For Lieberman, the 'I' Stands for 'Ignored'

The Washington Post ^ | September 7, 2006 | Dana Muilbank

[libstripper]

You could feel the temperature drop as Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut entered the Senate chamber yesterday for the first time since he lost his Democratic primary last month and became an independent candidate.

Democratic leaders Richard Durbin (Ill.) and Charles Schumer (N.Y.) kept a safe distance. Christopher Dodd (Conn.) gave him a perfunctory handshake. Harry Reid (Nev.), the minority leader, turned his back; when Lieberman approached, Reid indulged him in a quick handshake then quickly busied himself in another conversation.

Republican Susan Collins (Maine), spying Lieberman alone in the center aisle, rushed over with a hug and a kiss -- and a pledge to campaign for him in Connecticut. Could she feel the daggers in his back when she hugged him? Collins chuckled. "I told him I'm going to get him a dog named Harry," she told reporters later.

Harry Truman's famous adage -- If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog -- has never been truer. After Lieberman was vanquished by antiwar candidate Ned Lamont in last month's primary, 40 of the 45 members of the Senate Democratic caucus abandoned their longtime colleague and their party's former vice presidential nominee. In this town, partisanship is thicker than friendship.

[boomop1]

As soon as he wins he will switch back to the Rat party especially if it gives them charge of the senate.

[doc30]

The Dem's are going to have to live with the fact that they abandoned Lieberman and he got re elected.

The dems will rationalize it as a need to move further leftward. Lamont didn't win because he was not liberal and socialist enough. They'll find an even loonier moonbat to put up in the next election.

[VeniVidiVici]

So how warm a welcome did the GOP give Jim Jeffords?

If I remember correctly, Jumping Jim switched parties in midstream and in doing so, forfeited the Republican majority.

He should have been tarred and feathered.

[polymuser]

So how warm a welcome did the GOP give Jim Jeffords?

Surely, you jest.

[mkjessup]

So how warm a welcome did the GOP give Jim Jeffords?

No comparison.

Jeffords abandoned ship and stabbed the GOP in the back and immediately began giving aid and comfort to the enemy, err, the 'Rats, ahh what-the-Hell is the difference?

In Joe's case, the left-wing moonbats seized control of the party machinery, Comrade Ned poured enough of his own personal fortune into the primary, and with enough daggers in Joe's back, the primary result was inevitable.

And come election day, Lieberman will be returned to the Senate by a wide margin as an Independent, the Kos/Lamont/Murtha faction of the 'Rats will be beside themselves, and Dana Milbank of the Washington Post will still be an ignorant slut.

[OldFriend]

Count on the dems embracing LIEberman and he giving them a pass for their despicable behaviour towards him.

[DustyMoment]

While the primary win of Lamont over Lieberman gives moveon.org about the only victory it can claim in its sorry history, that Lieberman will likely return to the Senate as an independent is a rather heart-warming irony.

I know that Lieberman is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who will caucus with the Dems once he returns to the Senate as an indie next year, but I can't help questioning his sanity. Why would he want to continue to work on the side of the people who threw him to the wolves in hopes of engineering his political defeat after all he has done for the political left? I don't understand that allegiance on his part.

I sincerely hope that, in the intervening period, Lieberman examines his conscience and his allegiances and sees which side his bread is REALLY buttered on.

(Hint: It ISN'T with the Dems, Joe!)

[libstripper]

Lieberman's only fault with the Democrats is actually believing that the nation should be defended!

A fault on the order of, "Aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

[JayNorth]

So how warm a welcome did the GOP give Jim Jeffords?

The other huge difference is that Jeffords was, at best, a RINO, while Lieberman votes the DIM ideology baloney 95% of the time. The DIMs are so narrow-minded they can't accept their own vice-presidential candidate if he deviates on just one issue.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

if he stays as an independent, even if he does caucus with the Rats, he'll still lose all of his prized committee seats.

If anyone will have second thoughts after a Lieberman reelection, it will the Democratic caucus in the Senate. If he's the fiftyfirst vote for the Democrats Lieberman will be the best friend they ever had, forever (or until the next election, whichever comes first). He will get whatever committee seats he would have expected before his primary defeat.

And I doubt that the situation would be much different if he were the fiftysecond or the fortynineth or fortyeighth Democratic vote. But for now, with the election coming up, they think they have to be distant. The thing that will really stick in their craw will be the pressure he creates to resist the left wing of the party, with the start of a presidential election looming the minute the votes are counted in November.

The Democrats are never gonna stop resenting Lieberman's running as an independent after losing the primary, but they're gonna need his vote badly if he wins.

[SunkenCiv]

it's all about the spin:

Senators: Welcome back, Joe (Lieberman)
The Hill | 9/7/06 | By Jonathan Allen and Alexander Bolton
Posted on 09/08/2006 6:10:27 PM EDT by JeanS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1698064/posts