This piece in the NY Times should serve as a reminder of what a flaming, mendacious asshole Joe Lieberman is, and how well Obama has done at somewhat keeping him in line. If he had taken a hard line with him (like many of us wanted), think of the mayhem he would have created out of spite, because spite and hating on the left is the only thing that motivates him.
Can’t wait until he is retired and starts his job as a Fox news contributor.
gene108
The man made Dick Cheney seem warm and lovable, by comparison, in their 2000 VP debate.
If you needed a point of reference, for the type of asshole he can be.
WeeBey
Keeps this on a save string for every time an Emo says, “THEY HAD 60 SEATS IN THE SENATE!!11!!ELEVENTYONE!1!!”
zmulls
Can he be a Fox contributor while he’s also being a highly-paid(-off) insurance lobbyist?
General Stuck
I trust the moronic democrats that voted for this bag of snot, have learned the lesson of misplaced loyalties /Joe B. Arnold
Poopyman
Oh man! We just got done roasting Jobs for being a dick and now you bring up Lieberman? Isn’t it possible to limit postings to a dick a day?
j
All president Obama has to do is name Holy Joe as ambassador to Israel. CT will then have an election (they changed the system last year, so the governor no longer appoints replacements) and a real Democrat will win.
Then Obama can fire Joe’s ass.
wrb
How can a dick be so dickless?
Brian S
@zmulls: Are you kidding? That makes him more desirable to Fox News.
aladnamedbrad
So wait, we had a choice of Spineless Asshole versus Darth Vader in the 2000 election? Good thing Big Al would have never allowed Joe to run the country.
C.J.
Really? “It is unclear” how much sway he has with voters?
How about, I dunno, his approval rating hovering in the 20s?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m one who thinks our political system, from the Senate to the Green Rooms, is structurally and systematically fucked, progress will always be glacial, and individual politicians count for less than we often like to think. That said, I think things would suck less if we had gotten this fucker out in ’06.
Poopyman
@General Stuck: IIRC, he was elected last time mostly by Connecticut Republicans. The Repug candidate (may he remain in obscurity) came in 3rd, well back of Lamont.
Roger Moore
@Poopyman:
That would severely limit your ability to talk about what the Republicans are doing.
KG
@gene108: just think, he was a few thousand votes in Florida away from being the presumptive Dem nominee in 2008…
Raenelle
For some odd reason, every time I hear mention of Joe Lieberman, the adjective “mewling” comes to mind. Oh, and Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice.
ornery
Yes, and through the glorious psychological mechanism of scapegoating … Liebermann was allowed to float away to spew another day, while Ralph Nader was roasted on a spit, villified and condemned by Democratic Party followers.
And these same followers call(ed?) themselves Progressive … and now carry on the legacy today by bashing their own allies first, foremost, and whenever they can. HaHA!
Good times.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but another dick:
More here, if you must
America will face “numerous problems when whites become a minority” if they continue to act as malicious dicks. Whites can fully expect to be treated when they’re a minority as they’ve treated minorities if they don’t stop being racist dicks, like Pat Buchanan.
This is really a self fulfilling prophecy on Obersturmbahnfuhrer Pat’s part.
c u n d gulag
Memo to self:
Self, add “Piss on Liebermans fucking grave” onto bucket list.
Judas Escargot
OT: But Sullivan learns to stop worrying and accept the hippies.
If my “Sullivan as cultural canary” theory still holds, this is good news for OWS.
Villago Delenda Est
@ornery:
Sorry, Nader is still a megalomaniac asshole. He deserves all the shit thrown at him.
JWL
I would be surprised if Al Gore doesn’t believe that choosing Lieberman as his running mate was the biggest mistake of his political career (barring, perhaps, only his performance during the Florida recount fiasco).
The Moar You Know
@j: Wishful thinking. Joe took the seat from a Republican. The last “real Democrat” that ran against Joe got his ass handed to him (the only good thing about that debacle is that it ended Markos’ career as a self-appointed kingmaker). I don’t know what the problem is in Connecticut – they seem to have a statewide case of High Broderism – but they love them some Republicans.
