Senator Joseph I. Lieberman will announce on Wednesday that he will not seek a fifth term, according to a person he told of his decision.
Mr. Lieberman, whose term is up in 2012, chose to retire rather than risk being defeated, said the person, who spoke to the senator on Tuesday.
“I don’t think he wanted to go out feet first,” the person said,.
A longtime Democrat who lost a bitter primary battle to Ned Lamont in 2006, Mr. Lieberman won re-election as an independent that year, largely benefiting from a weak showing by the Republican candidate, who received less than 10 percent of the vote.
Adios.
dmsilev
So long, good riddance.
In full fairness, he done good with the DADT repeal. That was, however, a small bit of atonement for years of assholery.
Also, too, how long until Jane Hamsher claims credit for him deciding to step down?
dms
Eric U.
another one of the people apparently driven insane by 9/11
dollared
There goes the Sully wing of the Democratic party
Villago Delenda Est
Loserman had a close call in 2006, and didn’t like losing that Dem primary at all. It was only because the Rethugs abandoned their own candidate that Loserman managed to beat Lamont.
david mizner
How long till Obama hires him?
BGinCHI
He’d make a great ambassador to North Korea.
singfoom
We won’t have Droopie Dog to kick around anymore!
Alex S.
Kos will kick and scream if he doesn’t get to beat Lieberman in an election.
And Kent Conrad is also choosing retirement. On the one hand, seeing these two go doesn’t make me sad, but it makes me wonder if there are better choices to replace them. Ok, in Lieberman’s case, yes, but in North Dakota not so much…
Nellcote
The question now is will a Liberal Dem step up in CT (and other places) knowing the money/teabagger rage already in place against them.
Mark S.
What the hell does that mean?
Cat Lady
Joe Lieberman largely benefited from lying his jowly ass off about being against the Iraq war after being for it. He’s a traitor to Democrats and this country. Not enough bad things can happen to him. Does that mean Dan Gerstein’s career is over too, plz?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Anyone from or near Connecticut to know if they would vote in a Democrat or a Republican to take his place?
BGinCHI
If that UConn women’s basketball coach runs for the seat, it’s all over.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Mark S.: Carried out on a cart.
General Stuck
I won’t trust that snake till I see it shed it’s skin. but hopefully, we will be rid of The Con-net-it-cut curse once and for all come 2012.
Eric U.
if you’re carried out on a cart is it better to be carried out head first?
Atrios is claiming victory, but I think this is a teabagger victory. He couldn’t count on the Ct Republicans to be sane enough to vote for him this time around
SpotWeld
If this only meant he was leaving the public spotlight as well.
This probably means he either has a gig lined up at Fox (as the unbiased “indenpendent” commentator) or has a deal as a military lobbist (I’m thinking Electric Boat).
Benjamin Cisco (mobile)
Sayonara, asshole. Cowardly asshole at that.
Yutsano
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): CT has a pretty deep Dem bench, so I’m certain they already have someone lined up for this. Not sure of exactly who, but someone. And if you recall, the best the Reps could do was the wife of a sideshow huckster who got pasted even though it was a Republican year. So this seat doesn’t worry me much. North Dakota though might be wingnut party central, although you never know.
kdaug
See this? No, over here – this little gleam of moisture in my eye. Look close.
That’s not for Lieberman.
Fuck him.
PIGL
@Mark S.: in this context, I take “feet first” to mean “ignominious electoral defeat at the hands of a progressive Democratic oponent”. As opposed to, you know, “dead.”
pragmatism
this is good news for john mccain.
morzer
Conrad, Bayh and now Lieberman.. what a mutual admiration and knob-polishing society that will be.
Mary G
@SpotWeld: Yeah, I can’t decide if I’d hate him more on TV all the time or knowing he’s raking in the bucks selling overpriced useless stuff to the military. Probably both.
Nellcote
@SpotWeld:
AIPAC
Hunter Gathers
Guess he took that Palestinian eviction czar job Netanyahu offered him.
Chuck Butcher
To Primary Obama?
Anne Laurie
@Cat Lady:
Too much to hope for, in this imperfect world. I wouldn’t be surprised if part of Lieberman’s GBCW negotiation involved making a place for Dangerstein in either the soft underbelly of the Obama Administration or the election-proof recesses of the DNC, actually.
