Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

We won’t go back.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Make The World A Better Place / Joememtum is over

Joememtum is over

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From CNN:

Former Democratic vice presidential nominee and Sen. Joe Lieberman has died at 82, according to a statement from his family.

The 2 game fees I donated to Ned Lamont in July 2006 was some of the most satisfying political money I’ve spent in my life.

 

Open thread

Reader Interactions

140Comments

  5. 5.

    kindness

    Sooo hard not to say what I’d like to, but my folks raised me better.  Well, tried to at least.

  9. 9.

    Tom Levenson

    Nil nisi bonum and all that, so I’ll just say the one good thing I can think of about Sen. Lieberman.

    He’s dead.*

    *Stolen, of course, from the possibly apocryphal story of the eulogist at Louis B. Meyer’s funeral asking Meyer’s associates for something, anything positive about the man.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    The Lamont thing was such a disaster. Although I guess it could be seen as a first step.

  11. 11.

    Spanky

    Does this mean Manchin is free to claim the “Joementum” slogan? I would not be surprised to see it.

  15. 15.

    Spanky

    Which of our msm betters will be first to reach out to ol’ Joe’s bff, dubya, to get his teary take?

  16. 16.

    Ohio Mom

    Eighty-two is on the young side for someone in Lieberman’s socio-economic group. On the other hand, for my tastes, not a moment too soon.

  17. 17.

    Rusty

    One of the rare times I voted for someone while holding my nose.  When I lived in Connecticut andhe ran for the senate, even then he was a self centered prima Donna who would have happily sold his grandmother’s bones for an extra sixty seconds in front of the camera.  When I heard AL Gore picked him for VP I yelled at the tv!!

  19. 19.

    CaseyL

    Nil nisi bon – nah, never mind.

    He was a petty PITA, a failure (if not an outright saboteur) as the VP candidate in 2000, a thorn in the side of the Democratic Senate caucus, and all round putz.

    My most indelible visual memory of him is one of the (many) times he voted with the GOP in the Senate during the Obama Administration – and then scurried over to the GOP side of the chamber to stand with his GOP buddies, and looked back at the Democratic caucus to see their reaction.

    Pharma lobbyists loved him for helping kill “Medicare for everyone over 55.”  Presumably his family loved him.

  20. 20.

    piratedan

    He had a long battle with IA (Instant Asshole, just add power) that he failed to overcome.

  23. 23.

    cain

    Eh.. I’m over this Joe, can we talk about the other Joe? The joe that’s president? That’s a good joe. The best Joe. Yo Joe!

  24. 24.

    Spanky

    @Baud: Just “complications from a fall”, per the WaPo, which has put up a long and exhaustive obit. I guess they’ve been sitting on that forever.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @cain:

    The nice thing about the good Joe is that he’s not up in our brains 24/7 like the last guy. That’s what I’m voting for this November.

  30. 30.

    Betty

    I was taken aback on hearing about his passing during the Nicole Wallace program when she, Matt Dowd, Rick Stengel and Marc Elias agreed that Joe was one of the kindest, most gentle men they’d known. Nothing but praise from all of them. No recollection of his vendetta against the Democrats or his efforts to prevent a second Biden win.

    Eta: I forgot to mention his integrity. Yeah, that too.

  31. 31.

    RandomMonster

    As someone else said somewhere, I’m sure he had the best care that he fought so hard to deny others.

    So, ‘No Labels’ now includes ‘Alive’.

  32. 32.

    Spanky

    @Spanky: According to the WaPo obit, he was a lion of the Senate, of high mortality, religious, etc, etc.

    In short, I retract what I said at #4.

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    Joebituary.

    (Not an original quip;  I think Slate used that in 2000 to describe his presidential campaign’s primary results.)

    One less snake in the grass.  Good.

  36. 36.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Like above, hadn’t thought about him in years…which was a good thing.

    Another plus: he didn’t live as long as Kissinger.

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    @Spanky:   High mortality.

    For sure.  LOL.

    ETA:  I am sure we are all far more saddened by the loss of the bridge workers, and anyone else caught on the collapsing Baltimore bridge.

  38. 38.

    Scout211

    As I commented downstairs, Gore and his advisers made a very bad choice for Veep in Joe Lieberman.

    But times, they are a-changing.  Joe Biden made a very good choice!

    I’m younger than Lieberman but I do worry about falls.  It’s scary how hard it is as an old to catch your balance.  You just go straight down.

  45. 45.

