A BIG BIG question about the Lieberman situation

[Freddie Stubbs]

Lieberman has said that he will caucus with the Democrats if he is reelcted in November. I don't doubt that the Democrats would allow him to, as he votes with the party 90% of the time. But...

What about right now? He is actively campaigning against the Democratic nominee. Is he still permitted to attend caucus meetings? Will he be permitted to keep his Democratic committee assignments? he is currently the ranking member of Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs Committee. I have yet to hear anyone address this issue.

[ThomWV]

1. Call Reid's Office And Demand He Be Stripped Of All Party Support

Fuck him and his ego.

The man puts himself above the good of the nation. The people have spoken but that asswipe believes himself to be a better judge of if he represents his constituents views than they do.

Fuck him and his ego.

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. If Reid doesn't take away his it would show

where he really is on this issue. Saying that he supports Lamont is one thing. Actually doing something is another. Actions speak louder than words.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. It was the subject of a poll earlier ....

in the day on DU... perhaps the politics forum. Overwhelmigly DUers said he should be immediately stripped of all assigments. ( I didn't vote).

[TrueFunkSoldier]

4. Let's look at it this way...

Imagine that LIEberman is a Republican...well, o.k., but you get my point:

Anyway, if LIEberman was a member of the Repug party and he lost the primary to another Repug, then threatens to become an Indie to retain his seat, would the Repug establishment accept him to caucus with other Repugs? The answer is FUCK, NO!!!

So, if that is the case, why would the Dems allow it? Why would the Dem establishment even allow LIEberman to retain his cherished committee assignments?

When Jeffords became an Independent and began to caucus with the Dems, he was stripped of all his most prized committee memberships and "demoted" to lower status, but Dems propped him up and made him a more prominent member.

The Dems ought not allow LIEberman to betray the party, then accept him back with open arms.

Mr. LIEberman: either you're a Democrat or you're a Sore Loserman. You can't have it both ways, sir!!

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. So if he is allowed to keep his committee assignments, it means that

the Democrats in the Senate really want him to win, but are too chickenshit to support him publicly?

[Protagoras]

13. 100% Correct.

And because of the corporate infection that binds the bastards together I suspect there is a lot of non-public support they are going to funnel him because they figure if they can back door him back into his job everyone will forget in a few months how utterly he has betrayed the party.

Betrayal aside (not that it can be) his *concession* speech was the most low class act I've ever seen in politics.

[Clarkie1]

5. I don't believe he should be allowed to keep his committee assignments

if he actively campaigns against the Democratic nominee.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. I agree 100%

[KoKo]

6. Check out this DU post from this morning about what we can do!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2767758

[KoKo]

7. Here's a snip of the Sirota Article....

Lamont’s Victory & Lieberman’s Insult to Democracy & the Democratic Party


That’s right - Lieberman is announcing he will move forward with plans to abuse loopholes in Connecticut’s election laws, ignore Democratic Party voters who voted in our democratic process for change, and mount a Lieberman for Lieberman Independent bid. This, from the guy who went on television after the 2004 presidential race (which was the closer than the Connecticut primary) to declare that “there’s no prizes for second place in American politics.” Yes, you read that right - the Senator who says there’s “no prizes for second place” and who has in the final days of Democratic primary campaigning been running around claiming that he gets the message and realizes he no longer should enable George W. Bush’s right-wing agenda now is saying that he will try to rely on hard-core Republican voters and moneymen in a general election contest in a desperate attempt to hold onto power.

-snip-

Make no mistake about it - be prepared for Lieberman, the Enron lobbyists, corporate lawyers, Establishment pundits and other assorted characters in the Washington brothel to run out immediately and trumpet how incredible it was that Lieberman got so close, insist that Lieberman loss was supposedly the doing of anti-semites, and demand that every god-fearing, terrorist-hating American support Lieberman’s selfish independent candidacy or the Republic will not be able to go on. What they want to do is pretend that Lieberman hasn’t spent 18 years in the Senate, wasn’t have every single advantage, didn’t outspend his opponent with a massive corporate-funded warchest, and was, instead, the courageous underdog who supposedly did not arrogantly ignore mainstream public opinion with his stands pushing the Iraq War, Social Security privatization and corporate-written trade deals that sold out American jobs. That storyline provides a convenient excuse to justify Lieberman ignoring Connecticut voters, Connecticut taxpayers who funded the election, and all the democratic principles this country is supposed to be based on. It provides a consultant-packaged excuse for Lieberman to ignore voters and insult the Democratic Party by running as a party of one, and potentially throwing the general election to the Republican Party.
-snip-

Lieberman’s concession speech tonight spitefully announcing that he will abandon the Democratic Party that he has spent the last week transparently pleging his fealty to is classic Lieberman. You may recall that after he was crushed in the New Hampshire primary, he proudly boasted that “we are in a three-way split decision for third place” - as if he really thought voters were stupid enough to think that was a good thing and that he was well on his way to winning the nomination. Similarly today, he is claiming that the Democratic Party primary election is just the "first half" of the election process - again, thinking voters are so stupid, they don’t see that what he’s really doing is giving the big middle finger to American democracy.

But voters do see what’s going on - and that’s why Lieberman, an 18-year incumbent who outspent his opponent, was handed a crushing defeat tonight: because ordinary people realize that Joe Lieberman and the Washington Establishment he represents has for too long been allowed to sellout their constituents and this country as a whole. Ned Lamont is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Connecticut. Every single Democratic officeholder in this country (that means YOU Kerry, Feingold, Clinton, Edwards, Warner, et al.) has an obligation to respect the Democratic Party primary election that took place tonight, lest they too go on record as saying they see Democratic Party voters and America’s democratic as an afterthought in comparison to their own personal political ambitions (Good news: Lieberman’s DLC colleague Sen. Evan Bayh immediately announced after the primary his endorsement of Lamont). Likewise, Democratic leaders in Congress now have an obligation to remove Lieberman from his committee assignments, and cut off Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee resources, now that he has officially left the Democratic Party.

more at......
http://davidsirota.com/index.php/2006/08/08/lamonts-victory-liebermans-insult-to-democracy-the-democratic-party

[Skidmore]

10. And does that make him privy to Dem campaign strategies etc.?

Seems as though severing all ties with Lieberman is necessary. He can't have it both ways.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. Perhaps not campaign, but definitely legislative strategy

And during an election the two are certainly intertwined.

[Norquist Nemesis]

12. Meanwhile, Rove gives him a call

and Mitch McConnell on back-up gives and under the table deal for a Chair if he'll switch to (R).

Not a fact, but just sayin'.