Jay C
While Holy Joe Lieberman’s imminent departure certainly can’t be considered BAD news: OTOH, he now has an entire Congress to let his Lieber-flag fly without having to think about re-election. And I’m sure that THAT situation can be thought of as a positive ONLY by members of the Connecticut For Lieberman Party…
PS: The BJ Powers That Be DO know that the site is still seriously f8cked up, right…
david mizner
I had this weird dream the other night that he was Al Gore’s running mate.
keith
Ailes has his next Fox News Contributor
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Jay C: Ctrl+F5. If that doesn’t work, I’m not sure what’s going on for you. It’s been fine for me. FF+Ubuntu and WinXP.
General Stuck
Holy Joe’s flip flop on Reid’s medicare expansion option will go down as the all time shower with Rahm. With PO Sellout Obama and his big Pharma Ceos pals manning the back scrubber.
Well, you see, Willard, in this war, things get confused out there. …
Mark S.
Shit, I have the same birthday as Joementum.
Sasha
I’ll give him props for going out on a high note (DADT) and not attempting to stay and become bitter in the process (like McCain).
I suspect Obama has a position for him somewhere where he will be appreciated but harmless.
kdaug
There was truly no more clearer tell than his independent party name: “Connecticut For Lieberman”
Sure, servant of the people and all that blah,blah,blah. Whatevs. It’s about ME, bitches!
BGinCHI
@david mizner: I don’t think that means you’re gay, but you should definitely see a professional.
Calouste
@ Sasha:
Ambassador to Liechtenstein comes to mind.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sasha: Ambassador to Latvia?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@david mizner: Somehow I bet Gore wakes up every so often with that nightmare as well. Then his wife tells him it was real.
shortstop
Am I paranoid to suspect that someone so fully motivated by spite and pettiness might just decide to pay back the mean old unloving Dems by finishing his last term caucusing with the GOP?
Alex
Politics might be the only profession where someone can retire at 70 and people will be surprised by that.
morzer
@Omnes Omnibus:
How about Uzbekistan?
david mizner
@Hunter Gathers:
Yeah, he could team up with his second cousin Avigdor.
BGinCHI
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): You still in denial about the Al-Tipper separation?
Too soon?
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
Belarus would be better. I think they still boil people there.
edit – or is that Uzbekistan
shortstop
@david mizner: Impossible. Gore has clearly never gone running. He’s fat, you know.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Not really. I was thinkin’ it.
Keith G
Sargent Shriver died. He was a good guy. RIP.
Quicksand
Awwww. With Conrad and Lieberman leaving, what am I going to do with my supply of bullseye and crosshair images?
BGinCHI
@shortstop: Worked at the cafe in your ‘hood yesterday (Chava). Guys who own that place are great.
morzer
@General Stuck:
That’s Uzbekistan. Good to see that great minds think alike.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Great like how? Large or nice or natural leaders? Maybe all three?
Our most localest indy coffee palace is Dollop on Clarendon. Know it?
Paris
He can always retire to Israel.
Professor
@Alex S.: It’s now time for the Progressives to start looking for a viable ‘better’ progressive candidate and work hard for him/her to get selected as Democratic candidate and get him/her elected. There are now two non ‘kosher’ progressive senators leaving the senate in 2012, please try and get unadulterated progressive candidates in those seats.
BGinCHI
@Quicksand: Open a surveying business, natch.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
What do you call a FoxNews Democrat who appears on all networks, all the time? Still better than having him in the Senate, though.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@BGinCHI: Actually, I completely forgot. I’d change my joke, but I can’t think of anything good.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
@david mizner:
He’s perfect since he’s stabbed the last two Dem Presidents in the back, but those kinds of qualifications will get him a better salary as a “consultant” in the private sector, or maybe as another house “liberal” at FOX.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: Nope. Too far to walk. Maybe in better weather.
They are really into coffee and it’s just a comfortable, well-lit, well-run place.
SteveinSC
Whatever will AIPAC do now without Sen. Lieberman, (I-Israel)? Oh wait they have plenty more in the tank. Good riddance to the flaming asshole. Maybe he can get a job winding up Darth Cheney’s clockwork heart.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Quicksand: Donate them to a surveying company.
shortstop
Connecticut Yankees, what’s Susie Bysiewicz’s story?
danimal
But who will replace Holy Joe as the most sanctimonious prick in the Senate? Thank goodness we have two years for someone to grow into the role.
