Joe ... You're Nothing To Us Now!

The Godfather Part 2 - Michael & Fredo Corleone



Now, I am not suggesting, by using the above-video referencem if what happens to those that turn against their own, that Harry Reid, or the Sargent-at-Arms, should take McKKKain's Mini-Me (aka Senator Joe Lieberman, R-I, CT) out fishing anytime soon, however, he does need to be buried, deep, within the Democratic Caucus somewhere.

Lots of political drama today, up on the Hill, with the big meeting between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Party-Joltin' Joe.

From Lieberman Meets With Reid, Tries To Cling To Senate Chairmanship

Immediately after his meeting with Reid, Lieberman told reporters that he had not made a decision about his future in the caucus, and appeared to launch his first public appeal to members of the Democratic steering committee, whose members decide committee chair assignments.

"I completely agree with President-elect Obama that we must now unite to get our economy going again and to keep the American people safe. that is exactly what I intend to do with my colleagues here in the Senate in support of our new president, and those are the standards I will use in considering the options that I have before me," Lieberman told reporters.

Here's the video of it.

What an asshole!

After spending the summer stumping with the Dead Campaign Express, Mommy Moose (and also some down-ticket Republican races), jumping in on all the lying and smearing, and he now wants to hide behind Obama?

Along with his Fredo-like qualities, he also is acting exactly like any one of the Bush Grindhouse deadbeats, avoiding taking responsibility for his own actions, obfuscating his position of campaigning against the Democrats by now embracing the new order.

Jesus, he spoke at the Republican National Convention!

You don't do that!

However much he wanted to support his buddy, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McKKKain, you don't go out and speak at the oppositions keg party.

Those are staged and reserved solely for tooting your own party's horn, strutting your party's positions, and demonizing the opposing party.

It's almost as if the debunked Mavericks' poor judgment is contagious

And he didn't stop there.

Just last week, he openly dissed his colleagues in the Dem caucus, spewing, just like all the other Flying Monkeys, the RNC Talking Points.

Lieberman: ‘I Fear’ That ‘America Will Not Survive’ If Democrats Get 60 Senate Seats

Today, in an interview with right-wing radio host Glenn Beck, Lieberman made clear that he firmly opposes Democrats gaining 60 seats in the Senate, saying that the survival of the country is in doubt if Democrats break the filibuster threshold:

BECK: But do you agree that Senator Hatch said to me that if we don’t at least have the firewall of the filibuster in the Senate that in many ways America will not survive?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I hope it’s not like that, but I fear.

Then, he added;

LIEBERMAN: And I think the filibuster is the key. You know, it gets a bad name, but it was really put there, a 60-vote requirement, to, as somebody said to me when I first came to the Senate, stop the passions of a moment among the people of America from sweeping across the Congress, the House, through the Senate, to a like-minded President and having us do things that will change America for a long time. So the filibuster is one of the important protections we have.

Who's that "we" you're talking about there, Mini-Me?

So, what to do with Mr. Finger-in-the-Wind?

The consensus is that Reid and the Dems will strip Mini-Me of his chairmanship, and downgrade him to some sub-committee of nothingness.

I would like to suggest to Senator Reid, that it be on the level of washing dishes, scrubbing pots and pans, cleaning toilets.

Party-Joltin' Joe has, pretty much, made his own bed here.

No doubt, the GOP side of aisle will be sweet-talking him, and out of forced angry, and insincere outrage, he may bolt over.

But Jane Hamsher has that angle covered;

Joe now goes to see if he can get a better deal from the GOP, knowing his chances of winning in Connecticut as a Republican in 2012 are about "zero."

Maybe, if you ask them nice, Joe, they'll let you sit next to the Stumblin' Fly Boy when the Senate is in-session.

However, just in case, learn to say the "Hail Mary", it brought Fredo good luck every time ...

Well ... All but once.


