Joe Lieberman escaped with his political hide intact after today’s Senate Democratic Caucus meeting.  He stays in the caucus, and he keeps his chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a prestigious committee assignment.

From the Washington Post piece (linked above)

“This was done in a spirit of reconciliation,” Lieberman told reporters after the meeting.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said that “Joe Lieberman is a Democrat. He’s part of this caucus.”

The deal was negotiated by Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), as well as Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). The Democratic caucus voted 42-13 to accept it.

And, of course, President-elect Obama said that he thought Lieberman should stay.

Lieberman said that he’s grateful:

LIEBERMAN: Senator Reid asked me to relinquish my seat on the Environment Committee. In the spirit of cooperation and in part to make room for freshmen senators, new senators who wanted to be on that committee, I said I would, in the spirit of cooperation, do that. […]

Incidentally, Senator Reid will be imposing a new rule in light — that is, we’ll be applying a rule that exists in the Senate but hasn’t been in light of the new members, the larger Democratic Caucus, which is that each member can only be the chairman of one full committee and the chairman of one subcommittee.

So in that regard I am very grateful to continue as chairman of Homeland Security and of the Airland Subcommittee of Armed Services, which overseas all Army and Air Force programs.

He should be grateful.  He should show a lot more gratitude toward Harry Reid and Barack Obama personally as well. 

He fully deserved being kicked out of the caucus.  He certainly deserved to lose his committee gavel.  You don’t campaign for your party’s presidential rival and say the things that Lieberman said and not expect some sanction.  As I said, he fully deserved being thrown out of the caucus.  (Maybe Senate Democrats are hoping that Connecticut voters will take care of the problem in four years — although voters’ memories are notoriously short.)  Instead he escapes with what amounts to twenty lashes with a wet noodle on his wrist.  He should thank the president-elect (and those deal-brokering senators) a thousand times over for being magnanimous.

It’s a shrewd move, politically, to allow Lieberman to stay in the caucus.  Obama campaigned on a platform of a new kind of politics — a post-partisan politics.  This was his first opportunity to show that this is really how he intends to govern, and he didn’t let the opportunity pass.  What better way to show that he means what he said?

All that said, I completely understand the ire of many Democrats.  I share it.  I would have liked to see some real consequences for Lieberman’s actions.  I don’t think that there’s anyone less deserving of saving (politically) than Joe Lieberman.  Obama is showing grace; the definition of which (in this context) is showing mercy to someone who doesn’t deserve it.  It’s not weakness; it’s showing grace.

I watched the spectacle that Joe Lieberman made of himself supporting John McCain during the presidential campaign.  I was quite irritated with Lieberman during the campaign.  Perhaps I’d feel differently if Obama had lost, but I feel a bit more conciliatory toward Lieberman than I did two weeks ago.

One reason for that is Barack Obama.  He’s called for allowing Lieberman to stay in the caucus.  Obama ran on a platform of inclusion, of post-partisanship.  He won because of his inclusiveness (among many, many other reasons).  I think it sends a message about how Obama intends to govern, if Lieberman stays in the caucus.  It would be magnanimous.  It would say that Democrats are the party that allows some dissent (unlike the Republicans — see Kathleen Parker’s column today in the Washington Post).  Some senior Democratic senators have even joined the campaign to save Lieberman’s hide.

Make no mistake.  Lieberman does not deserve saving.  Caucusing with the Democrats and voting with them about 90 percent of the time doesn’t make one a Democrat.  Lieberman went way over the top with his convention speech at the Republican convention and his campaigning for McCain during the fall.  Lieberman deserves to be booted off his committee, lose his seniority, and be booted from the Democratic caucus.

Even though he deserves it, though, doesn’t mean it should happen.  Lieberman should, however, feel some pain for his actions.  There should be some punishment.  But the Democrats shouldn’t boot him from the caucus, or do something so harsh as to make Lieberman bolt.  Compromise.  Make something happen.

Lieberman and McCain (Photo: Huffington Post)

I’d like to see Lieberman try to make good on this promise. 

Asked again on Sunday whether Sarah Palin is ready to be president, Sen. Joe Lieberman went one step further than he has in past remarks — virtually pledging to voters that John McCain “will live to 85 at least.”

In an audio clip of the Tampa, Florida, event obtained by the Huffington Post, Lieberman acknowledged that he has spoken “to doctors and insurance actuaries” about McCain’s health, “because I get asked this question so much.”

“People say to me, oh jeez, he’s 72 and he’s got skin cancer,” Lieberman said, adding: “I can tell you he’s been in remission for eight years. Secondly, I talked — because I get asked this question so much — I talked to doctors and insurance actuaries. And they tell me based on McCain’s age, his health, including skin cancer, he’ll live till at least 85. And probably longer.”

Lieberman once again offered a prayer that Palin would not soon have to serve as commander in chief: “I believe that he’ll be able to serve through his first term for which he’s elected, please God.”

There’s only one way to ensure that Sarah Palin does not become president: Vote for Barack Obama.  I’ve said it over and over ad nauseam: Sarah Palin is not ready.  John McCain disqualified himself from the presidency by tapping her.