Omnes Omnibus
@Quicksand: Take up a career in surveying. It is what Sarah (Blessed be her Name) would do.
@Keith G: Agree completely. He seems like he was an all around decent individual. Trivia: he was the last anti-abortion candidate on a Democratic Party Pres. ticket.
Calouste
And in the category “nothing to see here folks, violent rethoric doesn’t lead to anything”, someone planted a bomb along the route of the MLK parade in Spokane, WA.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: I know, but dude, Chava is a little far for me in da bitter code ub widter. Soon’s we get a 40-degree day I’ll check it out. Or maybe I’ll be lazy and bus it.
morzer
@shortstop:
Most recently she embarrassed herself by trying to run for Attorney General to replace Blumenthal, and discovering she hadn’t done the requisite ten years of law practice, and that her 11 years as Secretary of State didn’t count.
Luthe
@Yutsano: There are rumors that Chris Murphy (CT-5) will run for the seat. Murphy’s a good guy and pretty damn progressive, so hopefully we’ll get another decent Dem in the Senate.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: @Belafon (formerly anonevent): @Omnes Omnibus:
Great minds or mass delusion?
BGinCHI
@shortstop: I report, you decide. Will check out that place down your way.
handy
Say it ain’t so, Joe. What will the Beltway Village Idiots do now knowing one of their own is leaving the deep inner circle.
eemom
The woman who announced today she’s running in the Dem primary, Susan Byscewiesz, was a year ahead of me in law school. I don’t know anything about here since then, though, other than the basic public info. Any Connecticans here that can comment? I am very curious.
eemom
@morzer:
Ah, I see my good morzer beat me to it. More dirt, plz.
Fitzwili
Well at least he did one redeeming thing with DADT.
morzer
@eemom:
Dahling *huge air kisses*
morzer
@eemom:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/susan-bysiewicz-loses-ele_n_581682.html
Well, she filed suit against her own office in the process, which ought to be good for a chuckle.
cmorenc
@david mizner:
The weirder nightmare is that it was Gore/Lieberman who won by 500 votes in Florida in 2000 rather than Bush…AND….
SAY WHAT????
The nightmare is actually one of those dreams-within-a-nightmare. The nightmare is waking up and realizing that Gore winning was just a dream, Bush really did successfully
winsteal the election, start the Iraq war, turn a small surplus into an enormous deficit and bestow John Roberts and Samuel Alito on SCOTUS for three decades etc. etc.One of the other benefits of a Gore victory would have been that Lieberman’s latent asshole potential wouldn’t have come anywhere near the extent of realization as Gore’s VP as it did as a turncoat Senator climbing aboard team Bush. Not that Lieberman lacked asshole traits before 2001, just that they weren’t nearly as far-developed or strategically placed to be so deadly.
Catsy
Good riddance to one of the most malignant sources of bad faith and bad policy in the Senate. He deserves credit for his efforts in getting DADT repealed, in much the same way that Bush deserves credit for his efforts on AIDS in Africa: that is, full credit given with the understanding that doesn’t mitigate the enormous damage he did to this country in just about every other respect.
It’s sad that he’s not going to stick around for the total repudiation he was going to get at the hands of the CT electorate next election, but I’ll take his exit from the Senate any way I can.
shortstop
ETA: Oopsie. This was for BG.
I don’t know that Dollop is good enough to make a special trip — sounds like Chava is (so thanks for reporting). I was just makin’ conversation about my neighborhood java joint. There’s another independent one on Irving, but it’s quite awful.
eemom
tee hee. Sounds like all she needs is Jane Hamsher on her side to flame out even more spectacularly than Lamont.
I will say that I had nothing particularly against her in law school. She was kind of a snob, but I knew her slightly through a friend of mine who was also a snob.
maus
@Alex S.:
What is this blathering? It’s not true, it’s not funny, and it’s hardly constructive to make these things up out of whole cloth. This stuff is good for all of us, no DFHs or Firebaggers or whatever other demonized Dem group will cry over it.