Bonus Joe The Weasel Riffs

Jane Hamsher: Sign the Petition: Strip Joe

Joe Sudbay (DC): Lieberman is learning there will be consequences

Spencer Ackerman: All You Fake Emcees You Know The Deal, I Carve Up Your Face Now You Look Like Seal

Steve Benen: REID AND LIEBERMAN HAVE A CHAT...

Breaking News! Lieberman Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”; Post-Debate Bombshell - Lieberman Announces Plan C – Will Run In All 50 States; Hires Nader For ‘Underdog” Experience; Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”

Pluto Planning Run With Independent Solar System; Takes Cues From Lieberman, Who Says May Caucus With New Galaxy

Lieberman's A Prick!

Yeah, yeah, I know ... What else is new ...

Unfortunately, it's not a case of the MSM taking the blinders off and getting hip.

H/T to Libby Spencer, for her "Fun with typos", who in turn, Libby H/Tipped Atrios for the pick-up.

AP writer Nedra Pickler, in her boilerplate filing on the breathless Vice President speculation that is running rampant out on the World Wide Web (check out Memeorandum for a peek), "Obama veep announcement expected in coming days" has this little gem (with our emphasis added);

His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.

God Bless'em ...

Lieberman just wasn't a prick in 2000, he's grown and built up his prickness with each, and every, day that has passed, to the point that he has become Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain's Mini-Me, and should be sitting on the red side of the aisle in the not-soon-enough future.

So, a memo to the rest of the MSM;

Add this to your style manuals ... Joe Lieberman, from this day, forward, should always be referenced to as a prick.

Look "prick" up in a dictionary, and, at least one of the definitions indicates "See Joe Lieberman"

MSNBC Doc-Bloc on pricks?

At least one segment, or episode, on Joe Lieberman.

End-of-the-year round-up on pricks?

Lieberman at the top of the list.


Bonus "Joe Lieberman - Prick" Links

Greg Sargent: Associated Press Gets One Right

Radio Listeners Diss McCain's Mini-Me

Garlictorial: Why Wait - Toss Lieberman Over To The GOP Now!

Biden Slaps Down McCain's Mini-Me

McCain's Mini-Me Hearts Hagee

Lieberman Officially Withdraws From 2000 Ticket; Prelude To Taking Bush Cabinet Post; With Rumsfeld Saying He's Staying, Appointment May Hinge On Cheney Indictment For Last Political Hoorah

Breaking News! Lieberman Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”; Post-Debate Bombshell - Lieberman Announces Plan C – Will Run In All 50 States; Hires Nader For ‘Underdog” Experience; Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”

Biden Slaps Down McCain's Mini-Me

We had hoped that action would have been taken by now.

We suggested, in our most recent Garlictorial that Senator Joe Lieberman (R-I, CT) be drummed out of the Democratic Caucus, ala the television show, "Branded".

( Chuck Connors "dishonorably discharged from the service, his stripes and brass buttons removed and his sword broken in two")

We then pointed out how he has become McCain's attack dog, and how Bill Moyers noted that "Wherever McCain goes, Lieberman is sure to show up ..."

Well, Lieberman "showed up" on the Op-Ed pages of the Wall Street Journal this past week, in a senseless, meandering diatribe against Barack Obama and the Democrats, spewing Bush and McCain's talking points in "Democrats and Our Enemies";

In this, Sen. Obama stands in stark contrast to John McCain, who has shown the political courage throughout his career to do what he thinks is right – regardless of its popularity in his party or outside it.

John also understands something else that too many Democrats seem to have become confused about lately – the difference between America's friends and America's enemies.

There are of course times when it makes sense to engage in tough diplomacy with hostile governments. Yet what Mr. Obama has proposed is not selective engagement, but a blanket policy of meeting personally as president, without preconditions, in his first year in office, with the leaders of the most vicious, anti-American regimes on the planet.

Steve Benen, over on The Carpetbagger Report noted "Lieberman’s capacity to be a Republican hack knows no bounds".

Jonathan Chait, on TNR, had it as "The Zell Miller-ization of Joe Lieberman Continues"

Time to cue Senator Joe Biden (D-MD), riding to the rescue.

