King Joe I

And here we all thought it was George W. Bush who wanted to be Dictator.

We were wrong.

It wasn't George Bush, it was Joe Lieberman. And now he's gotten everything he wanted. He gets to go out on the campaign trail and run against his party's candidate, gets to call his party's candidate a threat to national security, gets to speak at the opposing party's convention, and THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO CONSEQUENCES.

I would really like to believe that Barack Obama knows what he's doing advocating for letting Lieberman have whatever he wants, in a "Keep your enemies closer" kind of way -- allowing Holy Joe to get off scot-free for something that if this were the Republican party, would probably result in him being eaten alive by wild dogs for the amusement of party elders. But I think this is nothing more than a textbook case of Harry Reid being told by Lieberman "You owe me", combined with Obama's unfortunate tendency towards conciliation at all costs, even if conciliation means you get your kneecaps broken.

Does anyone believe for one minute that Holy Joe won't go running to the Republicans with anything he hears about Democratic Senate strategy? Does anyone believe for one minute that Holy Joe won't be at the forefront of the Republican sleaze machine the minute they start trying to turn Tony Rezko into Jim McDougal? Does anyone believe for one minute that Lieberman is an honest broker?

When I want really good bile about Lieberman, and Melina is busy with the crap life brings her, I go to Howie Klein:

As you know, I rarely venture Inside the Beltway. I'm always worried that my wish for that area could be fulfilled while I'm there. But last year I was visiting a friend in Virginia and she invited a houseful of Inside the Beltwayites over. One, who works for a Senate leader assured 3 or 4 of us, privately and in confidence, that Lieberman would be dealt with appropriately after the election. I was wondering if he was just lying to us or was far more naive than I ever imagined. It certainly didn't prevent me from taking 7 one hundred dollar bets this week that Lieberman would get to retain his gavel at the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. And I certainly hope that the staffer's boss was one of the 13 Democrats worthy of the "D" next to their names. I guess we'll never know; it was a secret vote. But I made $700-- well, $600 and a $100 meal on the fortuitous bets against what I was hoping for but knew was never to be.

Instead Chris Dodd and Ken Salazar offered an insulting-- not insulting to Lieberman, insulting to progressives-- proposal that Lieberman be relieved of the chairmanship of a global warming subcomittee on the Environment and Public Works Committee, a joke and a deliberate rebuke to the party's base. Not even the apology reactionary Lieberman apologist Evan Bayh "demanded." Good luck on Jim Martin, assholes!

I was wrong. They didn't spontaneously burst out into a chorus of "For He's The Jolly Good Fellow." But maybe they are going to go on Fox News and do it there later. At least they didn't elect him Majority Leader. Listening to NPR a few minutes ago I heard some really slimy scumbag-- I'll find out his name later-- defending Lieberman and attacking progressives claiming, in fact, that Bernie Sanders, who voted to take away Lieberman's gavel, isn't a Democrat; he's a socialist. Yeah? And Lieberman? He's not a Democrat either; he's a Republican viper in their midst. But let no one ever say they don't deserve him.

And no one can say that we don't know our so-called "Democratic" legislators far too well, either. Last night I read a suggestion that we all tape two tennis balls together and send them to Harry Reid. I think that's a dandy idea. Because you have to be a very special, world-class kind of wuss to make a sniveling little rat-faced git like Joe Lieberman the most powerful person in the Senate after he's smacked your party around for the last six months.

Oh, and by the way....while the Senate Democrats were doing their clubby thing in Washington, the dirty fucking hippies they spat upon on yesterday are doing things like starting the Yes We Cans virtual food drive to support the rapidly-depleting food banks around the country. Because out here in -- dare I even say it? -- the "real America", we know that there are more important things to worry about than Joe Lieberman's ego.