General Stuck
@Poopyman:
Still needed dem votes to win, in mostly dem Connecticut, unless I misremember. I think he got like 40 percent of the dem. vote, or thereabouts.
kindness
See and here I wanted Obama to tie Lieberman to a stake & set fire to it. But Obama refused to do so. Would it have gotten Obama votes? Maybe a couple. What good would offing Lieberman have done then? It would have made political discussions better because that god damned asshole Lieberman wouldn’t have thrown his dumb ass buffonery out there.
@The Moar You Know: You mean Senator Lowell Weiker? He was a more reliable Democratic vote than Lieberman, Nelson, Landreu, and what’s his face from Montana under any scenerio. I would have voted for Weiker. Oh, and Lieberman did not win by much last time. Your versions of history need work.
gogol's wife
@The Moar You Know:
The Republican Joe took the seat from was Lowell Weicker, one of the best senators we ever had. No decent self-respecting Democrat would run against him, so Lieberman stepped in. He’s more Uriah Heep than Mr. Collins. He makes Mr. Collins look like a pillar of integrity.
gogol's wife
@General Stuck:
During the campaign he pretended to be liberal (just dying to get out of Iraq), and the idiots believed him.
General Stuck
@gogol’s wife:
Yup
Linda Featheringill
@Raenelle: #14
Good choice! :-)
gogol's wife
And re original post, I don’t think Fox News pays enough. It will be some kind of lobbying.
Yutsano
He’ll fuck the Democratic establishment somehow. He’s just that bitter and petty.
@The Moar You Know:
Greenwich. A lot of the richer bankstahs still live up in Connecticut away from the city.
Svensker
Au contraire. I know a Connecticut cop in one of the poorer CT towns who went to a meeting with Lieberman a few years ago to talk about the problems with poor CT towns and what the police and politicians could do. The cop said, “All he talked about was Israel!” The cop, who is really apolitical, was gobsmacked by his Senator’s total lack of interest in Connecticut.
Tom Hilton
@KG: Actually, he’d probably have become president sometime before 2004. After 9/11 (assuming a Gore administration had failed to prevent it), there would have been a Congressional investigation (pushed by Republicans but enabled by Blue Dogs, egged on by Vice President Holy Joe) into the Greatest Intelligence Failure Ever. That investigation would have moved inexorably toward impeachment; the only real question is whether Gore would have resigned before or after the vote in the House. President Holy Joe, of course, announced a brand new Unity Government with John McCain in the VP office.
Then they attacked Iraq and Iran, but maybe not in that order.
Paul in KY
@General Stuck: In his last election, he won by getting the votes of Republicans. They voted for him over their own candidate (of course, they knew he was their candidate too).
Poopyman
@General Stuck:
Lieberman : 49.71%
Lamont : 39.73%
Schlesinger : 09.62%
Roger Moore
@gogol’s wife:
AIPAC for sure. Probably a bunch of finance and insurance stuff, since he’s been so cozy with them for so long.
Svensker
@gogol’s wife:
Ding ding ding. He’s so ‘umble!
General Stuck
@Poopyman:
Joe got 33 percent of dem votes
Paul in KY
@c u n d gulag: I will be a happy, happy man if I ever get to do that.
Rosalita
@General Stuck:
The CT Repubs put him over the top. Many of us dems fought like hell against Lieberman.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Svensker:There was a story going around in ’06, some old graybeard state senator, Hartford power-broker type, who was Lieberman’s mentor when JL started in state politics, said Lieberman was shockingly uninformed and disinterested in the issues handled by the state lege, he was playing a long game to get to DC.
Paul in KY
@JWL: I think that was his worst. The person he would have chosen, if not Lieberman, was Bob Graham of Florida (IMO).
No way we lose Florida if Bob Graham is on the ticket.
gogol's wife
@Paul in KY:
I was just saying the other day that that was Gore’s worst mistake. And yes, I blame Lieberman AS WELL AS Nader for the disaster the country suffered as a result.
PeakVT
@General Stuck: He got less than that, actually.
@The Moar You Know: If CT election law didn’t allow Lieberman a second chance, we’d be talking about Senator Lamont’s re-election chances right now. Once Lieberman re-entered the race it was instantly an uphill fight for Lamont. It’s no surprise that he lost.
