Like most Democrats, I was gleeful after the Dems took a big lead in the Senate. Sure, part of that was about getting our agenda pushed through, but mostly I was happy because it meant that defenestrated Sen. Joe Lieberman, Joe-Conn., would soon be out of a job. His gavel would be stripped, his epaulettes ripped from his shoulders, and he’d be sent out of the Democratic caucus into the cold twilight of the GOP caucus, where he’d have to put up with idiots like Tom Coburn. It would be glorious.
But a funny thing happened to Holy Joe: he got his butt saved by former Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who happens to be the President-Elect that Lieberman spent all summer campaigning against. Obama suggested quietly to the Democratic caucus that they not throw Joe to the wolves, and the Democrats obliged, letting Joe keep his committee chairmanship, the removal of which, Lieberman said, would force him from the caucus.
And so you might expect me to be a bit disappointed. But I’m not. Because I think, on careful reflection, that Obama did precisely the right thing — and the thing that will cause Lieberman the most consternation. He saved him.
Yes, Obama will win plaudits for being bipartisan and moderate and sensible and whatnot, and the usual suspects will take the opportunity to claim the left is dead. But before you despair, think about what would have happened had Lieberman been stripped of his chairmanship and forced from the caucus. We like to say that Lieberman would then become just another Republican, but we know better: Lieberman would still have been a media darling, the Democrat Too Moderate to Stay a Democrat. Throughout the next four years, Lieberman would have been invited on Fox and CNN to gravely intone as to why his ejection from power was proof that the Democrats had gone to far. I can hear him saying, “I didn’t leave the party — the party left me” ad infinitum, and to Joe and Jane Bagadonutz, it might even sound somewhat accurate.
Far from punishing Lieberman, he would have been liberated to be the complete douchebag that we know him to be. And make no mistake — he would have been more in demand than ever.
But that’s not what’s going to happen now. Now, Lieberman is in the Democratic caucus, but only because Obama and the Democrats were forgiving of his trespasses. From Obama to Reid, the message today is, “Okay, Joe’s a douchebag, but we’re going to let bygones be bygones.” Yes, Joe gets to keep the gavel — but with the gavel comes some big strings. Joe’s not going to be able to go on Fox and declare that Obama’s destroying the country, nor is he going to be able to vote against cloture on Obama’s first SCOTUS nominee, not without risking a public shellacking. If Lieberman strays off the reservation, the Democrats can cut him off — and do so more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger, explaining that they tried to work with Lieberman, but he made the decision for them. Instead of being a thorn in the side of the Democrats, the man most likely to work against them, and a guy who would bet everything on a GOP revival in 2012 (for he has no real shot at re-election), Lieberman has become a Democrat with every incentive to toe the party line.
Is it the most viscerally satisfying solution? No, it isn’t. But if you’re looking at the next four years, it’s probably the smartest poltical move for the Democrats. Even if we’re stuck at 58 or 59 votes in the Senate (and I think that’s probably where we are; we might win Minnesota or Georgia, but the odds of winning both are slim), Lieberman’s presence in the caucus means we only have to snag one or two Republicans to break a filibuster, which is easier than three or four. And Lieberman’s presence in the caucus makes that easier, because Reid can squeeze Holy Joe to go out and try to win over Lindsey Graham or John McCain on this global warming bill or that torture bill.
In short, Lieberman will be a good soldier. If not, he’ll be forced out — but after proving once and for all that he can’t be trusted. And in the meantime, he’ll become just another Democratic senator, one whose time on the talk shows will be curtailed, who can’t lay into Obama without looking like an ungrateful wretch. It’s not viscerally satisfying, but if you believe in politics as a means to an end, it’s for the best.
Lieberman has spent the last six or so years proving that he is anything but a good soldier. I think your confidence is misplaced.
What has he got to fear? He’s already proven that he can get re-elected even without the support of the Democratic Party. And now he knows that he can get away with not only campaigning for the Republican presidential nominee, but with doing so in a particularly sleazy way. Short of pissing in the President’s morning coffee, is there anything this guy can do that will get him booted?
I don’t think the Democrats should be vengeful. But we have decided to steer the nation on a significantly different course from the one that the Republicans have been advocating. And while “reaching across the aisle” to some of the more moderate, sensible Republicans is worthwhile, I don’t think it’s necessary or beneficial to hand any more power to the right-wing lunatic fringe.
Don’t get me wrong, I know Lieberman could stray. But in the junior high world of DC, he’d end up getting the rap for it if he did. Lieberman won’t be a good soldier out of altruism — not an altruistic bone in his body. But he may be one because it’s in his interests to be one. Nobody likes an ingrate, not even the GOP, and if he wanders off the reservation, that’s exactly what he’ll be viewed as, by all sides.
except that if they actually could do that, they could have done it this time. or, for that matter, the last time he stabbed the dems in the back.
but they didn’t then and they aren’t now, and so they won’t the next time, nor any other time either. and that’s why we have a permanent republican majority in actual practice, even if not in poli-sci theory.
sure, you list a few more or less hypothetical reasons why it “can’t be done now”. but there’s no reason whatever to assume, as you seem to, that either the same ones or equally weighty ones won’t still be there every time holy-joe stabs the dems in the back in the future. just as was the case in the past. you either take the bull by the horns, or the bull keeps right on trampling you; same for bullies like joe, same for the bullies that drive the GOP. quit making excuses for why the dems can’t grab these bastards by the horns just this time around, but just we wait until next time, then we’ll see… the exact same thing happen again.
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1) You do know that while appointments are made bay a simple majority, any attempt to take the chair away from Lieberman once he gets it can be filibustered? That’s right, if anyone (including Lieberman) wants to make an issue of it it takes 60 votes to take the gavel away.
2) If Lieberman decides to go after Obama, it won’t just be on Fox news. It will be a sorrowful Holy Joe using his power to investigate Obama for terrorist associations or high treason, as proven Obama’s driving 26 mph in a 25 mph zone. And watch the media go crazy if the Democrats try to pull his gavel in the middle of an investigation by this “moderate independent man of integrity, and centrist Democrat”.
I believe that this is a mistake. Good ole Joe cannot be trusted and should be ousted immediately. Yes he will get attention at first but like all stories his to will outrun its interest for the people.
I think that moment came and went.
I agree with Jeff on this one, but tentatively; there’s a lot of good reasons on both sides, but do you really want the next Congress to be a soap opera dramafest starting right now? No? I don’t, so let him stay; he’ll cause no more trouble than any other Blue Dogs.
>… do you really want the next Congress to be a soap opera dramafest starting right now? No? I don’t, so let him stay; he’ll cause no more trouble than any other Blue Dogs.
He has Subpoena power as committee chair. Remove him from that committee, and he loses that. He is in a great position to start trouble-making investigations over nothing. Are you confident he won’t? Or are you confident, he won’t get backing from the press? Keeping him Homeland Security chair avoids minor drama now at the expense of major drama soon – (six to eighteen months). Big mistake…
It’s worse than that. Because people threatened to remove him from his post, Joe will be touted as a Courageous Maverick Whistleblower when he goes on Fox to announce that he has discovered Obama is really a muslim. (Oh, wait, he did that already.)
This is going to need a consistent pushback from everyone with a position to speak to the public. Not “Lieberman, that slimeball” but “Old Joe, he’s such a joke he wasn’t even worth slapping on the wrist.”
So, in short, you really have no idea how “your” party is run.
Lieberman PAID for his chairmanship. Understand? 200K to the dscc plus over half a mil in fundraising. Lieberman doesn’t have to be a “good soldier.” That’s YOUR job.