11/14/2006

Joe Lieberman Wants His Pound of Flesh:
What a difference an election day makes. Here's Joe Lieberman, talking to Pajamas "Media" founder Roger Simon on September 29, spouting a line he would use dozens, if not hundreds, of times during the election: "I remain a Democratic [sic] but I’m running as an Independent Democrat, which in some ways makes official what I’ve been for a long time. I’ve been an independent Democratic...The critical thing is to caucus with the Democrats because if you don’t caucus with a party, you don’t have the opportunity to hold your seniority in the committee assignments that you’ve got... I remain a Democrat."

Reads almost like a goddamn poem, huh? And it sounds pretty fucking definitive.

Now, here's Lieberman this past Sunday on Meet the Press, after Tim Russert asked him if it was possible for him to hypothetically, in the future, caucus with Republicans, thus splitting the Senate and giving control to the Republicans: "I’m not ruling it out, but I hope I don’t get to that point." What would get Lieberman to that point? If the Democrats want party "discipline" - that is, for them to act like Democrats, which, as Lieberman has said above, he considers himself one. But Joe wants to be a free spirit, man, floatin' on that indie breeze. As he says he told the people of Connecticut, "I am going to Washington beholding to no political group except the people of Connecticut and of course my conscience."

Yep, that's Lieberman. If he had gotten the Democratic nomination in the primary, the Republicans would have poured money in behind Alan Schlessinger there instead of funding Lieberman. If he had said that he was even hypothetically seeing a situation where he might caucus Republican, he'd've been handed his nutsack by the third of Democrats that voted for him. And now, he got his committee chairmanship. From the Democratic Caucus. But he's beholden to no one.

(And, yes, the Rude Pundit's aware of the anti-Semitic implications of the title. Fuck that schlemiel, Lieberman. He could have been a mensch; instead, he's just another power hungry putz. Motherfucker can kiss the Rude Pundit's Jewish ass.)