NRA ads and is by all accounts one of the most conservative members of the Democratic caucus. Far more conservative in fact than Lieberman.  Rep. DeGette however is close to Dingell and may put political expediency ahead of principle.

      1. I also still think Rico Munn will be the next SOS.

        Too bad that no one follows the Congress well enough to comment on this important vote between Waxman and Dingell.  It will determine the direction this Congress takes on the environment.  

        1. You want comment, here’s comment.

          I would prefer Waxman to continue as chair of OGR because the alternative, Ed Towns, is, IMO, asleep at the wheel.  He’d make an awful chair and he’s next in line by seniority.  If you skip him, you’re looking at Paul Kanjorski who I believe would be equally bad.  At that point you’re opening it up to anyone on the committee and sitting there at 5th in seniority is none other than Kucinich.  Do you want him as the chair of anything remotely important?  I don’t.

          Add that to the fact that two of the more sane repubs on the committee, Tom Davis and Chris Shays, will be gone come Jan, and I don’t want some jackass running the committee.  We need a strong voice on OGR and just because Waxman wants a more important post doesn’t mean he should get it.  Wait a freakin’ term or two for Dingell to drop dead or resign, then take over.

  7. did anyone else…um…notice Lieberman’s daughter, Hani, in the background of that press conference?  I remember meeting her almost 5 years ago in NH and she was just this goofy 14-year old.

    But now…Damn…  ðŸ™‚

  8. I cannot personally stand Droopy Dog BUT I am impressed with Obama putting aside party politics and focusing on the massive problems that we have to solve.  Like it or not we are going to need every vote we can get.

    I approve.

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