NEWS: Lieberman Dodges Bullet

POLITICS: Lieberman Dodges Bullet

Turncoat Senator Joe Lieberman walked from a Senate hearing today with his most prized committee chairmanships intact, dodging punishment for campaigning for John McCain and publicly criticizing eventual winner Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

With punishment like that, he'll be sure to reform his wayward ways...

One wonders if the Democratic leadership thinks they will win enough contested seats to have a filibuster proof 60 vote majority, and if Lieberman would be the 60th vote. We will see how Joe returns the favor.

Wow. That's extremely disappointing. Are the Dems just hedging their bets? If they don't pick up all the seats they're hoping for will they need Lieberman to play along? Maybe they're trying to avoid having him jump sides.

Still... really sad.

Maybe,maybe and maybe.

I would have liked to see him do the honorable thing and fall on his sword,but no he survives another day to remain the treacherous little rat that he is.

He really doesn't seem like the "do the honorable thing" type. In fact, he seems like the exact opposite.

Was he just re-elected? Or is he up in the next set of elections? Does he stand a chance any more?

He doesn't run again until 2012.

He won't get above senator (if he even stays at that level) for the rest of his career. He made the decisions that made sure of that.

Arguably, there is an Obama decision on this matter that I would qualify as leveraged mercy, and it doesn't surprise me at all that Reid didn't have the stomach to actually punish the guy.

Lieberman has been there along time, hell he's practically an institution unto himself. I just don't think the senior senators wanted to snub the guy after working with him for so long. I guess they just figured it's better to forgive (spineless twats) then to punish the man for being such a shit. Unfortunately, this gives Lieberman a hell of a lot of power then he is due.

Maybe he'll come around, but if he hasn't in the next two years, there's a good chance he could lose all of his chairmanships (and there will be another opportunity for the Dems to reach a solid, filibuster-proof majority).

In other news, it looks as if Stevens won't be ejected from the Senate after all. Alaska's absentee votes are almost all counted and he's virtually guaranteed a win over the mandatory .05% recount margin.

Come on Franken!

I had to read and re-read the above and the linked story. Your post makes it sound like Stevens won the election. I about gagged.

Harry Reid really was born without a spine when it comes to these matters, no?

BAH! I screwed the pooch on that post, I meant to say the following:

Doh!

Why not for when she does something contrary to the goals set forth by the Obama Administration, post-January 20th?

After watching Harry Reid do fuck all to address the unprecedented abuses of power by the Bush administration, I'm not surprised at all that he was just as big of a pussy with Lieberman as he's been with the entire rotten Bush regime.

The old school congressional Democrats have been, and will continue to be, worthless, spineless, idiot fuckfaces. The new, netroots candidates will continue to successfully challenge them in their primaries, and though it will take some time, we'll eventually get our government back. This election is a huge first step in that direction.

I'm just sick of seeing Lieberman getting exactly what he doesn't deserve.

Who knew little old Jewish guys could duck? I still have hope.

But seriously, all of you the sky is falling crowd obviously didn't listen to President-Elect Obama's (that looks nice doesn't it?) acceptance speech where he talked about working across the aisle. So, Lieberman sits on the aisle closer to the right that all of us would like. Are all of you going to get your panties in a bunch every time he works with a right-wing nut case? If you are, stay off the political blogs and focus on lolcats.

Whether we like it or not, this country has a lot of right-wing nuts and we have to work with them sometimes. So stop being such cry babies!

He doesn't deserve it, but ultimately this benefits Obama and the Democrats more than it benefits him. They get to appear gracious and forgiving, in stark contrast to the turncoat Lieberman, who I suspect will lose his seat in the next election(then again, that's what I thought last time).

Hear, hear. Glad to see you posting normal posts, also.

Almost makes you wish for the typical strong party discipline of the Westminster system, doesn't it?

How easy is it to bust him back down later? It would make sense to let him stay where he is and take it all away if he steps out of line.