Harry Truman is credited with creating the maxim "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog". Which could lead to some humorous comparisons if I was inclined to be snarky about this. But Joe Lieberman walked into the Senate Democratic caucus yesterday and had lots and lots and lots of friends. You know, the same folks who cheerfully threw Joe under the bus and tried mightily to get Ned Lamont elected.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — Senator Joseph I. Lieberman strode into a Democratic caucus gathering like he owned the place or, at the very least, like someone who is a flight risk and could leave at any minute, taking the Democrats’ new majority with him.
In other words, everyone was extra-special nice to the wayward Democrat on Tuesday.
“It was all very warm, lots of hugs, high-fives, that kind of stuff,” said Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon marveled, “One senator after another kept coming up and shaking his hand.”
And Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas noted, “I gave him a hug and a kiss.”
Mr. Lieberman received a standing ovation at a caucus luncheon after Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who is poised to become the majority leader, declared, “We’re all family.”
All of which is particularly touching in light of recent history. It was, after all, just three months ago that Mr. Lieberman became something of a party pariah after losing the Democratic primary in Connecticut but continuing his re-election bid as an independent.
Mr. Lieberman won re-election last week without help from most of his Democratic Senate colleagues, who backed Ned Lamont, his Democratic rival, over their “good friend Joe Lieberman.”
These would be many of the same good friends “who were happy to leave my dad by the side of the road,” as Mr. Lieberman’s son, Matthew, put it in an election night speech. These, presumably, would include “friends” like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, all Lamont supporters.
“It’s clear that the Democrats need him at this point more than he needs them,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, whom Mr. Lieberman genuinely does consider a close friend. “How sweet is this?”
Indeed, it is hard to imagine how Mr. Lieberman could have emerged better from last week’s election. He was re-elected comfortably, and the Democratic Party he still belongs to is now in the majority, assuring him the chairmanship of the powerful Homeland Security Committee.
Yet that majority is slim enough, 51 to 49, to turn Mr. Lieberman into arguably the Senate’s most influential member. If he defects, the Senate would effectively be under Republican control because Vice President Dick Cheney would cast tie-breaking votes.
“It was very painful to him to have all these people he thought were his friends embrace his opponent,” Ms. Collins said. “They just threw him overboard. But now, not only is he re-elected resoundingly, but he is also the key to which party controls the Senate.”
Funny, isn't it? The netroots tried their best to destroy Lieberman and ended up making him arguably the most powerful man in the Senate, at least for the next two years. I always said that the attempt was a really stupid strategic move. Because of the outcome of the elections, it turns out it is a potentially disastrous move.
Eh, same deal happened here in PA with Specter and Toomey 2 years ago. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with primary battles. These Senators and Congressmen get so entrenched it becomes damn near impossible to get rid of them. The primaries allow for that a little more easily.
And Lieberman would be a boob to jump ship. In 2008, the GOP is defending 21 Senate seats vs 12 for the Dems, along with a couple of GOP Senators considering retirement.
He isn’t going anywhere.
Oh, I doubt he’ll jump. But he can pretty much get anything he wants for the next two years. All he has to do is look at the other side of the chamber and Reid will fall over himself to take care of Joe. I think it is very humorous.
The netroots are the wave of the future as the electorate narrows to only those who self-select to vote out of interest in politics.
Lieberman is the exception that proves the rule. To win, he needed circumstances that can’t be replicated:
1. He raised and spent $20 million, more than the total spent both sides in previous CT statewide races.
2. He needed to massively abuse campaign finance laws. http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17410370&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=31007&rfi=6&xb=segum
3. He needed to be an icon to his own ethnic group so that Democrats were intimidated to criticize him.
4. He needed the Republicans to throw their candidate under the bus, overtly, even at the national level!
5. He needed a massive ego – even for a pol – to be so unprincipled as to undermine the Democratic Party with an independent run after losing a primary, having been their VP nominee.
I could probably think of a few more. I don’t think Lieberman is going to hold the Democrats hostage constantly for the next 2 years. He can’t demand to be on every committee and I saw him on Meet The Press the other day and he’s as lost as Bush is on Iraq. He’s not so eager to talk about Iraq as he used to be, for sure.
