I will always marvel at the way the Democrats operate, or should I say fail to operate, as a national party.  Compare and contrast what happened to Trent Lott with Lieberman?  Lott got the shaft when his associations became a distraction, even though he had done nothing which opposed his party, merely embarrassed himself.  Lieberman could probably call for the impeachment of Obama the day after his Inauguration and nothing substantial to him would happen.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt

That's fucking retarded. That's literally the stupidest fucking shit I have ever heard.  You have to actually TRY to be this kind of stupid.
I want my change. I want my change and I want it fucking NOW.

Dude, if Bob Casey votes in favor of this I am going to rip his ass to shreds tomorrow.
All I have to add is that we know who to blame if something goes wrong.  Can't wait for the next game of "who could have predicted..."

Oh wait: one more tiny little thing.  2010 needs to involve a few strong primary challenges.  We have more democrats, now it is time for BETTER democrats.

John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??

what's to be expected from Dem Leaders who have no more spine than the common earthworm.

At least earthworms are useful.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

hmmmmmmmm

lieberman keeps power and doesnt get kicked out of the dems caucus, rahm is in the white house sitting on obamas right shoulder....gates may be staying....clinton may be in cabinet....dean is leaving dnc (supposedly his choice) ..........mcauliffe may be running for gov of virginia and who knows what that is a stepping stone for.

tell me again the objections to hillary as president and head of the party?

I'm pretty disappointed in some of Obama's early moves, to be honest.

Robert Parry's column re Obama's starting to repeat the early mistakes of the Clinton era is a must read today.

I fear he's trying to show how generous and forgiving he can be, in a world where that behavior simply ranks you as a naive amateur.

Obama has an agenda and he needs an administration that will act like a well-oiled machine. Does anyone think FOR A SECOND that Hillary Clinton and Bill will take orders from this young upstart when they have their own budget and their own staff and when, once ensconced, there'll be no diplomatic way to get rid of them?

Big mistakes, right off the bat, that may hinder his agenda for the rest of his term. I can't help but think Rahm Emanuel is to blame for some of this (including Lieberman). Dean is out, the Clinton's are in, and we're looking at a rerun, rather than the Change We Need.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

BS..any Demo who speaks at a Republican National Convention should be fired from the Democratic Party. why did all of us work for Obama, just to see Traitor Joe retain his chairmanship. It is a sad day.

I will believe it when I see it, but it makes sense from the perspective that if the caucus causes LIEberman to bolt then it would be spun as Obama's first Congressional loss since he asked the caucus to keep LIEberman in the caucus.

Personally, I'd like to see LIEberman ousted - I have no tolerance of disloyalty - but we'll see if the caucus is pissed or useless - I see no other alternatives.

The Underground Railroad

confirmation of the rumors from greenwald @ salon:

UPDATE:   Numerous sources...are now reporting that the Senate Democratic caucus has reached a deal with Joe Lieberman, and he will retain his Chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.  The deal will be ratified in a vote tomorrow morning (and will entail his losing a totally meaningless subcommittee chair).  

Nobody who has watched Congressional Democrats over the last many years could possibly have expected any other outcome.  This is who they are and what they do.  The silver lining is that it will once again remind people, still euphoric over the election results, of this reality.

And as the anger pours forth from people who raise money for Democrats and expended huge amounts of time and effort to elect Barack Obama, the more vindicated Senate Democrats will feel in what they just did.  That's how they look centrist and bipartisan -- by infuriating their supporters, the perceived "Left."  They don't believe in Sister Souljah moments; they believe in Sister Souljahism as an operating principle, a way of life.

meet the new boss, same as the old boss

this really pisses me off.

the revolution will not be televised...

oversight:

Lieberman's Weak Record on Oversight

By Jason Leopold

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:50:00

(The Intelligence Daily) -- Most of the attention on whether Joe Lieberman should be ousted from his Senate committee chairmanship has focused on his disloyalty to Democrats and his control of homeland security issues, but there's also the question of how well he has handled his panel's broad government oversight responsibilities.

In contrast to his House counterpart, Rep. Henry Waxman, who has chaired dozens of high-profile hearings on the Bush administration's wrongdoing the past two years, Sen. Lieberman has not held a single hearing on Executive Branch malfeasance nor has he issued any subpoenas demanding information from the administration.

That means Lieberman's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has passed over for hearings issues such as warrantless domestic surveillance, Iraq contracting fraud, "enhanced interrogation" of detainees, and the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

And the Iraqis are getting pretty tired of it too. This from the NYT:

Iraq Quietly Dismisses Its Anticorruption Officials

By JAMES GLANZ and RIYADH MOHAMMED
Published: November 17, 2008
BAGHDAD -- The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing oversight officials who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here.

The dismissals, which were confirmed by senior Iraqi and American government officials on Sunday and Monday, come as estimates of official Iraqi corruption soar. One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States has been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials.