    JaySinWA

    Since this is David’s post my fall of man statistic comment from the prior post may be more relevant here:

    @MazeDancer: It is established fact that when they fall and break something, like a hip, older men die.

    I was surprised at that assertion, but it checks out (not as an absolute but significantly higher death rates between men and women).

    https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7235a1.htm#:~:text=The%20fall%2Drelated%20death%20rate%20was%20higher%20among%20men%20(91.4,other%20racial%20and%20ethnic%20groups.

    The fall-related death rate was higher among men (91.4 per 100,000) than among women (68.3). Death rates were higher among non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native persons than among other racial and ethnic groups.

    Perhaps because men get up on and fall from ladders more often than women. I’ve heard that anecdotally from medical people. But the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” commercial keeps playing in my head, along with personal knowledge of fall injuries (few resulting in death) that seem to tilt more toward women than men.

    ETA

    It’s like they can’t deal with being incapacitated, and they just leave.

    We may be less likely to follow medical advice after a fall related injury than a woman might as well.

  47. 47.

    JML

    I’m trying to think of anyone who betrayed their party more thoroughly and completely while sanctimoniously blaming others for the destruction he created and pretending he didn’t turn on everything he supposedly believed.

    Did the bright lights of a presidential campaign drive him into that madness, or was it just the catalyst he needed to bring out the arrogant prick that was always there?

  48. 48.

    Jackie

    @Spanky: I read that. It was loooong… Makes one wonder if Lieberman wrote the bulk of it himself, leaving others to fill in the when and how.

  49. 49.

    Melancholy Jaques

    Fuck that guy. He was not a very good Democrat to begin with and he lost a senate primary, even though he was the incumbent, because he did not give a shit what the people of this state wanted. After that, he spent the rest of his life attacking the Democratic Party and its candidates. Fuck him. I’m happy he is dead so he won’t be explaining why we should all get behind Trump or RFK Jr or whatever.

  50. 50.

    stacib

    @Betty: I heard that on my drive home, and the look of puzzlement on my face could probably be sent across three lanes of traffic.  What I remember is the ratfucking he did from the time Obama was elected, not that guy they were eulogizing.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @JML: I think he was a dinosaur in a rapidly changing political party.  Unlike a Biden, he couldn’t adjust to the new reality.

  52. 52.

    Elizabelle

    I will be interested in what Al Gore and either Clinton might have to say about the late and unlamented Mr. Lieberman.

  53. 53.

    Citizen Alan

    @Rusty:  I still blame him for Al Gore’s loss as much as anyone else. Gore would have won with Bob Graham. But no, he had to pick America’s most obnoxious stick-up-his-ass scold. Because we needed to pick up Connecticut, I suppose.

  54. 54.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Elizabelle:

    I will be interested in what Al Gore and either Clinton might have to say about the late and unlamented Mr. Lieberman.

    Inside words or outside words?  They’ll probably be very different.

  57. 57.

    Fair Economist

    My husband knew *two* late middle aged men from his workplace (with a few hundred people) who died from falls – one in the shower and one from a ladder. He is very paranoid about ladders now.

  59. 59.

    Shalimar

    @Betty: Wallace was also good friends with Kavanaugh during the Bush administration and speaks highly of his character too.  It’s good that she has turned away from the dark side, but her weakness seems to be that she likes everyone personally.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    @Spanky:  Thank you for telling me.  Immigrants, hard workers, soccer fans, family men.

    I hope they recover everyone, and soon.  The only miracle was the accident happened after midnight.

  61. 61.

    Captain C

    @JML: IIRC he was a moralistic prick about the Lewinsky affair. I don’t recall him having similar public opinions about the plethora of cheating Republicans who were going after Clinton at the time.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    @piratedan:

    Frank Conniff @frankconniff.bsky.social

    now

    The family of Joe Lieberman request that in lieu of healthcare, please send flowers.

    That’s so good.

  65. 65.

    David Anderson

    @JaySinWA: My one epi-ish paper is on places of death and falls

    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23337214221098897

     

    Most deaths occurred in hospitals, however, the proportion decreased from 66.4% (n = 9,095) to 50.7% (n = 15,817). The proportion occurring in nursing facilities decreased from 15.9% (n = 2175) to 15.3% (n = 4,778), while deaths at home and in hospice facilities increased. Male, Black, Native American, and married decedents had increased odds of hospital death.

