Senator Lieberman

I have to admit a small amount of disappointment on hearing the news that Joe Lieberman was allowed to keep his important chairmanship of the Homeland Security (don't you hate that term?) committee. To indulge in a cliché, look up "righteousness" in the dictionary and you'll find the senator's mug.

Prior to his sermon on the floor of the Senate during the build-up to the Clinton impeachment, I had a vague impression of Senator Joe as being one of the good guys. And, in fact, he is. But, damn, what a pain in the ass. He reminds me of his good buddy, John McCain, as someone who relies on strategically positive headlines. What a devoted, sincere guy who will walk the five miles to the Capital on a Saturday to preserve his religious commitment to keeping the Sabbath holy. Well, lah dee dah. Its right up there with the devotion we're supposed to feel for that other Senator Joe - Joe the Biden, as I've learned the McCain campaign folks loved to call him (I like the joke) - for his use of commuter trains between Delaware and Washington. Well, BFD...

Al Gore, mistakenly in my opinion, tapped into the goodness image of Leiberman when he ran in 2000. I can't posit that he hurt Gore (Gore did that on his own by abandoning his personality and ceding to handlers), but it certainly was a boring choice.

When Lieberman was justly denied the opportunity to run for reelection as a Democrat in 2004 when the citizens of Connecticut failed to support him in the primary due to his obstinant support for the Iraq war, he ran as an Independent and won. For the most part, after that, he continued to act as a Democrat, but maintained his resolute hawkishness with military policy. Thus, his connection with McCain deepened. How weird it must have felt for him to take the podium at the Republican National Convention to endorse his lifelong political opponents. Politics can be an ugly profession.

And, frankly, I don't really care. One of the most distasteful phrases on the political front, in my opinion, is "released to vote one's conscience." This is generally used when the vote counters recognize that they can get their way with or without an individual lawmaker's vote. Idealistic that I am, I kind of like to think they vote their conscience every time. Right.

So today, Sen. Joe gets to talk about "reconciliation not retribution." But spare me speeches about "uniting to solve our problems" and all the rest. The Senator was spared because, as of this writing, the Democrats are just two short of a filibuster-proof assembly, with two races yet to be resolved. It isn't so much about Obama wanting to forgive and forget… it's all about practical politics.

What I love about the whole situation is that it allows me to reference one of my all time favorite quotes from LBJ, "better to have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in." Beautiful.

PS - I highly recommend picking up the Nov. 17 copy of Newsweek. It’s the one with The One on the cover (white background and ".44" next to His image). The entire issue is devoted to the accounts of reporters who were give unfiltered access to both campaigns in exchange for their commitment to withhold publishing details until after the election. Fascinating stuff. And for the wordsmiths out there, extra thrills… this is very well written. I was sent to the dictionary at least a dozen times.