It’s being reported that there was no conclusion reached in the meeting between Lieberman and Reid yesterday regarding the weasily one’s future in as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The same sources who told about the substance of yesterday’s agenda indicated that Reid is not kicking Joe out yet because there are several Senate seats still to be decided. If by some miracle Franken wins the recounts, Chambliss loses the runoff (which would probably only happen if Obama campaigned for him), and the extremely questionable election in Alaska comes down in favor of Begich, that makes Lieberman the 60th vote in the Senate.
Unlikely.
So what are Lieberman’s options at this point?
1) Remain in the caucus stripped of his seniority, sulk away and suck it up. Hard to imagine from a guy who has used bitterness over his 2006 primary loss as rocket fuel, and whose sole political ideology seems to be revenge against the party.
2) Switch parties. The Republicans would love to have him, but they have no power, and neither would Joe. Further, he’d be giving up any chance of winning the seat again in 2012 because he’s already trailing Ned Lamont by 10 points in the polls, and his chances of winning as a Republican in Connecticut are about zero.
3) Resign. This was essentially what bitterman was threatening the Democratic caucus with in his press conference yesterday, when he said he was "weighing his options." Republican governor Jody Rell then appoints Rob Simmons, and the seat threatens to turn into a solid "R."
4) Fight like a mofo to retain his seniority.
As long as 4) is an option, Lieberman will take it.
Reid doesn’t want to bear the sole burden of that decision himself, so he’s punting to the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, whose members make recommendations for committee chairs.
Right now Lieberman has his friends in the caucus lobbying Reid to keep him in his committee chair. (Is Boxer showing up for Joe again? Salazar? Dodd?) So even if the Steering and Outreach Committee does the right thing and recommends stripping Lieberman, someone could object. In which case it may head for a full vote in the caucus – which would probably happen in two weeks.
Related posts:
- Rachel Maddow Redux: Dangers of Keeping Lieberman in Caucus (from November 2008)
- Dodd: Reprimanding Lieberman is “Ridiculous”
- Joe Lieberman Hangs Veal Pen Out to Dry on the “Opt-Out” Sell-Out
- Lieberman on Point for Senate DADT Repeal
- Lieberman-Graham Threaten to Shut Down Senate, Add Detainee Photo Suppresion Amendment to FDA Tobacco Regulation Bill
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After what he did this campaign, why would Boxer stick up for him now? Is she that stupid? And is Reid really stupid to think he can hold all 60(including HoJo) together every time? Couldn’t it be easier to peel off Snowe, Specter and Judd Gregg? I know Specter is up in 2010, what about Gregg? Both Gregg and Specter could find themselves with serious challengers lest they get with the program.
Thanks Jane.
digg
gosh darn it, I love reading threads like this one.
My contempt for JoLie knows no bounds (or whatever punaise wrote).
Even in the unlikely event that all those hanging elections go our way and Lieberman becomes the sixtieth vote, I don’t think it will matter…because he won’t vote with us anyway.
Kick him to the curb.
I happily signed yesterday.
Why on earth anyone would want to keep a Rabid pet rat is beyond me.
Throw his ass out of the Democratic caucus, strip him of his chairs and be done with it.
Harry Reid needs to be replaced by someone with a set of balls.
I say let him resign, we can then take back the seat in 2010 midterm elections.
Good riddance to toady Joe.
Dersu Uzala
Ding Dong the Witch is Dead: Signs in San Diego, LA
http://freewayblogger.blogspot…..frica.html
plus hilarious newsflash by andy borowitz
What are the chances a Rob Simmons would be better than Joe Lieberman ?
CT is a seat that would likely be won back in 2012. Sacrificing one seat with a solid majority isn’t the end all when you’re talking about the turmoil that Lieberman has wrought outside of votes. The choice should be easy.
.
Harry Reid is an enigma. How can he possibly hope to keep anyone in line when Lieberman, who violated every political principal, gets off with not even a slap on the wrist? OK he didn’t have 60 votes the last two years, but he continued to let the Repubs off the hook without looking a bit bad. Where the hell is he coming from. If he doesn’t want to bear the sole burden of the decision himself, he shouldn’t be majority leader.
someone is conducting lamont polls? *g*
am i going to be able to go back to CT to canvass for ned? now that would be fun!
2) Switch parties.
what does this do to his senority ? does it transfer over ? can’t imagine any Republic being happy about giving up their slot for this p o s
If Joe had any principles, he would choose door number 3. I could live with that. Better the devil you can predict than the one who teams with you one day and stabs you in the back the next.
Joe being Joe, of course, will choose door number 4.
It is time for reid and pelosi (both RINOs) to go. They have no credibility as leaders. Whether the Dems have 60 or not, joLIE has to go. I already signed.
I don’t understand that. The appointee’s term lasts until the end of Lieberman’s, right? Isn’t it up to the voters after that? CT doesn’t look likely to vote R.