    Piggybacking on other conversations; I’m terrified of falls. I destroyed ankle stability as a referee and I already go to the ground a few times a year.  I’ve told my wife that the reason why I’m deadlifiting and squatting several days a week for each exercise is not to feel good today (although that is a nice benefit) but to keep me out of the hospital when I’m 75.

  66. 66.

    raven

    @JaySinWA: I participated in a “Fall Prevention” study a doc student was doing at UGA. Lot’s of testing and then strategizing ways to keep upright. We have a really cool Antique Salt Glazed Nelsonville Circle Brick  sidewalk but the crape myrtle is pushing the bricks up so we’re going to have it changed to concrete. The bricks are listed for 14.99 each on eBay so I hope maybe I can sell them.

  68. 68.

    Layer8Problem

    Seeing as none other than William F. Buckley Jr. declared that since Lowell Weicker was quite simply the wrong kind of Republican Senator for Connecticut and had to be stopped, and that this Lieberman fellow might prove useful even though “Democrat”, maybe he was a GOP fellow traveler from the start.

  69. 69.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    The nice thing about the good Joe is that he’s not up in our brains 24/7 like the last guy. 

    Biden is also doing the job we elected him for.  And that’s great.

    This ad is so good – For You

  71. 71.

    Whimsical Pickles

    Bette Davis said you should never say bad things about the dead you should only say good. Joe Lieberman is dead. Good.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    Imagine how different the world would be if Gore had chosen almost anyone else… :-/

    Comfort to those who loved him.

    In other news, Gov. Fuzzy Vest failed again. The new Caps/Wizards arena in Alexandria, VA is dead. The teams are staying in DC, where they belong.

    Gov. Fuzzy Vest is a failure, here, also too. Maybe the idea that GQP bazillionaires know how to do effective politics will die with his failure. We can hope!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  73. 73.

    Marcopolo

    Lamont for Senate!  Those were heady days.  DailyKos was still a new thing.  And, yes,, I too chipped into that losing cause as well.  Good to see him as CT’s Gov. Now.

    Also, if you don’t have anything good to say…

  74. 74.

    dr. luba

    My next door neighbor died from a fall.  I found him.  He was working in his garage, I heard a clatter, went to check.  He fell for some reason and hit his head.  On anticoagulants.  Brain bleed. Nothing could be done.

    Nice guy.  He is missed.  Unlike Lieberman.

  76. 76.

    Ohio Mom

    @JaySinWA: Once you hit your sixies, at your annual physical, the doctor starts squeezing your ankles (checking for congestive heart failure) and asking, “Have you fallen in the last three months?” Falling is a big deal.

  78. 78.

    EarthWindFire

    I was taught to say nothing but good about the dead. Joe Lieberman’s dead. That’s good.

    ETA: I see Whimsical Pickles got there first. Ah, well.

  80. 80.

    Trivia Man

    When i was running for office in 2000 i met him on a rope line. After he shook my hand he took my sleeve and rubbed it between his fingers. “Nice coat”, he said. He was right – high quality thrift store camel hair that fit perfectly.

  82. 82.

    Scout211

    @dr. luba:  He fell for some reason and hit his head.  On anticoagulants.  Brain bleed. Nothing could be done.

    That is how my father died. But it took many days in the hospital before he died.

  83. 83.

    zeecube

    @Betty: I heard on MSNBC too, but missed all that hagiography.   I was just setting down for a “power nap”, heard Nicole, then smiled and fell asleep.

  85. 85.

    hells littlest angel

    Heh. The Washington Post enabled comments on his obituary. For a while. What were they thinking? They scrubbed about half of them before shutting it down.

  86. 86.

    sab

    @Rusty: I held my nose voting for him too. I met my future husband in the voting line. He told me that yeah Lieberman was awful but Bush was the AntiChrist. I thought that was a bit strong, until the Iraq war.

  90. 90.

    Trivia Man

    @Citizen Alan: and one who actively gave cover to the bush theft while acting like gore had definitely lost Florida. If he had just STFU or been passionate about WE WON…. Whst might have been.

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    LOL.  The WaPost had to close their reader comments on the Joebituary, about an hour after it went up.

    Top liked comment:

    We would have a public healthcare option right now if not for Joe.

    from other readers:

    ** “Lieberman viewed himself as a centrist Democrat.” Yeah, no.

    ** Lieberman was Joe Manchin before it was cool.

    ** On the wrong side of several major issues of our times. I disagree with those claiming he did what he thought was right. He did what the Connecticut health insurance industry told him to do.

