Dear Senator Reid,

This is just getting silly. Joe Lieberman (CFL-CT) is now publicly advocating for war with Iran.

When he appeared on Face the Nation this morning, do you suppose Dick Cheney’s lips even moved?

This would not be your problem except for the fact that people consider Lieberman a Democrat, thanks to the seniority he retains as the powerful Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. That you put him forward as the face of the Democratic Party by giving him the cherry assignment of responding on behalf of Democrats after George Bush’s speech (wherein he was allowed to paint himself as the hero of Walter Reed) didn’t help anything. I won’t even mention your comment during the debate on timetables to the effect that “there isn’t a senator I have more respect for than Joe Lieberman” because shortly thereafter Joe basically called you a traitor. I think we can all agree that this accrued more to your own personal shame than that of the party.

Anyway, we find ourselves in a position where you are sitting on a big pile of dry powder and it’s starting to look like a mountain of TNT that the Connecticut for Lieberman Senator is threatening to take a match to. I know that when Democrats recently voted to give George Bush everything he wanted and more for his pet war with absolutely no restrictions whatsoever this move was sold to us as a shrewd political ploy to give the Republicans ownership of the war. I guess this was supposed to drive Bush’s poll numbers into the shitter while the Democrats, coated with some sort of Teflon, could sit there and shrug “well, not my problem.”

Forget for a moment just how cynical this sounded even as the dead bodies continue to pile up — this collective amnesia with regard to the election of November 2006 is somewhat startling because most people noted at the time that the Democrats had been handed a majority expressly for the purpose of getting the country out of this quagmire. And sure enough, when the poll numbers were released subsequent to the supplemental vote, George Bush’s popularity didn’t suffer squat but the approval ratings of congressional Democrats dropped a whopping 10%.

Think about that. Ten per-cent. This would seem to constitute a problem.

The approval rating of Democrats is eroding rapidly, and pointing that out is not “doing Karl Rove’s bidding.” The failure of leadership you have demonstrated with regard to ending this war has the potential to damage the entire party. And the most public, most egregious example of this failure, the one that continues to engender public disgust, which threatens to destroy not only faith in the Democratic party but the belief that political solutions to our problems are even possible is the continued party reverence paid to the warmongering Joe Lieberman who is not even an elected Democrat.

As Markos said recently:

I WISH he’d bolt, but he won’t. He has more influence doing his periodic threats. I wish Reid would simply strip him of his committee assignments and bid him adieu.

I realize you’re dealing with all that Senate collegiality stuff which is completely meaningless to the rest of us and doubly so to all those who are, you know, dying in Iraq, but it’s time to remember what Democrats were elected to do in November and reclaim it from Dick Cheney’s marionettes. Every time Joe Lieberman opens his mouth he exacerbates tensions in the region and takes a sledgehammer to the Democratic brand. It’s time to exercise some leadership and send a message that Democrats are ready to stop being roundheels for the Bush administration.

Time to make a public example and say “enough” to being held hostage by Dick Cheney’s pet warmonger.

Cut. Him. Loose.

(video courtesy ctblogger)

Related posts:

  1. Rachel Maddow Redux: Dangers of Keeping Lieberman in Caucus (from November 2008)
  2. Joe Lieberman Hangs Veal Pen Out to Dry on the “Opt-Out” Sell-Out
  3. Lieberman on Point for Senate DADT Repeal
  4. Harry Reid: “Leave Lieberman Alone, I’ll Handle Him”
  5. Lieberman Says He’ll Filibuster Health Bill; What’s Obama Going to Do?