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Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
As always, this is a crosspost from CongressMatters. This is the important news of the day. Okay, maybe only some of it. So if you disagree, go watch Casual Wednesday suggestion of the public advocacy class covered on CSPAN. Or cross the Eastern Continental Divide in winter to deliver a WVU student. I was in hiding after the Gator Bowl.
Good afternoon, WvaBlue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
As always, this is a crosspost from Congress Matters and I will refrain from my routine claim that this is the most important news of the day. That would be the what is happening in your own house this time of the year.
Sen. Byrd did not miss the vote today either, even thought it was finally just a majority wins event. His thoughts went to his friend Edward M. Kennedy.
Watch below as FireDogLake blogsistah Jane calls out a self-defined "Responsible Liberal-Centrist" (cough).
Odds are that Lanny the lobbyist's lobbyist will never show his smug little DLC smirk on the Ed Show again for fear of getting confronted about whether or not he's still Lieberman's all-time favorite PACman.
I have had it with the corporate-sponsored shell game that these senate Blue Dogs have been playing. It's now time to start really pushing for the Obamacare bill to be the reform that Obama promised.
As the winter wears on, if cabin fever starts creeping over you, take the time to check out the top 10 list of undisputed facts about Lanny Davis so that next time he pops up on the teevee representing what he thinks is the "Responsible Liberal-Centrist" wing of the Dems, you'll realize he's just another corporate-owned DLC toady. Because over the coming holidays, you can surely expect to see Lanny Davis right along with Harold Ford, Jr., and a host of other stinking Blue Dogs and C-Street corporate shills on the cable news selling America their lousy Senate bill.
Just don't bank on seeing anyone from the Democrat wing of the Democratic party like Jane Hamsher, Howard Dean, or Dennis Kucinich get equal time. And as for a getting valuable and factual input from a real insurance industry expert like Wendell Potter on the news spilling the beans about how what a giant giveaway the Senate version is to their insurance industry bosses, well, the three major network news broadcasts have, so far, suspiciously overlooked him. Could that be because they don't want to hear what he has to say?
Yesterday evening, Washington political reporters began spreading the news of a deal among the Democratic Senate caucus regarding Sen. Joe Lieberman's role in the next Congress.
According to sources familiar with negotiations, Democrats are expected to vote in favor of letting the Connecticut senator keep his chairmanship and seniority, but give up the gavel on a subcommittee he chairs.
Now, you may view this all as a relatively minor issue. You may think constituents don't really care. You may think it's an internal matter among long-time colleagues. No, this is a major issue; we do care; your decision impacts us all.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has shown through multiple repeated actions he is completely undeserving of serving any longer as chairperson of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
1. Sen. Lieberman has failed to adequately fulfill the duties of this chairmanship during this last term of Congress. Despite promising voters during his re-election in 2006 that he would use his committee chairmanship to thoroughly investigate Bush administration actions, he has not.
2. Lieberman not only failed to support the Democratic party candidate for President, he actively supported the other major candidate and did so in an out-spoken way that distorted the record of our nominee and questioning his ability to serve as President. Lieberman "endorsed efforts by the GOP to imply that Obama is in league with terrorists, suggested that Obama endangered our troops, and said Obama hasn't always put the country first." While all of us worked so hard here in West Virginia on the Campaign for Change, Joe Lieberman actively undermined our efforts.
I just want to reiterate a very, very simple that I've made over and over again. It's a point that is really important to make before the vote on whether Joe Lieberman remains chairman of the committee whose main mission is to investigate the executive branch.
Joe Lieberman has made clear he thinks Barack Obama is a socialist who is a danger to the United States as president. Therefore, putting any personal animosity against Joe Lieberman aside, it's clear that giving Joe Lieberman subpoena power on a committee whose mission is investigating the executive branch of the supposed socialist who supposedly is a danger to the United States doesn't seem like a very good idea.
4. What about the secondary mission of this committee? (The Governmental Affairs part essentially runs portions of DC government.) Leaving Lieberman in charge of this committee is a huge slap in the face to the residents of Washington, D.C., who voted over-whelming for the Democratic party nominee for President.
5. Lieberman actively campaigned against Democratic party Senate candidates. Just months ago he was actively working to increase the number of votes in the other party's caucus. (Norm Coleman and Susan Collins)
We deserve an effective chair for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. We deserve a chair who has the trust of the full caucus. We need the Senate Democratic Caucus to demonstrate a return of accountability to Washington, D.C.
We voted for change. Help deliver unto us the change we need to return our country to what it can be. It starts with decisions small and large.
Today is your chance to announce that change has arrive among Democrats in the Senate.
Thank you,
Clem Guttata
Update from Carnacki
Senate Democrats sent yet another big "Fuck you!" to the people who elected them.
With its congressional majority, the Democratic Party has refused to seriously try to end the war, to stop the bailout and to stop the trampling of civil liberties, just to name a few off the top of my head. In fact, with their votes, they have aggressively worked to start and continue the war, pass the bailout and destroy our constitutional rights to privacy. So, are we really surprised that they have rewarded Joe Lieberman with a chairmanship that he can use to investigate the president he said poses a danger to America?
The Senators in both parties treat the Senate as their private club and could care less about what the people of America think of them.
Joe Lieberman did a great job unintentionally of reminding many rank and file Republicans why they couldn't stand John McCain. As Lieberman talked about McCain's stances against the party's orthodoxy on global warming and immigration, you could hear the crowds murmur in disapproval. Republican crowds like their talking points. Lieberman's speech might have played well with David Broder's Washington, but the only real applause lines he got was when Lieberman did his spiel of attacking Democrats. That's OK. He's no longer one. He might call himself an independent Democrat, but he's in office for his last term as a Connecticut for Lieberman Party member. There's no D after his name any more. He didn't leave the party. The party kicked his sorry ass out.
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