How Should Dems Deal with "Trader Joe?"

And Captain Corruption shows up to bend reality to his will yet again!

I totally and utterly disagree! This is the why the Dems come off as hyper partisan, IMHO.... what is going to happen is Joe willbe Joe and act to thrwart Dem efforts and will use his chairmanships to do so. The Dems will kick him off and then they will be accused of kicking him out because he voted his concious or some other bullshit. If they did it now, they can simply say that his views on certain key issues were not consistant with traditional Dem values and be done with it. Why is Leiberman heading the Homeland Security committee as a Democrat? He was consistant with the Bush Admin in that regard and campaigned against Dems on issues surrounding it.

Leiberman will not be reliable in helping to secure a filibuster-proof majority. He said as much during the campaigns. He told Glenn Beck that he "fears for the country" if the Dems won a supermajority. He not only campaigned against Obama, but he also campaigned for other Republicans behind in senate races.

Reid is an idiot for keeping him in and it will bite him in the ass.

If you chair a committee for a party, then yoiur views should reflect that party's values regarding that issue. Leiberman should not be the chair of the Homeland Security Committee for the Dems as well as other committees.

I don't want anyone in any position of power that ever puts party above country.

I don't think anyone does. We all love our country, but we disagree on what's best for it. This opposition is healthy because it helps both sides to explore the consequences of those decisions.

It's ashame that some in the process have others thinking that the opposition does not love their country.

How to deal with trader Joe? I think it is high time that Democrats put their words into action. They claim to be all inclusive, let them prove it for once. They generally do not do that and how they've treated Lieberman in the past several years especially over Iraq is ridiculous and show them to be some of the most small minded individuals in the world.

The Dems need to remove Leiberman from all committee chairmanships where his views conflict with party values. They should offer to allow him to caucus with them and let the chips fall where they may. If he bolts or resigns, it'll be on him, but Joe will not be who they think he is. By allowing him to remain on, it will bite them in the ass. If they remove him for voting his concious on particular issues, it will be that much worse than removing him for philosophical ones.

I think you're being far too harsh on Reid (who I utterly dislike, so this is a rare defense), but I think he was just doing what Obama asked him to do, namely to bury the hatchet with Lieberman.

The problem is that Obama should have been asking Reid to bury the hatchet in Lieberman. No good can possibly come to the Democrats from Lieberman as chair of the Homeland Security committee. On top of everything else I noted above, Lieberman got that chair with a promise to support the Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. He violated his promise. That has to have consequences if anyone is ever going to take the Democrats seriously.

Yes, how dare Lieberman dare to think for himself instead of towing the party line. He must be punished!!!

It's not that he just disagreed. There are other conservative Democrats in Congress. My own senator, Ben Nelson, has been known to vote with Republicans nearly half the time in the past. The party's never attacked him because of it.

It's all about how Lieberman handled himself. Lieberman didn't just endorse McCain. He attacked Obama.

Understand that I disagree with this post. But since you're already in the red I'll use my rep in places where it'll matter.

Oh and you know what? If they need him to break the veto, they gotta suck his circumcised Jew-dick. They need him more than he needs them.

Go eat a dirty ass, please.

When it comes to Homeland Security, Joe does not represent the Democratic Party.... and he let the whole country down by not conducting a more thorogh investigation into the response on Katrina..... that's not to say he doesn't have the right view on other issues.... but HS? No.

If they try to remove him later, after he's "voted his concious," it'll be worse. I hope this wasn't Obama's doing...

I am perfectly fine with that.

All evidence is that it was Obama's doing. I can't imagine the vote would have been as lopsided as it was without Obama's statements on the matter, and I'm guessing Obama was even more explicit in private.

What I hope is that some major concessions were extracted from Lieberman behind the scenes and that the Democrats let him know that if he supports any Republican filibusters he'll be out in less than a heartbeat. That wouldn't make this right, but it would make it not disastrous.

I find it amusing that it's bad when Lieberman votes his conscious and votes against his party, but yet when McCain does it, he is praised as a maverick who dares rock the boat.

If the Repubs decided to let McCain chair a committee when they were the majority party where his views conflict with Republican party stances, then they aren't wise either.

for instance, would you expect the Repubs to allow McCain to chair a committee on global warming and climate change? I wouldn't.

So he was the only democrat not kissing Obama ass. Surely he must be punished. There were far more Republicans attacking McCain this year than Democrats attacking Obama, yet for some reason the Republicans are better able to put that behind them and move forward. Why is that?

I'm not aware of any Republicans that campaigned against McCain as well as other Democrats in the Senate and House... Please enlighten me.

Well, you can find a few, albeit not among current officeholders. And you can't find any who said that McCain would destroy this country or who said it's a good question to ask whether McCain's a fascist, both of which Lieberman said about Obama (substituting Marxist for fascist).

There were many Republicans that backed Obama over McCain. If you don't know who they are then you must have been in a cave when posters like PARDOT listed them on a daily basis.

Or perhaps I was having fun IRL....

It should be pointed out that back in 2001 the Republicans wouldn't give an inch and, in the end, effectively booted Jim Jeffords out of the conference over a much lesser difference of policy opinion, even though he became the 51st vote for the Democrats in the Senate. Every right wing concern troll saying how smart the Democrats are to keep Lieberman no doubt said "good riddance to that RINO" in 2001.

Jim Jeffords didn't get booted out, he sold out for a committee chairmanship. And a Caymans island account that has yet to be discovered. But more Pardot revisionism.

By all means put a person there who thinks "country first."

My, my.

You're so far gone now that you're wishing for the assisination of Senators that aren't towing the party line?

What a pathetic little man you are.

To borrow from Diacanu, .

Wow.

What the fuck happened to you, BetaBoy?

Your behavior since the election of your Messiah is really sad. You use to be nothing more than the background character here, now you're fighting to be the head cheerleader for the Obamatons. Your tongue is so far up His ass now that you're licking the bottom of his stomach.

Tell me, do you think you will get into His kingdom acting like this?

If only he did.