The Sadness of Lieberman

I’ve been mulling over Lieberman’s defeat all day. Thinking about it too much, actually, if the growing pile of actual work on my desk is any indication. Lieberman clearly deserved to lose this election but it wasn’t because of his support of the Iraq war. Lieberman deserved to lose because in the end he was unable to distinguish Washington D.C. from Connecticut. The erstwhile Senator from the Nutmeg State is completely unable to accept the fact that his center tightrope balancing act was not welcome in the current political climate. As Sydney Schanberg put it on Salon today, being a moderate is only effective if your opponent is willing to compromise. Clearly, this gang of thieves running the Whitehouse is disinclined to compromise about anything. When your opponents won’t even take baby-steps in your direction, what you as a senator think of as compromise appears to your constituents as capitulation. Lieberman first began to lose his Joementum when his constituents realized that Joe was obviously relishing his role as the right wing moralist of the party. (This was at some point in the year 2000 right about when he decided, along with Gore, to allow the contested Bush ballots to be counted in Florida.)

Joe, in this, the Republic’s darkest hour your thoughts aren’t even with the people. We don’t want to compromise, we want a fight. We want to wrest this country back from the religious crazies and war mongers and give it back to the people. It is very telling that you named your new campaign. “Connecticut for Lieberman” rather than “Lieberman for Connecticut”. Kind of says it all right there. Because its all about you Joe, isn’t it? Who are we that we deign to think we can knock a sitting senator off his throne because he doesn’t represent our interests. My goodness, isn’t this the Democracy you and your Republican amigos are trying to shove down the Iraqi’s throats at the point of a gun? So now you’re pulling a Rudy Giuliani and trying to make an end-run around the legislative process because it doesn’t suit your personal interests. You are willing to take a hacksaw to the Democratic party by ignoring the voters (remember the voters Joe? ) and continuing this campaign because, in your words, we need less partisanship in Washington, not more? Well bugger-off Joe. You lost. If you keep going with this campaign the only winners will be the Republicans in November.