Biden slam-dunked Lieberman, and his pals, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, and The Commander Guy, but good, in his WSJ Op-Ed, "Republicans and Our Enemies";

Sen. Lieberman is right: 9/11 was a pivotal moment. History will judge Mr. Bush's reaction less for the mistakes he made than for the opportunities he squandered.

The president had a historic opportunity to unite Americans and the world in common cause. Instead – by exploiting the politics of fear, instigating an optional war in Iraq before finishing a necessary war in Afghanistan, and instituting policies on torture, detainees and domestic surveillance that fly in the face of our values and interests – Mr. Bush divided Americans from each other and from the world.

Because of the policies Mr. Bush has pursued and Mr. McCain would continue, the entire Middle East is more dangerous. The United States and our allies, including Israel, are less secure.

Beyond bluster, how would Mr. McCain actually deal with these dangers? You either talk, you maintain the status quo, or you go to war. If Mr. McCain has ruled out talking, we're stuck with an ineffectual policy or military strikes that could quickly spiral out of control.

It's amazing how little faith George Bush, Joe Lieberman and John McCain have in themselves – and in America.

We have called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to take action.

There is no reason the Lieberman should remain a member of the Democratic Caucus for one-second longer.

And, if you want more ammo, check this out;

Liberal Pundits Offer Unprecedented Apology;

Alternate Universe Washington, DC (AUP)--An influential group of liberal pundits and political commentators has formed a new organization to apologize for their columns on Ned Lamont's 2006 challenge to Joe Lieberman (R - Forallintentsandpurposes) and to call for their own resignations.

The organization, "Repentant Villagers," announced today that it would be issuing formal apologies to hundreds of liberal bloggers, including Duncan Black, Jane Hamsher, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, Glenn Greenwald, and "Digby," acknowledging that the progressive blogosphere was right about Lieberman after all. "No one could have anticipated the breach of the party," said Jonathan Chait, senior editor of the New Republic. "But Lieberman's recent op-ed, calling the Democratic Party insufficiently pro-American, is just sheer barking lunacy. I could never have seen this coming two years ago when I was calling Lieberman's critics 'a pack of crazed, ignorant ideological cannibals,' and I'm deeply sorry. It looks like I turned out to be the truly ignorant one in the end."

If Lieberman has the courage (however misguided and ridiculous) to stand behind John McCain, than he needs to follow-up and officially put an "R" after his title

Blow up the bridge, so, after November, he can't come crawling back to the Dems.

Let him stand along the banks, naked, in the full GOP shame.

"Wherever McCain goes, Lieberman is sure to show up ..."

Boy, this was good timing.

Nice to see Bill Moyers, unknowingly, endorse The Garlic's latest Garlictorial.

H/T to Nicole Belle, over on Crooks and Liars for her "Bill Moyers Journal: Bombing Iran: Everything Old Is New Again" (Editor's Note: We usually watch Moyers, but it was Game 6 of Celtics-Cleveland, in what turned out to be, as former Celtic great Tommy Heinsohn put it "like watching a root canal" ... Yeah, should have tuned into Moyers ...)

BILL MOYERS: Since then, the talk about bombing Iran has only increased. And the biggest talker of all is the Connecticut hawk, Senator Joe Lieberman. The Democratic candidate for vice president eight years ago has now endorsed Republican senator John McCain for president and become his alter ego on the Middle East. Wherever McCain goes, Lieberman is sure to show up. Earlier this week Lieberman called air strikes against Iran "a distinct possibility," and on Wednesday he and talk show host Bill Bennett coupled their banter about Hillary Clinton with some hopeful praise for her own hawkish policies toward Iran.

Are you listening Senator, and Majority Leader, Harry Reid?

Garlictorial: Why Wait - Toss Lieberman Over To The GOP Now!

I don't know about you, but this is getting to be pretty nauseating.

There was Senator Joe Lieberman (I-R, CT) joking around, waving his pom-poms, cheerleading for the bombing of Iran, saying that it "Has An Appeal To It".

