Joe Should Go

First subject of a blog associated with vicepresidents.com should have something to do with a VP, but the best I could do today is a former VP candidate. Joe Lieberman is running for re-election to the Senate and has a serious opponent in the Democratic primary, Ned Lamont, which has many observers in a snit. On the right, Jonah Goldberg has mocked the Democrats for attacking their own; on the left, Jonathan Chait has expressed fear that this sort of thing could cost the Dems a Senate seat, and the LA Times editorial board was just aghast that a fine man like Joe Lieberman should be opposed by a bunch of left-wing activists (and worse, bloggers) across the nation over one issue, when they aren’t all that active in opposing others who voted for the Iraq war.

Well, excuse us for caring. Let’s see, the Iraq war involves the geopolitical future of the world, oil, America’s standing in the world, our military’s ability to respond to other crises (see Korea, Iran, and much of Africa), our economic future, and of course, life and death. And that isn’t enough for these people? It’s not that Joe supported the war resolution – he co-sponsored it. He pimped for the war before it was proposed. He has not only supported it throughout, he has criticized those who criticize it. He has criticized those who criticize the way Bush and his minions have run the war, saying it’s wrong to oppose the President during war time. Good Lord, the man was virtually kissed on the lips by Bush in public – God knows what W would do to him in private. No one outside of Karl Rove’s office has done more harm to the Democratic party than Lieberman. No one deserves to be replaced more than him.

And if that issue isn’t enough, his grandstanding on judicial appointments by heading up the “centrist” Gang of 14 in the Senate has given Bush virtually every extremist judicial appointment he wanted, including the horrifically unfit Janice Rogers Brown. He has made it virtually impossible for the Democrats in the Senate to stop the right-wing takeover of the judiciary. One would assume that even if the Dems win back the Senate that he would still try and be in control of that.

There may be some of you who wonder why I titled this “Joe Should Go” rather than the more potent “Joe Must Go”. That’s because Joe has no intention of going anywhere. He has already proclaimed that even if he loses the primary, he will run as an independent (on the Joe Lieberman for Connecticut party), and would probably win. As Joe has said, he cares more about the country than the party. Actually, he cares more about Joe Lieberman than either. In 2000, when he ran for VP, he also was on the ballot in CT for the Senate, even though the party asked him not to run there, since if he was elected VP, a Republican Governor would have picked his replacement, costing the Dems a key Senate seat. He didn’t care about the good of the party or country then, he doesn’t care now. That there are many Democrats supporting Lieberman now is a sad commentary on the party. I am not surprised that Bill Clinton is among them, since no Democrat did less for party building than Clinton. What is even sadder is that Lieberman will probably be re-elected as an “independent” and nothing will change except that his ego will get even larger than it is now and his sanctimonious whining will get louder and more frequent.