That’s it, Arlo, continue to try to personally destroy the man. It didn’t work for Ned, but carry on.
Sore Loserman is now the darling of Republicans everywhere! Funny world ain’t it?
Gaius,
Lamont still has a half billion dollar personal fortune. You think he might have a couple forensic accountants and PIs on Lieberman’s FEC disclosures to assist the FEC? Lieberman’s FEC disclosures are chock full of tips to mine and Connecticut is a state with a sleazy underbelly, witness the last governor going to prison for taking bribes.
Read that New Haven Register story and be honest about it. I put a post on another thread about Barack Obama’s sleazy house deal so I don’t look at this stuff as a “Democrat.” Think about the stuff in that story and how it has to be connected to CT Democratic pols who use the same sleazy operatives every election, getting the absentee ballots from elderly shut-ins and bribing local influentials. Lieberman’s campaign paid for it and their accounting is very sloppy. Imagine Lieberman’s campaign treasurer being put under oath about those disbursements.
It’s too bad Connecticut doesn’t have a “sore loser” law like we have here in Illinois. Then Joey the Rat Lieberman wouldn’t have been able to indulge his little whinefest.
Joe Lieberman is NOT a man who can be trusted. Not with your houseplanbts for the weekend – and certainly not with the security of this great nation.
the democrats supported the democratic nominee that won the democratic primary against lieberman. joe switched parties and so the dems supported their candidate. UNLIKE the republicans! the gop didnt support their candidate with money or logistics! no big name republican campaigned for the gop candidate, they came out for lieberman and thats the truth! did you forget that fact when you decided to say that the dems threw joe under the bus? i think god would call that hypocrisy. i would expect nothing more for a republican.
One thing I don’t like about the whole thing though is the implication that he wasn’t supported.
I mean, every one of those Democrats supported him in the Primary over Lamont with the exception of like 2 or 3. Reid, Clinton, B. Clinton, all of them supported Joe. The Democratic voters decided they didn’t want him to represent the party anymore.
Does the national Democratic Party say, “Tough. We don’t care what you voters want. We want Joe so we’re going to ignore your choice and help someone you said you didn’t want to represent you.”?
I don’t see how they do that without making themselves look horrible and turning off a lot of Democratic voters nationwide. They didn’t spend any money there for Lamont that I’m aware of…so they were in a difficult position.
Specter handily won re-election in 2004 but I don’t think Toomey would have in the general if he had won. But had Toomey beaten him, Specter might have been able to run as an Independent and win in PA. Who would the GOP have backed in the general? It would have had to be Toomey, given the kind of support he had here.
I agree 100%. The left never learns. Ever.
Joe Lieberman walked into the Senate Democratic caucus yesterday and had lots and lots and lots of friends. You know, the same folks who cheerfully threw Joe under the bus and tried mightily to get Ned Lamont elected.
Not quite. Please name all the Senate Democrats who “tried mightily” to get Lamont elected. Yeah, most of them officially endorsed Lamont — he was the party nominee, after all. But it was clear all along that the Dem. leadership wasn’t really interested in fighting Lieberman, and were perfectly content for Lamont to lose.
I’ll toss a comment into the cravass between your posting and a general understanding of reality. You try to make it sound like the democratic party is one monolithic creature who makes one choice and lives with one consequence. The definition of a political party is a large collection in individuals who are acting upon their own motivations.
You appear to be criticizing the democratic party for exhibiting the characteristics of a political party. What other possible events could have occured with democratic senators and Mr. Lamont? After Ned Lamont won the democratic primary it was a little late for campaigning, or they would have been slammed for disloyalty to the party. Could any Senator by so egocentric as to put their own ‘sense of friendship’ over the democratic will of the voting members of their democratic party.
Lieberman won as an independant; WTF, an independant has a lot of power in a closely divided Senate. You remember Jeffers, anybody?!? Joe is Clint Eastwood in ‘A Fistful of Dollars’. Whatever happens you can bet he’ll be good to his supporters in his home state.