IMHO … Kick out Lieberman…… make sure that he has no power….
and if the Repugs want to filibuster….. then make them do it for real….. and make them look silly on TeeVee while they try to stop universal healthcare and bailing out homeowners and rebuilding our infrastructure and creating jobs…..
I signed yesterday too..with the same ‘take that’ feeling I had when I clicked over the levers in the voting booth on Election Day.
Lieberman will almost certainly choose door number four. So that should make it easy for us and all interested parties (including the Democratic Party) to prepare to put every stone cold stumbling block in his way.The guy is nothing if not predictable when it comes to Joe looking out for Joe’s interest. I welcome the battle of extinguishing Joe Lieberman from the seat of power in the Democratic Party and preferably from the Democratic Party all together. I hope he is humiliated or downtrodden enough at the end of his failed battle to choose resignation as his alternate choice.
Boxer has to have learned her lesson by now. If so, I hope she has shared her new found sense to Joe already. I want him to feel real damned lonely as he goes about his business of trying to save his pathetic, rat-ass.
This is the way, I’m thinking too. Did you sign the petition?
This would be a good time to run Pach’s video interview of Reid defending Lieberman on the basis of votes he can’t remember and $60K Lieberman donated to the D Party.
Remember, Lieberman was inserted in that position to protect Chertoff.
Chertoff still requires protection.
On whose behalf?
From what?
CSPAN is showing a Brookings panel on what Obama needs to do as prez. Short version: everything W didn’t do.
If Joe were to switch parties, would he actually vote in lockstep with the GOP? I can almost envision an exiled Joe voting in a supportive way with Dems to accent how ‘mistreated’ he really was after all. kind of the best of both worlds as far as getting things done.
Signed, with great pleasure.
Hear, Hear!
Let the R’s filibuster Universal Health Care! Hahahahahaha.
I hope it is not more Repub clones telling Obama what he needs to do, or he will just say, “thanks but NO thanks.” I heard alot of Repub advice…didn’t work so well for them.
So Reid had Lieberman on the carpet. My question is who is going to put Reid on the carpet?
Would like to see Obama go to Georgia and campaign for Martin. The crowds would be huge! The Beltway PoohBahs would certainly be in a tizzy citing there is no precedent but Obama can stress that he needs Martin in the Senate to insure the country moves forward and difficult times call for drastic actions. He could neutralize the village idiots and likely get Martin elected.
A fifth option that Lieberman has is to leave the Senate and run for the Knesset for the Likud party.
I signed.
The R talking heads have already abandoned W. So they’re telling O to do the opposite from what W did. It’s pretty funny.
MSM has begun shilling the snake oil that says each Senator is a powerful and useful entity unto himself.
Essentially, the media is telling us that the GOP Ship Of Fools – splintered on the rocks of a Democratic Mandate – is strong even as it has broken into bits.
Driveby – on the road today.
When all the Senate votes in Alaska are counted, Mark Begich will have eked out a victory over Ted Stevens.
OT – maybe, prolly not.
I was just sick of watching cable news so I checked to see what movies are on.
Am watching a Tale of Two Cities.
I can’t get away from politics, I guess.
Lieberman’s value to the caucus is zilch. Even if the Dems sweep the table and end up at 58 votes plus Sanders makes 59, having Joe caucus with the Dems does NOTHING.
Joe’s vote would be needed to break a fillibuster, and giving him a chairmanship would be no guarantee that he would follow through and vote with the Dems. Joe has nothing to offer the caucus except grief. Harry and the steering committee really need to understand this, and show him the door.
And even worse, Joe’s presence in the Democratic caucus deprives a real democrat of a seat on various committees. If Joe sits with the GOP, then THEY have to count him as one of theirs when the seats are divided up on committees and subcommittees. Let Joe fight with the GOP for prime office space, parking places, and all the rest. He’s siphoned enough from the Democrats already.
Well, it is still a center-right country. /s
Reid should bring up the fact that Lieberman did not investigate Katrina, therefore he forfits the chairmanship.
Yes, it is time for the bare knuckles approach. Jewish or not Rohm will do it.
ET, what’s your take on the polling discrepancies? And the strange lower voter turnout tally? It doesn’t add up. Good news if Begich pulls it out. The MSM has been leaning in Stevens’ favor. (What else is new?)
Signed yesterday. Joe endorsing McShame wasn’t the worst of it. Joe repeated the rethug slime attack and that is unforgivable. Somehow it has become part of the mindset that one can say anything in a political campaign and it is protected free speech therefore ok no matter how sleezy or erroneous.
Kick him out or let him choose to go the other side of the aisle.
Elections have consequences. What’s the stall. Get him out of Homeland Security, is he trust-worthy? Shun him.
Take him on his word: he believes in democratic causes, he wants to work with the new real American President.
Don’t make it easy for him… every democratic socially responsible bill should be seen as a challenge to his conscious decision-making. Make him uncomfortable at every vote; each vote a referendum on his heart. If he votes as a republican for democratic bills- great; if he votes with his republican colleagues against progress…let CT recall him.
(What is the recall option for the citizens?)