Also, too: Connecticut for Lieberman? What a fucking asshole.
RossinDetroit
Is that a rusty chainsaw I hear revving up? I think it is.
Paul in KY
@gogol’s wife: He has Uriah Heep’s personality & poor ole Droopy Dog’s voice.
I must say I have always liked the cartoon character Droopy Dog & am sad that I must link him (in some small way) to the miserable POS that is Lieberman.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Tom Hilton:
That’s an interesting alt-history scenario there Tom, but how do you fit in a President Gore telling an intelligence analyst “You’ve covered your ass now” in August 2001 after being briefed on the potential threat of a terrorist attack by AQ and then doing nothing about what the outgoing Clinton administration told the incoming admin, “this is going to be your biggest problem”. Because somehow I’m not seeing it.
Paul in KY
@General Stuck: All those Democrats should hang their heads in shame.
soonergrunt
@ornery: Wrong again. You see, the world as a whole, and politics in particular have more than enough room for several mendacious prick-bastards.
That Joe Lieberman is a mendacious prick-bastard did not change the fact that Nader was also a mendacious prick-bastard, nor does it excuse the fact that Nader is (to this day) a mendacious prick-bastard.
For example, Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Joe Manchin, and occasionally Jon Tester are all mendacious prick-bastards. So too is Ralph Nader a mendacious prick-bastard.
Hope this clears things up for you. But if it doesn’t, likely because you are an unapologetic Nader supporter, then what should clear things up for you is that you too, like Ralph Nader, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Joe Manchin, and occasionally Jon Tester, are a mendacious prick-bastard.
Have a nice day.
General Stuck
@General Stuck: @PeakVT:
Had already corrected it to 33 percent. I just remember from somewhere, after the election, reading or hearing that if Lamont would have gotten that 33 percent of dems, he would have won because there are many more dem voters than GOp registered voters. I have no idea if this is true. But yes, the GOP put him over the top, but my comment concerned the effects of dem voters staying loyal and voting for Joe the indie non dem.
General Stuck
@Rosalita:
I know you did, and so did a lot other dems in CT.
Jay in Oregon
@Villago Delenda Est:
I bet that interview sounded better in the original German.
ChrisB
Can’t believe it’s been five years since Lieberman was re-elected.
Can’t wait for him to go.
Dave
how well Obama has done at somewhat keeping him in line. If he had taken a hard line
The essence of Balloon-Juice: giving Obama credit for doing nothing.
Tom Hilton
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: President Gore would certainly have done something (and done it competently) in response to the briefing (edit: and before then, of course). I would still give that maybe a 50-50 chance of preventing the attack.
And he would have been impeached even if they had prevented, say, Flight 93 and the Pentagon plane but not the two that hit the Twin Towers.
gene108
@KG:
Maybe if he’d won in 2000, he wouldn’t have become such as asshole.
His whole lack of doing anything useful, during the 2000 campaign, still gnaws away at me.
If Gore had picked a better running mate, we wouldn’t have had to endure 8 years of Bush, Jr. Lieberman should’ve said, “no Al, I can’t be your V.P. I come across like a smug Droopy Dog on T.V. For the good of the country, I decline.”
Mike in NC
Too many of them commute to jobs on Wall Street.
Ruckus
@soonergrunt:
You sweet talking devil you.
bemused
Snotty Joe and Eric Cantor are birds of a feather. They both have supercilious mannerisms as if most people are beneath them in every way and are smelly too. They even sound alike when I hear them, nasal, pinched nose, whiney voices.
Tom Hilton
@gene108:
No, he was always an asshole. I was more or less willing to put up with him on the ticket in 2000, but the one bright side of losing was that I could go back to hating Lieberman.
(Also, note how he undercut the Gore team during the post-election count.)
Nutella
@gene108:
This alternate history stuff is amusing. Joe Lieberman saying “For the good of the country”? Hahahahahaha. Unless the country is Israel, that is.
gocart mozart
Lieberman is gone in 2012. The likely matchup will be congressman (D)Chris Murphy vs. (R)Linda McMahan. There will be primaries on both sides but those two are the favorites.
Mike G
Note that Lieberdouchebag would have been Vice President if BushCo hand’t stolen Florida.
