Reading the Lieb-leaves

Team Obama’s statement on the fate of the perfidious Joe Lieberman has everyone flummoxed. Some say it bodes well for Lieberman. Others say it bodes ill. Some are pissed off at what they see as a capitulation. Let’s unpack the actual statement, shall we?

We aren’t going to referee decisions about who should or should not be a committee chair.

TRANSLATION: Let the Senate deal with the turncoat bastard. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.

President-elect Obama looks forward to working with anyone to move the country forward.

TRANSLATION: If Satan himself emerged from Hell with a viable bail-out plan for the auto industry in his brimstone-reeking paws, we’d listen. So if Lieberman wants to act like a Democrat, he’s welcome to do so, even though he’s only somewhat less evil than Satan. Heck, we’ll even deal with Boehner; we mean anyone.

We’d be happy to have Sen. Lieberman caucus with the Democrats. We don’t hold any grudges.

TRANSLATION: Lieberman is a loser. Loo-hoo-hoo-ZER. As such, he is beneath our notice. If he wants to get on board the O-Train, that’s fine with us. Or he can hang around at the station with the dregs of the GOP like Paul Broun and wait for the citizens of Connecticut to kick his sorry ass the curb during the next election.

To quote Michael Corleone, it’s not personal—it’s business. No one deserves a swift kick in the junk more than Joe Lieberman, and I’m sure there are many on the Obama team who are thirsting for revenge along with the rest of us. But by maintaining a studiously neutral stance, Obama is doing something even more humiliating than publicly repudiating Lieberman: He’s waving the question away as if it were fundamentally irrelevant. And that’s got to hurt.

Think about it: Lieberman has spent the past year basking in the McMavericky glow of a dramatic presidential campaign. He’s traveled the world and all corners of the US, droning on in his mewling voice to thousands of attentive listeners who wouldn’t normally give a shit what the sanctimonious prick has to say.

Now it’s all over. After all the drama, his candidate went down, and the President-Elect doesn’t even deign to decide Lieberman’s fate. Sure, a personal rebuke from Obama might be more immediately gratifying in the short term to those of us who despise Lieberman. But martyrdom is something Holy Joe thrives on. Recall as proof his preening speech at the RNC, in which he lugubriously donned the Country First mantle, casting himself as the Brave Patriot who dared to defy his own party despite the peril to his career. And now Obama can’t be bothered to even denounce him.

And if you think Holy Joe is off the hook and will retain his plum assignments, I say think again. It is by no means certain. All Obama has done is pass this off to Reid. And Reid has signaled that he’ll pass it over to the Democratic senators. If they strip him of his committee chairmanships, what’s he going to do, run over to the GOP like a puling toddler and start voting with them 100% of the time, thereby trashing his reputation as a bipartisan dealer and obliterating any chance whatsoever of reelection?

Lieberman’s colleagues are passing him around untouched like a plate of Aunt Gertrude’s nasty pickled relish jello. One way or another, I think he’s going down the garbage disposal before it’s all over. 

Posted by Betty Cracker on 11/11/08 at 01:54 PM • Permalink

You’ve unpacked it well! I’d just add that I think it’s ironic that people who spent most of the last eight years bemoaning the overreach of the executive branch would like to see Obama start out, before he’s even inaugurated, by dictating to the Senate how to run the chamber.

Put pressure on Reid if you want to see Lieberman demoted, but making him a martyr plays right into the idiot’s hands.

Thank you Betty.  Been thinking a lot of these same things the past couple days.  Once again you have summed up things brilliantly.
Everyone needs to gather up the memes and paradigms we have been living with for the past 20 or 40 years and put them into pile and then set fire to them.  It is a new day in America my fellow prisoners. 
No, the Dems don’t need Liebigjowls’ vote and yes he is a douche-tard but as you said Betty we can’t make him a martyr.  Just wish he had been up for re-election this year. 

BTW, I bet he is still trying to get the nasty taste of Palin out of his mouth.

One way or another, I think he’s going down the garbage disposal before it’s all over. 

