Joe the Volcano

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-06-09/joe-the-volcano/full/


Joe the Volcano

by Eric Alterman

America’s most mercurial, least responsible senator is up to his old tricks, threatening to shut down the Senate to block the release of the torture photos. Eric Alterman on why Obama should steer clear of Lieberman’s blackmail tactics.


What to do about those awful military abuse photos none of us have seen is a truly vexing problem. Obama is quite right when he says their publication could cause a spike in anti-Americanism in the Arab world and possibly even endanger the lives of American troops. On the other hand, America needs nothing so much as to put the poisonous legacy of lies and dissimulations used by the Bush administration’s Iraq misadventure behind us, and this will be impossible to do as long as the Obama administration continues to take the position that it must participate in its continued coverup.

Into this conundrum like a bull in a proverbial china shop stride Republican Lindsey Graham and Who Knows What, Joe Lieberman. Together these two have promised to shut down all business in the Senate unless the Pentagon is allowed to block the release of incriminating Bush-era photos. Lieberman calls the potential release “sheer voyeurism” and “disclosure without a purpose.”

snip//

And though he caucuses with the Democrats and professes to be an independent, Lieberman is picking up right where he left off as the loyal solider, first of Bush-Cheney and then of the McCain campaign. Remember, during the Bad Old Days, he used his position as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to put the kibosh on Senate investigations of both Halliburton and Blackwater by explaining, “We don’t like investigating…” (At the time, Lieberman’s committee employed just two investigators; his counterpart in the House, Henry Waxman, has employed more than 40.)

Lieberman is strongly against waterboarding, except when he is just as strongly in favor of it. He sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he appears to believe his job is to prevent any actual oversight from taking place. And not only is he exploiting this most difficult and potentially dangerous of problems, he is insisting that his demands take precedence over absolutely everything else in Congress, including—I kid you not—funding for the troops.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration risks making the same mistake Nixon made during the Pentagon Papers case. Remember, he went all out to prevent the publication of the lies a previous administration had told about a failing war, and in doing so, helped make those lies his own. Barack Obama did not allow or empower the horrors that took place at Abu Ghraib. And he may very well be right that, on balance, we do not need to see more gruesome photographs of what took place there.

But much more than that, we need an administration that respects the law, respects the Constitution, and keeps its promises about transparency and democratic accountability. For starters, that means refusing to associate himself with the blackmail tactics of America’s most mercurial—and least responsible—senator.

NOT.

Fuckin' Lieberman is such a P.O.S.


(edit to add picture)

When he took the side of Bush and Republicans in defending the illegal votes of military being counted in Florida in 2000 election. I have no respect for him at all.

n/t

Perhaps the voters will reclaim his seat with a real democrat!

In 2006, Lieberman setup a shell party so that his name would be higher than the write-in candidates but he failed to properly file to make his party legit. Our Secretary of State still allowed Lieberman's shell party to be put on the ballot. After the election Prof. Orman from Fairfield University filed the paperwork and along with a few other Lamont supporters, took over the Connecticut for Lieberman party. Unless the Liebercrats take it back, the Lamont supporters controlling the Connecticut for Lieberman party can endorse Lieberman's opponent and Lieberman will either have to come up with a new shell party or have his name near the bottom of the ballot.

2012 could be an interesting year. I think Ned Lamont is sticking around in case no one else will challenge Lieberman. I don't think Lieberman will ever get the Dem nomination again, but I would not put it past him to try again.

n/t