Jay C
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Thanks; Ctrl+F5 was the fix: now BJ’s reverted to mere (visually) crappy, rather than unreadable (literally: the standards of the commentariat are unchanged) Dunno what the problem was – FF/W7 and AOL earlier.
Donald G
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Civility. While ostensibly created to foster bipartisan cooperation and reasoned discourse in the political sphere, the DHC under Lieberman will instead preoccupy itself with scolding democrats for breaches in decorum while looking the other way when Republicans break out the brass knuckles.
When called upon this one-sided approach, Leiberman will disappear into a phone booth, slip into a tu-tu with wings and emerge as the Magical Balance Fairy where he will chastise us with his Wand of False Equivalency.
Mike Kay
@david mizner:
Gallup’s year end survey finds 91% of self described Liberals love Obama. Sadly, Like Palin and the wingersphere you’re only filled with hate, even after the horror of Arizona. Seek help, before it’s too late and you end up on the evening news.
Maxwel
..and the horse he rode in on.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@dmsilev: This, this AND this.
Also, too: Finally.
Now, can the Jewish people get rid of him too? He’s a blight. A very blighty blight.
gbear
@BGinCHI:
Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name…
Alex S.
@maus:
Ah well, two posts on Lieberman from Kos himself today. In one of them he has a “sad face”. I quote from the other one: “The smart move is for him to retire, as much as it would piss me off if he did”.
Common Sense
@david mizner:
Interesting. I dreamt he was Palin’s running mate on Fox.
gene108
I’m still pissed off with Lieberman for his total failure in debating Dick Cheney in the 2000 VP debates and the lack of any significant electoral help he gave the Gore ticket.
I blame his poor showing in the debate as one of the reasons we got saddled with Bush&Co.
He f’ing made Dick Cheney seem likeable.
maus
@Alex S.:
Ah, that didn’t show up in my feed. I do apologize, then. That’s much more appropriate of a response than I was expecting.
aimai
@Sasha:
Well, he already stayed and became bitter. DADT was a surprise, frankly. I didn’t think he had it in him.
aimai
Chris
A hearty Alpha Mike Foxtrot to the bastard.
BGinCHI
@gbear: Glad one of you jackals got that reference.
Engraving your name on the trophy.
BombIranForChrist
I eagerly await an article from Slate telling me how Lieberman is actually the greatest statesmen in all American history.
Mike in NC
@gene108:
Concur. Old Joe’s performance that night was an epic disaster, and yet he seemed to just shrug it off since his Senate seat was nice and warm. The guy Cheney shot in the face displayed more backbone when he apologized for getting in the line of fire.
jetan
Why did he have to wait until Christmas was over?
Agree on his disgraceful debate inaction with Cheney. Though he was already known to be a self-righteous, narcissistic, preening prig when Gore selected him.
AxelFoley
@dmsilev:
ROFL!
Uloborus
@General Stuck:
I have no idea what the Hell you just said, but I completely agree!
stannate
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
Joe has been such a sanctimonious PITA since 1998, but he apparently saw the writing on the wall. The writing, instead of saying that he was going to get humiliated in the 2012 election, told him that it’s not fun anymore and that he should cash out ASAP. His 12-year run of shedding crocodile tears on cue, of admonishing his own party while blowing kisses to the GOP, of being the center of attention with the makeup of the Senate–all of that is over now. Lieberman’s vote isn’t necessary anymore for avoiding a filibuster, so he can’t be a kingmaker with regards to legislation. He’s worn out his welcome with the Democratic party, and he’s of little use to the Republicans except to offer the occasional whine about those “mean leftists.” He’ll now have to suffer the indignity of irrelevance, which quite honestly, will be a longer and more painful burn than would a loss in any 2012 election. Unless he resigns, he’ll be sticking around for another 23-24 months, which for someone who craves the spotlight for his own sense of importance, will feel like eons to him as he watches that spotlight fade away.
Pat
Now we will really get to see how much of a prick Joe Lieberman really is.
jetan
@stannate:
Don’t underestimate him. David Gergen is already anointing him as an “elder statesman.” The last of his breed, there were giants in those days, etc.. He will continue murmuring his ersatz words of wisdom and doomful prognostications until Fox News hires him as one of their cloned liberals. Count on it.