Terminalcoffee discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Feeling Nostalgic? The archives
>
Lieberman
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
[deleted user]
(new)
Nov 18, 2008 11:43AM
Man, I am fuming, absolutely fuming, that Senator Lieberman gets to keep his committee chair. First off, I am not a vindictive guy, but here are the facts: He campaigned against Obama; he campaigned against two Democrats running for the Senate; and for the past two years, he has done not one ounce of the oversight that is expected from his committee. Reaching across the aisle and being bi-partisan is one thing, but abject spinelessness is quite another. The American people spoke quite clearly two weeks ago, and our pansy Democrats in the Senate still didn't hear. Is it any wonder we feel so disenfranchised?
reply
|
flag
I don't know much about that dude, but I thought it was weird that he was campaigning against Obama. Does anyone know Lieberman's deal?
I do. He was a Democrat, and he was so unpopular in Connecticut, largely for his stance on Iraq and his embrace of Bush's foreign policy, that he lost the primary for his re-election to the Senate. So he became an Independent and won his seat back with help from the Republicans. His popularity in his home state now, though, is incredibly low. To borrow a term from Bell, that asshat needs to go.
Lieberman supports the Iraq war against the majority of the Democratic party, and is hawkish in general. Especially when it comes to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. He's only a quasi-Democrat at this point anyway, after having split with the party during his last campaign for Senate.
I'm from Connecticut. He should have gone at the last go-around of his election, but unfortunately the anti-war protesters chose a complete idiot to run against him. He literally only had one answer to every question, no matter on what subject: "The Iraq war sucks!" ... yeah, he said that to health care policy, Medicare, global warming, anything. Which is why nobody could take him seriously. I really wanted to vote for him... and I just couldn't responsibly do it. And I was /looking/ for a reason not to vote Lieberman.I think people might hate him enough next time for him to lose his seat, though.
I'm also outraged that he gets to keep his committee chair. Not only did he campaign for Obama, he actively campaigned against him with McCain. McCain wanted to make him his running mate, and was talked out of it. Supposedly, Lieberman had already indicated that he would do it. I get the whole thing about being inclusive and a "team of rivals" or whatever, but its not like Lieberman just disagrees with Obama. He actively believes that Obama should not be president, and he's been incredibly loud about it.
That said, I love our other Senator: Yay for Chris Dodd!
Except that Chris Dodd actively campaigned to let Lieberman keep his chair. Did I mention I'm fuming?
I'm boggled. I'd lose my job if I just showed up late one too many times.
I know that he did, but Dodd pretty much has to do that out of loyalty to the state. Lieberman being in a power position is good for Connecticut and Dodd knows it. He might also be wary that we won't actually kick him out at the next election, since it didn't happen last time. 
I don't know, I like this decision. The Democratic Party is showing it is tolerant of dissent.
Frankly, Lieberman is GOP all the way.And I hate to say this, but I suddenly just started to wonder if he's one of those crazy hardcore Zionist Jews who just wants to kill every single Palestinian or wipe out that entire region except Israel. I know some like that.
I don't think Lieberman is GOP all the way. I hate to defend the guy. I don't know why I'm in this position! But if you look at his voting record, if we're not on national security issues, I'm pretty sure he's with the democratic party. Yes, in terms of PR he's been a disaster, and he's a stubborn ass, and I don't like his foreign policy, but that isn't the whole sum of him.
Ah, well you would know better. And it's true all I know from the past 4 years is his foreign policy.
You know, it's not that he campaigned against Obama and two folks running for the Senate. I could actually overlook that. It's that while he was in this position the last two years, he held not one, not ONE, oversight hearing on this committee, not even about Katrina, even though he promised he would. And okay, it's a little about vengeance. I'm sorry, but fuck being magnanimous. Politics is a hard game, and when you pick the wrong side, you suffer. Lieberman is literally playing every side of the fence.
I'll never forgive Lieberman for pandering to conservatives by repeatedly invoking God during his Democratic presidential campaign. (Plus, he has a voice like the father from ALF.)
I don't know much about him, but he always looks nervous to me. Like he's going to put his finger in his collar and stretch it before saying, "Is it getting hot in here?"
I agree with Erik. Aside from his near-complete repudiation of the Democratic party during the election (I could understand the McCain support, but when he campaigned for Republican Senate candidates my jaw hit the floor) he has been completely inept in the committees that he chairs. For having such a powerful seat he has not used it at all. For how a committee should be run you need not look farther than Rep. Waxman's tenure as Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
They won't try to take away his committeeship now. Not now that the Democrat has finally beat the felon (is that what it takes to elect a democrat in Alaska??) in Alaska, and the Dems are so close to 60 in the Senate. They don't want to piss him off. Lieberman's in a power position at the moment, and he knows it.
Yeah, MN is still up in the air. If Franken gets that, it's 59. Then there's a special election in GA, and if the Dem wins that it's 60 and no Repub filibuster, so I think it's just strategy to try to placate Lieberman and get him to come back into the light at least until CT can elect another Dem.
Yeah, the Dems aren't going to win that election in Georgia. They'd need an obscene turnout once again to make that happen, and I don't think that it will. Not without the presidential election to bring people out. Or not unless the D Triple-C spends shit tons of money and sends crap loads of people there to make it /clear/ how important that seat could be. Anyone heard if they've done that yet?
DCCC is all over the Georgia race. Also, Chambliss has recently been subpoenaed about that fire at a sugar refinery a couple of years ago. It appears he was behind not enforcing workplace safety regulations. The Dems are also rolling out that Chambliss took five deferments for Vietnam while his opponent, Martin, served. They're going after him hard.
I hope so. Chambliss is scum through and through. I am still holding a grudge from his 2002 election tactics against Max Cleland.
Erik: I'm glad to hear that! Let's hope that they're going after it enough to make sure that people come out and decide to do something about that awful man. I certainly agree its do-able. Perhaps I'm just too used to expecting the worst result for Democrats. :)Logan: What'd he do to Cleland?
Kelly, basically he painted a triple-amputee Vietnam vet as a terrorist sympathizer that was going to hand over the state of Georgie to bin Laden. Most pundits attribute this to Cleland's loss in that electionI'm looking for a youtube of the most contentious ad but so far have found this, which is pretty decent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIn-o...
Here's the ad in an excerpt from an MSNBC interview with Saxby Chambliss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNxcRa...
Ahh! To say the least. Thank you all for filling me in. Just goes to show the Economist was right when it said that the Republican party is increasingly in the hands of people with absolutely no ideas but xenophobia and homophobia and fear. I suppose the one negative side of the Democratic landslide is that the last moderate Republicans appear to be gone or going, and that's the message that has been given from both sides, be extreme or be out.Thanks for filling me in now. I'm glad to see the DCCC is taking full advantage of its chance to toss out this monster.
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