Hey, Harry Reid, pay attention to this!

Get rid of Joe Lieberman now!

Cut him loose! ... Send him packing! ...

Take a page from the old television program "Branded" ( Chuck Connors "dishonorably discharged from the service, his stripes and brass buttons removed and his sword broken in two"), strip Lieberman of all things Democrat, and kick his ass across the aisle.



It's bad enough that he's been pal'in' around with Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, acting as his guardian angel, endorsed him, trying to keep him from stumbling and bumbling, but he's also taking up the role of being McCain's attack dog.

Lieberman: Obama's Alleged Endorsement By Hamas Shows "Difference" With McCain

But the fact that the spokesperson for Hamas would say they would welcome the election of Senator Obama really does raise the question, "Why?" ... And it suggests the difference between these two candidates.

You want this in the Democrat Caucus?

Greg Sargent, in the post, suggests "One wonders whether Harry Reid will keep this sort of stuff in mind when considering committee chairmanships in 2009."

Why Wait?

It's only going to get worse, become more embarrassing.

Especially, later this summer, when it is possible (and I would say, very likely), Lieberman speaks at the GOP Convention, embracing SB McCain.

All the networks and media will be taking note of it, and you can count on Faux News really trumpeting it ... Hell, they'll have lights flashing and bells ringing ... The graphics and kirons they run while Lieberman speaks will probably come crashing through the television screen.

Dump'em now!

Don't take just my word for it Senator Reid.

The other evening, Jonathan Alter, speaking with Keith Olbermann, noted how Lieberman has been a hatchetman for just about his entire political career.

From the transcript;

OLBERMANN: So, McCain has what in Joe Lieberman? Is he a hatchet man, is he a hatchet man sort of dressed up in independent or bipartisan clothing? What is his role?

ALTER: A hatchet man is a good word to describe him and it‘s a very useful for John McCain. I mean, imagine if Barack Obama had Chuck Hagel or Richard Lugar or respectable Republican senator who is going with him to all of these events, it‘s very helpful with independent voters.

But you got to realize, Joe Lieberman has been a hatchet man going back to when he was first elected to the Senate. He charged Lowell Weicker in 1988 by saying, he was, you know, too close to Fidel Castro which was kind of preposterous at the time. So, what he does is sort of under these almost clerical clothing, he will pull up a knife and stick it in and use his piety and his reputation for morale rectitude as a cover for some very negative politics.

Yeah, you have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, but you have a cancer in your caucus, Mr. Reid.

Cut it out!

No need to let it, or him, linger and hang around.

He turned on the party when he chose to go Independent (after getting his sorry ass kicked) and, by all accounts, he hasn't bothered much to turn around and come back ...

His embrace of McCain should be - and clean your glasses there, Senator - all you need to see, in order to boot him out.

And if you need that spelled out for you, he's working against the Democrats in his embrace of McCain.

Wave'em goodbye!

Adios!

Be gone!

Be done with him.

Let'em him hug and kiss McCain - and Bush - to his heart's content.

If Lieberman had any integrity, he'd make the move himself.


More Reasons To Dump Lieberman Links

Kangro X: Lieberman shows why McCain = Third Term of Stupid

Think Progress: A Liar Loves To Lie

Think Progress: Lieberman Dismisses Iraqis Who Oppose A McCain Presidency

Glenn Greenwald: Things that don't exist in Harry Reid's world

Breaking News! Lieberman Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”; Post-Debate Bombshell - Lieberman Announces Plan C – Will Run In All 50 States; Hires Nader For ‘Underdog” Experience; Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”


Action Request

Email this post to Senator Harry Reid, at his Washington Office, HERE (and suggest you select "Congressional Affairs" for the Subject)

Weekend Smackdowns ... Cheney and Lieberman

Quite the weekend ...

While our Darth Vader Vice President backhanded the American people (and, yesterday, cowardly, threw The Commander Guy under the bus), an old colleague of his surfaced in the pages of The Washington Post this past weekend to slap him around.