I hope to hell you’re right. I hope Obama is just playing “good cop” , treating Joe like he’s not worthy to take the time to piss on, and leaving it to his peers to stuff him head first into the dumpster.  I think that if the Democrats are stupid enough to leave him in charge of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs , that they are just begging for trouble. As much as Holy Joe was as effective as a paperweight in reigning in the excesses of the Little Boots Administration , I could see him using his position to investigate every trumped up steaming pile of horse shit that his Republican pals can think up. It would be a lot easier to remove him now , than to wait until he can cry foul later.
Although , in the interest of healing , I say keep him in the caucus, and give him some minor commitee chair. Something fitting , like heading up a commitee to make sure all the bathrooms in the Capitol Building are kept clean and well stocked with TP and soap , and make him take out the trash for good measure.

Once again you have summed up things brilliantly.

Indeed.

After all the drama, his candidate went down, and the President-Elect doesn’t even deign to decide Lieberman’s fate. Sure, a personal rebuke from Obama might be more immediately gratifying in the short term to those of us who despise Lieberman. But martyrdom is something Holy Joe thrives on.

That’s the core essence I think everyone is missing. Lieberman would have thrived on the hurt if it came from Obama. There’s nothing Repubs want more now than to constantly harp about how Obama isn’t post-partisan. He’s very adept at playing potentially awkward/explosive situations to his advantage (ie how he handled McCain’s “campaign suspension” or Rev. Wright) in extremely subtle ways.

So true, Betty, so true. You should be a translator at the U.N.

Btw, as a resident of the Nutmeg State, I say “throw the bum out.” But I think Obama is practicing the art of keeping his friends near and his enemies nearer, and kudos to him.

Absolutely. Let the back of the class sort him out. There would be no better, fitting end for Leiberman than to just fade away. No headlines, no speeches, no announcements. Just a slow burn into obscurity.

Can’t say I’m thrilled about the decision being left to Reid, who has shown absolutely no spine.

TRANSLATION: Let the Senate deal with the turncoat bastard. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.

I think you pretty much summed up the whole thing right there.  He does have a lot more important things to deal with right now than this so let Harry Reid do his own goddam job.  Lieberman chose a path that, as mentioned above, will now result in him becoming irrelevant.  Too bad.  Obama’s dealing with stuff like rolling back most, if not all, of Chimpy’s bad executive decisions including restoring funding for stem cell research and closing Guantanamo, not to mention propping up the increasingly wobbly economy, ending the war in Iraq, fixing health care, and on and on.  Concerning himself with the fate of Joe Lieberdouche - not really making the to-do list.

passing him around untouched like a plate of Aunt Gertrude’s nasty pickled relish jello.

Is that actually jello with pickle relish in it?  Yee gods!  Does it come out at Thanksgiving?

Is that actually jello with pickle relish in it?  Yee gods!  Does it come out at Thanksgiving?

Well, it did when she was alive, bless her heart. We miss her. But not her jello.

Can’t say I’m thrilled about the decision being left to Reid, who has shown absolutely no spine.

Reid punted it to the Dem caucus, so maybe something will be done after all. There’s an interesting discussion about it at Open Left here.

Well stated. You know a lot of fRighties were waiting to leap up and start screaming about purges and persecution. You can bet there would have been dark mutterings of anti-Semitism. Now ... Well now the fReichtards are thinking Obama will be another wimpy Democrat and they can continue to do whatever the hell they want.

The box is balanced on the stick. The bait is laid, now Obama is waiting behind a bush with the string in his hand.

The next four years are going to be so full of win I can almost taste it.

At some point during the campaign I heard the comment that McCain’s campaign was playing checkers.  Obama was playing chess.  I think we’ll see that aspect of him quite a bit in the coming years.  And I mean that in a very good way!

"I bet he is still trying to get the nasty taste of Palin out of his mouth.”

Oh GROSSSSSSS!

and yeah, like everyone said, Obama is handling this exactly how he should and how he’s handled most everything—GREAT! I’m so thrilled about our collective futures I may just float off into the stratosphere!

What Obama REALLY said to Bush in the Oval office yesterday.