This picture says it all when it comes to the Democrats attitudes towards Joe Liebermann. Evidently, the form of lycanthropy from which Loebermann allegedly suffers is a relatively mild form that is easily cured. Just toss any piece of leftist liberal legislation his way and he's temporarily cured.
Still, Harry Reid might "punish" him, for his support of long-time friend John McCane for President, by removing him from his seat at the head of the Senate Committee charged with overseeing Homeland Security. That would of course be dependent on whether the Democrats end up with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. If they do, then Liebermann might well pay for bucking the party's wishes.
Most of you will probably recall that Liebermann left the Democratic Party when he was unseated by challenger Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary in 2006. He ran against Lamont and a nominal Republican, as an Independent, and won.
Still, since Liebermann is, after all, a liberal Democrat, he chose to caucus with the Democrats.
Frankly, I don't like the guy for a variety of reasons. For one, he's too ideologically leftist, and for another, he always struck me as a mealy mouthed little opportunistic toad. Still, I can't help but feel for him here. If he ends up caucusing with the Republicans, that's fine, won't make a difference one way or another, and his vote will be the same regardless in most cases as it usually is.
Reid is mum on the subject for now, waiting to see how the recounts turn out. If the Democrats end up with just 59 seats, including Sanders from Vermont (the Senates only other Independent, who also caucuses with the Democrats) it will be fun to conjecture as to how far Reid will go to kiss Liebermann's ass, and how the left wing of the party,especially the rank-and-file left voters, will howl like rabid dogs about it.
Like I said, though, Liebermann is a little toad, so no, he doesn't need that much power, but on the other hand, I really do want to hurt some people right now. He has a golden opportunity to wreak some havoc. He should demand a hard-line stance towards Syria and Iran in exchange for voting with the Democrats on anything, and he should remind Reid that he, Joe Liebermann, can filibuster with the best of them.
That ought to be good for a few laughs.
I didn't even know Lieberman was a Republican now until election night when I saw him standing behind McCain on the airplane.
ReplyDeleteLiebermann was a Democrat, but now he's an Independent, since 2006. He still caucuses with the Democrats, at least for now.
ReplyDeleteThen, why was he on the Republican airplane? I heard he wanted McCain to pick him for a running mate.
ReplyDeleteHe did, but in one of the few sensible decisions McCane ever made during the campaign, he decided that Liebermann would turn too many of the Republican conservative base against him. He picked Palin precisely to get the social conservatives on board. They would have deserted him in droves had he picked Liebermann.
ReplyDeleteLiebermann is an Independent-not a Democrat, not a Republican. Democrats allowed him to chair the Homeland Security Committee in exchange for caucusing with them, but they are mad at him now for supporting McCane and may strip him of his Committee assignment.
Technically, anybody can support anybody they want. Even if Liebermann was still a Democrat, he could have supported Obama if he wanted to. He might join the Republican caucus now. I hope he does, even though he'll still vote mostly Democratic. It will still be one more caucus seat for the Republicans, which is insurance for their continued ability to filibuster.
And if you come back and ask me what filibuster is, I'm going to come down to Texas, take you by the hand, take you off somewhere and have a long talk with you, after which I might give you a spanking.