    ** The Kyrsten Sinema of his time.

    ** Hopefully the barking yam joins him soon from natural causes

    ** Terrible obituary. There is no reason to adopt his self congratulatory self aggrandizing view of his career. He changed parties and supported the GOP as it trashed American politics. He decided that the Democrat who he could not support was Obama. He sabotaged the 2000 election by attacking Clinton. Just a bad American and accepting his distortions is unworthy of the Post.

    They didn’t get the memo from Nicolle Wallace, etc.

  95. 95.

    Johannes

    @JML: As Mark Twain said in a very different context, “it seems a shame they allowed him to die a natural death.”

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    @hells littlest angel:  I believe you that the WaPost scrubbed comments.

    Somehow, their readers …. have a more accurate view of the late Senator than their access journalamists and insider types.

  97. 97.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Currants:

    Probably the only reason to go there.  I wish they had a list of all the obits they’ve done because despite my dislike of most of the front pagers and commentariat there, some of the obits are gems.

  98. 98.

    laura

    This salty, petty bitch is heartened to hear that the sad, sagging scrotum that walked like a man has shrugged off his mortal coil and is probably still making excuses at the pearly gates trying to sneak in. Well f that and F that guy.

  101. 101.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    I once compared him to Saddam Hussein on a different site in 2006 and Joe Crowley actually attacked me by name in The New Republic.   I was ecstatic.

    Who can forget the time he kissed Dubya at the SOTU.

  102. 102.

    Jackie

    My dad was a very stalwart Democrat and always defended even the weakest of Democratic politicians. He wasn’t thrilled when Gore chose Lieberman as his VP candidate, but valiantly gave full support – telling me voters didn’t vote for the VP. When the Supremes gave Bush the White House, he finally quietly acknowledged that “Lieberman had probably been a mistake.” That’s the only time I ever heard him even mildly rebuke a Democrat. Later, when Lieberman got all pissy and rejected the Democratic Party after they rejected him first, dad called him a hypocrite – almost the worst name he could call someone.

  103. 103.

    Tony Jay

    At its core Lieberman’s appeal to the Village was that he posed as a respected Centrist Democrat while consistently siding with the GOP to attack Democratic policies and politicians, even (especially) when it meant sabotaging a Presidential campaign he was part of.

    Now that he’s dead, they want to laud him for that without saying they’re lauding him for that. To which I say fuck’em.

  112. 112.

    Dan B

    Lieberman voted against equal rights in the repeal of DADT.  He said that states should regulate abortion because, “After all it’s only a short ride.”  His nickname was Short Ride.  Voted for the Iraq War.  There are many more.

    I don’t believe he’ll amount to much in history.  His principles would be difficult to discern.

  114. 114.

    Ohio Mom

    @hells littlest angel: I took a quick look at the obituary’s comments, read a few of the funniest ones aloud to Ohio Dad, and came here. I’m sorry they are gone, I wanted to finish savoring them.

  118. 118.

    hells littlest angel

    @WaterGirl: Usually they know better. No comments on Kissinger’s obit, for instance. But I think they sometimes don’t realize how despised some people are. This isn’t the first time they’ve scrubbed and closed comments.

  120. 120.

    karen marie

    @Spanky: I wouldn’t give that fuckwit one more second.  He’s wasted enough of everyone’s time.  Good riddance to bad rubbish.

  124. 124.

    Ohio Mom

    When my local paper, the Cincinnati Enquirer had comments, they were full of right wing nut jobs, endlessly repeating the same bumper sticker phrases (example: “We’re not a democracy, we’re a republic”).

    But the Times and Washington Post comment threads are full of smart people, continually calling the writers out on their skewed reporting and blind spots. It’s refreshing.

  126. 126.

    Tom Hamill

    ChatGPT, write me a Joe Leiberman obituary.  Make sure you look at both sides of the issue of his life and death, and assure me that the best outcome would be half alive, half dead.

  131. 131.

    vigilhorn

    Went out last night and fired off a bottle rocket after I heard the news. Second time this year…Kissinger was first.

  134. 134.

    Paul in KY

    Mr. Lamont would have won for sure, if that scumbag hadn’t done his “Connecticut for Lieberman” crap.  I did give some money to Mr. Lamont and have never regretted it. Felt he should have gotten more help from national party.

  135. 135.

    Paul in KY

    @JML: I think he became more and more an ally of Likud Israel and they were generally GQP allies/buddies, so he decided to do their bidding as much as he could.

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