Speculation is that AIPEC is in full "support Lieberman" mode and is threatening senators--wouldn't doubt it a bit!

But there are areas (labor, education, environment) when Liebermann votes 100% Democratic.

Give him validation by giving him a Secretary position in an area that is irrelevant to AIPAC, and you get a reliable secretary and a new senator.

Michaela

the demorats in the senate deserve everything that's coming to them if this is true.
this is smart politics? who the hell is running the senate anyway and what does any senator have to do to get booted out of his committee chairmanship? good lord.
what a laughingstock

Obviously, the Democrats are idiots.

I think it's worth repeating what Glenn Greenwald has said about this, which Brenden and idredit have already noted:

This little vignette provides a very vivid and crystallizing illustration of how Congressional Democratic leaders think and behave.  They consider it a good thing -- not a bad thing -- when they anger their own base.  They're thrilled when they get accused -- accurately -- of acting like Republicans and supporting right-wing measures, particularly on national security and "terrorism" issues.   They consider it a benefit -- an incentive -- when they are attacked for embracing Republican political policies and violating the principles of their own base.

The Democrats aren't idiots. This is about power. The Democrats want to rub it in that nothing has changed, that the same elites control the country, that progressives have no voice in the government.

Bernie Sanders called it blackmail.

It worked.

Firedoglake: Lieberman: Suck On That, Liberals!

Cillizza:

Asked what it would mean if Lieberman kept his chairmanship, one Senate Democratic aide said bluntly: "The left has been foiled again. They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes. Their influence would be in question."

I hope this puts to rest the notion that this is all some master stroke of kumbayah, of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

This is about telling you that you mean nothing.   That democracy is a nice word, but it should never threaten the entitlement of the most exclusive club in the world.

No matter what Joe Lieberman does, the people who are protecting him hate you much more than they hate him.

Just like telecom amnesty -- hamsher is right -- obama just flipped every one of us off -- took our money though and promised change -- "it's all about you" ... what a bunch of shit.

I'll have to admit that I'm a little disgusted right now.  Not with Obama, and not with his transition team.  But with many of the comments and the commenters here at this post.  The election was exactly 13 days ago.  We have more than eight years (yes, MORE than eight years - this started a generation ago or more) of crap to dig ourselves out of.  Everybody wants a piece of Obama, and everyone expects him to work miracles.  If any of you think that this isn't going to be a long uphill battle, you've been living in some kind of dream world.  I really believe in this man.  I've talked to people who have known him and worked with him since he was a community organizer.  I believe in his vision, his intelligence, his integrity, and his courage.  We have to give him a chance.  He will not be able to undo everything immediately.  But his announcements so far, with regard to Guantanamo and executive orders and torture and urban policy and the Justice Department, etc., have been proof to me that he intends to follow through on his campaign rhetoric.  

It is in keeping with his character that he does not hold a grudge against Lieberman.  (I am not as forgiving a person; I do hold a grudge.  I called every Democratic senator today to ask them to strip Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.)  It is part and parcel of the reason many of us voted for him.  He really believes in what he "preaches."  He believes in unity and diversity.  He believes in reaching across the aisle in the most basic sense - forgiving his former enemy.  Perhaps he is just exercising that maxim, "Keep your friends close, and keep your enemies closer."  But that would also be in keeping with his character - practical and sensible.

The Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State issue is a bit of a mystery to me, but I'm not gullible enough to believe everything the press tells us when it involves the Obama transition.  I'll believe it if and when a formal announcement is made.  There are few members of the mainstream/corporate press that I trust.  After all, aren't they still feeding us this center-right BS?

 

who cares anymore?

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

CHANGE!!!!!!!!!

I smell the change and it smells like ass.

John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??

A great victory for Lieberman, and still shows the Democrats have no backbone. They talk a good game. Leahy, Sanders, Carper and the others got all red-faced, and blew 3 gaskets saying how Lieberman done them wrong. But in the end, freedom of speech still rules.

Why is it that both parties are so intent on screaming at each other, rather than trying to find solutions to this country's massive problems??

that just makes me sick, Obama's first foolish mistake by supporting a Traitor to the Democratic Party. I think each and every Democratic Senator who voted against Traitor Joe, should use some code words to let us know how they voted.

" support true members of the Democratic Party for Chairmanship positions." That way we know who has backbone and who doesn't.  

You including Obama here? I think it's hard not to.

Wake the fuck up, for a change. Anyone who is disappointed or pissed off right now has a serious case of attention deficit disorder. But go ahead and keep on voting in these backstabbing traitors. Just do those of us who aren't surprised a favor and quit the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It isn't amusing anymore. It's fucking annoying. You've all gotten exactly what you deserve for low balling the real need for a real agent of change. Jesus H Christ...

Green Grass and High Tides Forever