And maybe President today.
Blue Dogs are greedy jerks with chronically poor judgement.
jayjaybear
@zmulls: Are you implying that either Fox News pundits or lobbyists have ethics to violate?
gocart mozart
@Mike G:
He would never have won the Dem primary.
Samara Morgan
I liek this Lieberman piece.
hmm…who does he sound like?
Oh yeah!
Suzanne.
Citizen Alan
@JWL:
There would not have been a Florida recount fiasco had it not been for the dead weight of Holy Joe Lieberman dragging down the ticket. As bad as things got with Bush, I could always console myself by imagining a worse scenario: Gore wins, 9/11 happens, Gore gets impeached by treasonous Republicans, and Holy Joe becomes President and invades every Middle Eastern country that ever dared give the stink-eye to Israel.
gocart mozart
@The Moar You Know:
Weicker? The Republican who was for impeaching Nixon, marched with Jackson against Apartheid, vetoed the death penalty as Gov. twice, card carrying member of the ACLU and noted “hater” of the religious right? That Republican? Also, if CT loves R’s so much, why is the Gov and the entire congressional delegation (except Lieberman) democrats?
Bago
Why do you have to be so anal about this?
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@Raenelle: So who is the Lady Catherine de Bourgh to his Mr. Collins? Rupert Murdoch?
...now I try to be amused
A weenie roast! I say throw another one on the barbie.
Sometimes doing nothing is the right thing to do. (shrug)
OzoneR
@j:
Because there’s absolutely no chance of a Republican winning that, none whatsoever. Sure.
OzoneR
@gocart mozart:
In fairness, Republicans almost won the governorship last year and previously held it for 16 years, and the GOP had 3 of the 5 House seats until 2006, and Linda McMahon did better than any GOP candidate for Senate since the 1980s.
Also, have you seen Malloy’s approval ratings lately?
OzoneR
@Rosalita:
many, not all, if Democrats had voted 90% for Lamont, he would’ve won, Republicans for Lieberman or not.
gocart mozart
@OzoneR:
Fair point.
Malloy’s approval rating can be summed up as “Economy Sucks!” He has three years for things to turn around.
David in NY
@gogol’s wife: Uriah Heep. Thanks, I was trying to remember that.
gocart mozart
@OzoneR:
or if 50% instead of 20% of the Republicans voted for the Republican, or if only 30% instead of 55% of independents had voted for Lieberman. A sitting Senator getting only 1/3 of his vote from his own party is extremely low especially since he was very popular up until about 2004/05.
David in NY
On the “How Did Lieberman Win?” front, I recall he had a lot of union support (and the unions were more interested in domestic than foreign positions) and I bet that lots of Jewish voters were still proud that Lieberman was the first Jew on a major-party ticket in the presidential race. So if you’re blaming “Democrats,” give a thought to whom you are blaming.
Also, Lamont was really a one-issue — the war — candidate, and that issue wasn’t enough against someone with both Democratic and Republican support. (Not blaming Lamont, it’s just so.)
Davis X. Machina
@gocart mozart: Incumbent governor is a bad, bad place to be regardless of your party.
David in NY
Editing my #77, at least the UAW and SEIU supported Lamont, so I may be wrong about unions.
Ed to Ed: AFL-CIO for Lieberman.
gogol's wife
@David in NY:
I blame Lamont for going on vacation the minute he got the nomination, instead of campaigning. He was the Martha Coakley of Connecticut. But we can put more blame on the gutless other Democrats who didn’t want to challenge Lieberman, of course.
And yes, I love the cartoon Droopy Dog too, Paul, and wish he weren’t tainted by his resemblance to Joe L.
burnspbesq
@The Moar You Know:
Oddly enough, all five members of Congress, the Governor, the Lt. Gov, and the Attorney General are Democrats. But that’s OK, don’t let the facts get in the way of your narrative.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m heartened to see Linda McMahon lost so badly in a Republican wave. On the one hand, it’s hard for me to believe someone like that is major party nominee, but then I think: Arnold Schwarzenagger, Jesse Ventura, George W Bush, Rick Perry….
Tom Hilton
@Citizen Alan: GMTA.
