So, Joe Lieberman will run as an independent candidate if he loses the primary. He said today, on the Ed Shultz radio show, that he will do this because he “know[s] what’s best for the state of Connecticut.”
Oh, not the voters, not the Party, not the Democratic process; Joe Knows!
Now, I share one thing with Joe Lieberman: a fractured relationship with the Democratic Party. This is a party hanging on by a thread, and continues to disappoint even my meager expectations of an opposition party to the Bush monarchists. I could respect a principled stand against the Democrats. However, Joe is lacking all principles here. He’s just a big pussy.
Lieberman knew about this challenge months ago. He knew about liberal outrage with his stands with the administration, and against the left before that. He’s had plenty of time to go independent. He’s only done it when the polling numbers have shown a serious challenge. His stance, in spite of what he says, seems to be: give me the primary or I will scuttle the Democrats’ chances for my seat altogether. (By the way, the Dems shameless murder of Paul Hackett’s campaign set the stage for this mess – way to go guys!)
What a disgusting display by a career political time-server, who wants to continue to gorge himself at the public trough. What a subversion of our system, participating in a primary, and then using his war chest to destroy the results if he doesn’t like them. What an arrogant SOB to claim that he knows best, when we know this is a case of taking his “dolly and dishes and going home” when the game goes against him. I sure hope Connecticut voters are smarter than he thinks they are.
Lieberwimp claims that he has been getting a bad rap (especially, you know, by us evil bloggers). He says that he votes with the Democrats 90% of the time. Over his 30+ year political career, this may be true. But let’s look at the outrages of the last year: Iraq – He still openly supports it, and he’s wrong. He says this shows that he is his own man (even if it shows he’s stupid!). But let us not forget that he supported domestic spying, that he voted for the changes to the bankruptcy bill (that favored credit card companies over consumers), and most heineously, supported the denial of emergency contraception to rape victims. His statement (paraphrased) was “Connecticut is a small state, they can walk to another hospital that will help them.”
This last year in politics shows that Lieberman has gone to the dark side, and doesn’t deserve liberal or centrist support. He has championed denial of health care to rape victims, the destruction of the Bill of Rights, the waging of an illegal and unprovoked war, and the subversion of democracy in his own state! Quite a record to run on.
A year in infamy, and one that should have him “bum rushed” out of the Democratic Party. Instead, prominent party big-wigs say they will endorse him, even in an independent run. And why not? They killed the Hackett campaign and subverted Democracy in Ohio, why not Connecticut? Why not just junk the electoral process altogether, anoint princes of the Democratic Party that can serve (mainly as jesters) in the court of the evil King George.
Thomas Jefferson, the founder of America’s liberal party, is spinning in his grave. Thomas Paine may rise from the dead, eat the brains of the living and puke down the front of Howard Dean’s desk and all over the lobby of the DNC’s headquarters. It would be apt, a fitting Hollywood horror-type scene to show the abhorrent disgust that liberals feel over this kind of betrayal of our values, and our rapidly disappearing democracy. Pay attention to the blogs DNC! These shows of old-boy network cowardice and cronyism are driving your base away from the Party, and will keep them home in November. Lieberpussy is just your latest failure, in a year of horrible miscues and missed opportunities. And you still don’t have a consistent message that people can hear.
Joe Lieberscum may be the final nail in the Democratic Party’s coffin. The Democratic Leadership seems to be doing all it can to commit suicide in a mid-term cycle when the stars have been aligned in their favor since last October. Look what Ralph Nadar did to Gore in 2000. And Gore was seen as just too vanilla to inspire much support, not inept, cowardly and unresponsive to their base like the Democratic Leadership is today. As liberal voters continue to see the Republican-like depths that prominent Democrats will sink to in order to maintain their hold on power, they will fail to see a difference between the two parties. They will stop grass-roots support, stop contributing cash and time, and stop caring about their government until another, more viable option presents itself.
The talk in the media about failed leadership should be about the President, not the Democrats. Talk of the corrupting of the democratic process should be centered on the Republicans’ bribe-taking, not the Democrats’ primary-fixing. If the Democrats don’t fail to win the House or Senate this fall, it won’t be because they didn’t try. They will have to be lucky at this point, especially in Connecticut.
