You said “If we don’t have room in our party for the less-than-liberal Democrats, we are not going to retake the reins and hold them. Don’t give up what you believe in, but for heaven’s sake don’t shun people because they believe something different.“

Go look at Jim Webb in Virginia or at Ben Nelson Democratic Senator from Nebraska. Ben Nelson is running to the RIGHT of his Republican opponent for Christ’s sake. And Jim Webb is no lefty. I support them both because they are Democrats.

The difference? Neither Webb nor Nelson has stood up nationally and run against his own party. Joe Lieberman has. He cozies up to Republicans and attacks Democrats.

If Joe were thinking politically, he would be attacking Schlesinger (the Republican candidate for Connecticut Senator) rather than Lamont. With the news today that Schlesinger was sued twice in the 90’s for failure to pay his New Jersey gambling debts, Schlesinger is both dead meat and an obvious target.

If Joe were to do that,

cancel the effort to run as an independent,

admit that attacking Democrats for violating his own personal moral and religious codes was unDemocratic and give it up,

and admit that he blew it in cozying up to the Republicans,

I think he could probably still pull out a win in the Connecticut Democratic Primary on August 8th, and that would amount to his (re)election as Connecticut Senator.

And if the Connecticut Democrats give him a majority of their votes, I’d support him. There’s a lot of good there that just seems to have gotten lost in the exposure as a national spokesperson for the Democrats and his ego that made him think it was his views that put him there and not Al Gore’s personal appreciation of his personality.

Joe’s bright, capable, and domestically a very good Democrat excluding reproduction rights. His foreign policy seems to be poll-driven, and he went badly wrong when he tried to cozy up to Bush/Cheney. If he didn’t try to differentiate himself nationally by attacking other Democrats, he wouldn’t be a bad choice for Senator. Not good, but acceptable. He needs to learn that there is no more center in American politics. He is either with us, or we will eliminate him.

Webb and Nelson have had the good sense to not cross that line.

And Slate is, according to Howie Kurtz today, a liberal blog.

These guys know us better than we know ourselves.

I guess they’re talking about the liberals who aren’t the notorious “some” liberals.

Wake up and smell the coffee! What the Founders feared most has come to pass; we have an elected aristocracy. Turnover in the Congress is less than what used to happen in the Supreme Soviet.

It’s not just ‘Rape Gurney’ Joe who has to go. It’s every one of the Congress who voted to ‘authorise’ BushFuhrer to go to war or voted for the Bankruptcy Bill. That’s my litmus test and I’ll defend it against all comers.

Clinton don’t give any more of a shit about anybody commenting here that Joe. He never did.

No one in Congress does.

No one in the Executive does.

Why should they? They use their millions of dollars of Corporate cash to brainwash the few residents of our country who vote into cementing their incumbency. To their way of thinking they don’t need us.

They are wrong.

But I’d feel a lot better if more people realised that the entire system is filled with corrupt sleazebags like Joe and McCain and Biden and yes Clinton. Further that they all have to go. Yeah, Hillary too…what has she ever done that could be considered truly progressive. Truly good for the people instead of good for Rupert Murdoch and his slimy ilk.

It’s been way to long since Roosevelt.

We’ve almost forgotten what a real Progressive is.

It ain’t fuckin’ ‘Big Dog’.

There are some fascinating charts delineating Liberals/Conservatives as well as Libertarians and neocons.

Some fascinating tidbits in addition to his overall points, which are spot on.