Tom Hilton
@burnspbesq: Well…in fairness, Connecticut used to love Republicans. But of course that was an entirely different breed of Republicans (remember: Lowell Weicker, whom Lieberman defeated to win his current seat, was a good deal more liberal than Holy Joe).
Jay
Folks, I’m a Connecticut resident and voter. In 2010, I voted against Ms. McMahon and I will again next year. If any of you need to be reminded of just how creepy this woman is, check out the linked ESPN piece on one of her former employees, the burned out professional wrestler and junkie Scott Hall. This is how a Senator McMahon would treat working Americans (note that WWE only started paying for drug rehab for its current and former stars after some THIRTY current or former WWE wrestlers died of overdoses and other drug-related problems since the early-to-mid ’80s when the WWE rose to prominence).
All comparisons to the NFL and other bruising pro sports leagues are laughable, by the way, as pro wrestling is not unionized (Linda McMahon and her husband have long opposed unionization) and there is no offseason.
If anyone’s locked into a McMahon vote or considering giving money to her, think again.
soonergrunt
@Ruckus: I’m here for you guys.
gogol's wife
@Jay:
I think you’re misled by all the MacMahon ads that pop up when you’re a Connecticut reader of BJ. There aren’t too many MacMahon contributors around here.
Jay
One more thing: I fear a general election race between McMahon and CT’s former Dem. Secretary of State (featured in the Lieberman article) would be quite competitive, given that the ex SoS made some unforced errors toward the end of her run in that post and botched a run for governor here in ’06. If McMahon could sling enough mud to make herself seem “competent” while getting CT’s fairly popular (and female) Republican ex governor to stump for her constantly, then I suspect alot of woman Democrats would turn for McMahon.
Chris Murphy is the Democrat with organizational support and the one Progressives should back in the primary, I think.
As for the Republican we want to see, Chris Shays would be it. Yes, he was a longtime congressman, but his district runs along the New York line, which has meant alot of coverage from the New York city media (on pushing for the 9/11 Commission, for example), but little name recognition in the rest of the state.
Finally, Shays does not have a ton of cash on hand and, since he lost his seat in ’08, he hasn’t even lived in Connecticut.
Any Democrat save the old Sec. of State would beat McMahon by 8-10 points. Our former SoS MIGHT creep up to the 8-10 mark against Shays, but I bet Murphy beats him by 15.
Jay
@gogol’s wife: Oh, I read BJ every day and I know the vast majority of its commenters wouldn’t welcome a Senator McMahon. I’d still urge you folks to pass the ESPN video on to anyone you know who is bullish on her or “undecided.”
shortstop
@gogol’s wife: Why do you hate strong wom…
…I’m sorry; I couldn’t even type that with a straight face.
chrome agnomen
@c u n d gulag:
BIG-TIME LOLZ!
NobodySpecial
@ornery: Your version of history is…..Bushic, to say the least.
The pragmatics on this site HATE Nader like he personally roasted their puppies and use the remains of the strawman they keep burning in effigy to attack ‘firebaggers’ and ’emo progs’.
Of course, very few people on ‘the left’ actually voted or supported Nader, and they were very outnumbered by their counterparts in ‘the middle’ and on ‘the right’:
To Wit:
So the reality is a little different than the narrative, much like the narrative that ‘firebaggers’ lost the Democrats the House in 2010, despite evidence that ‘the left’ showed up and voted Democratic in their normal off year numbers and all those new, first time, young, independent voters that came out for Obama in 2008 stayed home in 2010.
Ain’t it funny how it’s supposedly always the left’s fault that Democrats lose elections….
debbie
@ Yutsano:
That’s what hanging around McCain’ll do to a guy.
jefft452
@The Moar You Know: Weicker was a good guy
I’ve cast a lot of votes in my life that I’ve regretted,
“well, it seemed like a good idea at the time” is a phrase I have to use all too often
But in my entire 30+ years of voting (never missed an election) I have only cast one vote that makes me feel ashamed – I voted for Lieberman instead of Weicker
Paul in KY
@NobodySpecial: I hate Nader with the white hot brilliance of a thousand suns.
I hope he dies a horrible, painful death.