It remains an open question as to whether McCain’s melanoma really is in remission.  Doctors have asked questions over and over.  There are also questions as to whether McCain has suffering from some cognitive issues.  See my posts on McCain’s health here, here (a doctor commented on this post as well), here, here, and here.

I really bear no ill will toward John McCain (or Sarah Palin).  I simply want what’s best for our country.  That is not John McCain and Sarah Palin.  The risk is simply too great to take the chance — against quite a lot of evidence — that McCain is ok.

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It’s becoming more and more apparent that McCain’s team did a shoddy job in vetting her.  More and more shoes keep dropping.  (Read A Letter from Someone Who Has Known Sarah Palin since 1992 for more information.  It’s quite illuminating.)  To date:

• Ethical issues stemming from whether she abused power in trying to have her brother-in-law fired (he was an Alaska state trooper) as he was divorcing her sister.  She then allegedly fired the public safety commissioner because he refused.
• Her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy.  This isn’t relevant as it pertains to her family issues, but it certainly raises some hypocrisy issues where her personal life may be different to how she runs her government.
• She was for it before she was against it, as it pertains to the “Bridge to Nowhere.”  She says she stopped the project, but she kept the money.
• She ran Wasilla into $22 million in debt, necessitating the hiring of a city manager because her management skills were so bad that she was running the town into the ground.  This, for a town with a population of about 5,000 at the time.
• She has tried to ban books in the Wasilla library.  When the librarian refused, she tried to have the librarian fired.
• She has ties to the Alaska Independent Party, a secessionist party in Alaska.

Now, there’s another shoe that’s dropping.  When she was mayor of Wasilla, she fired the police chief  because he “stepped on the toes of Palin’s campaign contributors, including bar owners and the National Rifle Association.”

I don’t know about you, but it looks like a pattern to me.  It’s a pattern of abuse of power, of hypocrisy, of censorship.  This is the running mate John McCain picked?

I have no doubt that she’ll give a great speech tonight at the convention and that she’ll fire up the delegates.  My question is this: So what?  It doesn’t matter.  Look at her record.  It’s quite a record of abuse of power for one so early in her career.  No wonder the Republicans love her.  They must see her as a continuation of Bush and his abuses.

More and more tidbits like these are going to come out as the press does the McCain campaign’s job for them and holds Palin and her record up to the light.  I can’t wait for her first press conference when the reporters (if they do their jobs) start asking some questions.  I also can’t wait for the vice-presidential debate.  I will be riveted to the screen for that one.

I’ve read — in several places — today that the reason Palin was so incompletely vetted was because McCain really wanted Lieberman as his running mate.  McCain was told, however, that there would be a revolt in the party if he tapped Lieberman.  It’s an interesting, and plausible, theory.  It might help explain some of the recklessness in the pick of Palin.

[Update]: None of the above are sexist smears by the media or anyone else.  These facts make up her record.  In naming Palin, I think a case could be made that what McCain did was a disservice to women.  Don’t believe me?  Read Maureen Dowd’s column from today.

Joe Lieberman addressed the Republican Convention last night, eight years after he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President.  It’s historic.  It was also expected long before an official announcement: Lieberman has been campaigning for McCain for months.

During that time, Lieberman has undercut Barack Obama repeatedly, apparently throwing a long-held party affiliation away because of the Iraq War.  Lieberman said last night in his speech, “I’m here to support John McCain because country matters more than party.”  He’s right about this; country does matter more than party.  (Obama has been saying that for more than a year.)  But I can’t believe that anything Lieberman has done isn’t self-serving.  It’s not about party or country — it’s about him.

Ned Lamont defeated him in the Democratic primary for Senator from Connecticut.  So what does Lieberman do?  He doesn’t accept his defeat — the word of his party.  He decides that he doesn’t want to leave office, and runs as an independent.  Then he magnanimously decides he will caucus with the Democrats, allowing them to have a majority in the Senate.  But this also gives him a powerful committee chairmanship. 

Now he’s working for John McCain.  For what, you ask?  Well, before Palin was tapped (with scant vetting, I might add), I thought he was trying to get the vice-presidential nod from McCain.  Maybe he’ll still get it if, as some conspiracy theorists think, Palinhas to withdraw.  I don’t subscribe to that point of view.  I think he wants a cabinet position — Secretary of Defense, maybe — in a McCain administration.  I also think he’d be a disaster approaching the scale of Rumsfeld if he’s tapped for that post.

I’ve been saying for awhile that the Democrats need to boot him from the caucus.  Lieberman has been a Democrat his whole career.  If he wants to throw away that party affiliation over the Iraq War, fine.  Strip him of his committee chairmanships and remove his Democratic seniority in the Senate.  Democrats don’t get to undercut their party’s nominee for president at every turn and walk away scot free.  He’s no maverick.  He’s a self-serving politician who has lost touch with his constituency and his party.  It’s time for Lieberman to suffer the consequences.

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