It seems unlikely he will resign, he will always believe he is important and life as Just Joe the Regular Rich Citizen ain’t enough for his ego.
Wasn’t he to Al Gore what Sarah Palin was to John McCain? His vendetta probably has its origins in the Kerry campaign 2004. After, why was another Dem running against him 2006. There was already history. The Clinton’s helped save his bacon 2006. They seem connected at the hip, after all. I could see them all as Republicans rather, the third-way crappola notwithstanding.
Saying that a filibuster proof majority of 60 scares him and could ruin the country is a pretty good indication that he will vote with the pugs on a filibuster.
When someone tells you who they are, Sen. Reid, believe them.
There’s a knockout punch. Great idea.
Whether or not Lieberman would be the 60th vote should be totally irrelevant. Principles are not situational.
And even if he were, that is no guarantee of any honor on his part. We sure haven’t seen it so far.
Along with the lies and smears of Obama he willingly conspired/collaborated in, consider also, his knowing as an insider just how wretched a choice Sarah Palin was.
There cannot be any “give” on Lieberman.
not only did not investigate, actively obstructed investigation. That is his greatest malfeasance.
Amen.
Dispatches for you and Edward Teller (in case he hasn’t seen them …)
Thu Nov 06, 2008 at 12:29:56 AM PST
An update from Tom Begich: (Mark’s brother)
11/5
Begich’s brother checks in with an update
It didn’t take long for the Republicons to promote their version of bipartisanship.
http://www.breitbart.com/artic….._article=1
Btw, Lowell Weicker, who was Lieberman’s predecessor, was more Democratic as a Republican than Joey Boy ever was. Nowadays, he’s leaning more towards the Democratic party.
“weaselly”
how about a petition to kick out harry reid first? he can take pelosi with him. i’m sick of his anti-choice anti-gay pussyfooting behaviour.
Amen. He earned his creds with me during the Nixon debacle, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him rewarded in some way by the new administration either. That may not be a popular opinion here, but it’s my opinion and I’m standing by it!
Joes no democrat… cut him loose. Don’t count on his support. He’s in it for himself… always has been and his people.
More than likely that some R’s will vote with the D’s on critical votes and if they don’t they will be sewing the seeds of their future demise.
bye bye joe and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
That must’ve been around the time I first noticed the Senator.
Like I said the other day, JoeLie owes the voters of KY for returning McConnell to the Senate. If Miss McConnell would have lost, the Traitor would be on the outside lookin’ in. JMO.
I really appreciate Lieberman’s call for bipartisanship and I think we should encourage it and benefit from it. My method is to escort him to a seat on the other side of the senate aisle and then get on with progressive business. If he then does something bipartisan we benefit. Otherwise, forget about and ignore his sorry ass. I signed the petition yesterday.
Right now Lieberman has … friends in the caucus…
There’s something deeply wrong with this.
___
btw, my contempt for Joe Lieberman will never abate.
LOL! “will never abate.” Have you used that one before? I don’t ever recall you stating your contempt in those terms. :)
heh.. I think it started out as abate and morphed into subside
Greasy Joe doesn’t deserve [edited by mod] but democrats are more civil sometimes for their own good and so Harry Reid is giving Joe the opportunity to “resign” his leadership position (better than he deserves). I seems quite clear that in the end he will be kicked out unceremoniously. Good riddance!!
[Mod Note; In the comments at FDL, please do not suggest violence on others, even if in jest. Thank you.]
Bah! Kick his ass out, let him resign and the seat “go to a solid ‘R’” because that will last only until the next election, at which point Lamont will win. In the meantime, the Dems will STILL have an overwhelming majority in the senate.
Anybody hear ever heard of a product called GoJo? Its a hand cleaner used to completely rid your hands of unwanted residue such as grease and grime.No joke! Used a lot in automotive shops and offshore facilites. How’s about everybody start sending cans of GoJoe to Harry Reid so we can thorougly wash our hands of LIE -ber-MAN?
This is more about Reid at this point. The other DEM Senators should be demanding Joe is stripped as well. His behavior is unforgiveable. He has shown that he cannot be counted on, has no Party loyalty and is only concerned with his own self interest. Kicking him to the curb would send a good message, show some spine and cleanse the stinch.
my favorite book.
I regret having to say this, because I basically like John Kerry, but I saw him interviewed I think the day before the election, and he told the interviewer that he wants Joe to remain in the Dem caucus. Sad!
It would also enhance the much needed concept of party discipline. Any time there are no consequences, people get greedy and think only of themselves. That’s what happened to Joe when he found out he could be rewarded for breaking all the rules.
we don’t need his vote…limit his influence to his two minute speeches on the floor and when he makes them, dems should go take a potty break.
signed the petition yesterday and left a comment.
Here’s Harry Reid
and here’s Dick Durbin.
They both had interesting answers for Mr. Pachacutec.
This article was also published at The Huffington Post. You can Digg Jane’s article over there right here.
Doesn’t lierberman translate into “loverman”, from the German?