Mickey Edwards, who served with Cheney in Congress, has had enough, becoming "increasingly frustrated by the Bush administration's repeated betrayal of constitutional ..."

In his Op-Ed, "Dick Cheney's Error - It's Government By the People", Edwards set out to remind The Bush Grindhouse, to give them a 5th grade civics lesson;

"Cheney told Raddatz that American war policy should not be affected by the views of the people. But that is precisely whose views should matter: It is the people who should decide whether the nation shall go to war. That is not a radical, or liberal, or unpatriotic idea. It is the very heart of America's constitutional system.

That is the difference between a strong president (one who leads) and a strong presidency (one in which ultimate power resides in the hands of a single person). Bush is officially America's "head of state," but he is not the head of government; he is the head of one branch of our government, and it's not the branch that decides on war and peace."

Somebody, please, copy this, laminate it, and then staple it to the foreheads of the everyone in the Executive Branch, and, might as well do the same to every single person in The Congress

But Wait, There's More ...

Then, on Sunday, John McCain's wingnut, the Democrat-in-title-only Senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman, got his turn in the slapping dock, this coming from 'The Day', a New London, CT newspaper, who, essentially, took back their endorsement of Lieberman (H/T to Jane Hamsher on Firedoglake)

"Meanwhile, the junior Connecticut senator is not only backing the Republican nominee for the presidency, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, but appears to be making a contest of trying to get into every photo and TV news video with him. Perhaps Sen. Lieberman is taking delight in needling the chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, his 2004 opponent for the presidency, whose leadership he once dismissed as a “ticket to nowhere.”

Rather than building the bridges The Day expected when it endorsed Sen. Lieberman, he appears busy burning bridges with the party of which he is allegedly still a member. Perhaps the senator is positioning himself for a top cabinet post in a McCain presidency. But if the Democrats prevail, and enlarge their control of the Senate, it is hard to imagine this Connecticut senator being welcomed back with open arms."

Hmmm ... Here a nice, little daydream ...

As McCain stumbles along in his campaign, with his trusty sidekick Joe Lieberman riding shotgun, one-by-one, Connecticut newspapers follow the lead of The Day, and start taking back their endorsements ...

Maybe Lieberman will get confused ... Mis-speak ... Have his own "senior moment" ...


Bonus Links

Blue Texan/Firedoglake: Cheney To 66% Of The American People: Go F*** Yourself

Arianna Huffington: A McCain Moment: Do You Want Four More Years of This?

And, Today, Representing the "Clueless-They-Don't-Get-It" Team ... Senator Joe Lieberman!

The Bob Dole For The New Millennium


"Joe ... What the hell day is it?"

And, Today, Representing the "Clueless-They-Don't-Get-It" Team ... Senator Joe Lieberman!

It, kind of, makes you long for the old GE College Bowl, or some other game show, just to hear that introduction.

"And. Today. Representing the "Clueless-They-Don't-Get-It" Team ... Senator Joe Lieberman! ..."

Senator Joe Lieberman (R-I/CT) continued his relentless march towards total idiocy, commenting, as one of the 45 Senators that wanted to authorize torture, after the Senate defeated the bill, and hold our government to a standard for interrogations, sans the torture.

"We are at war," Lieberman said. "I know enough from public statements made by Osama bin Laden and others as well as classified information I see to know the terrorists are actively planning, plotting to attack us again. I want our government to be able to gather information again within both the law and Geneva Convention."

In the worst case scenario — when there is an imminent threat of a nuclear attack on American soil — Lieberman said that the president should be able to certify the use of waterboarding on a detainee suspected of knowing vital details of the plot.

"You want to be able to use emergency tech to try to get the information out of that person," Lieberman said. Of course, Lieberman believes such authority has limits. He does not believe the president could authorize having hot coals pressed on someone's flesh to obtain that information."

Emergency Tech?

Boy, the Rightwing Freakshow has certainly been busy, melting down the torture of prisoners into another Orwellian turn-of-phrase, sounding so noble, like you were moving heaven-and-earth to save someone!

Jeesh!

Hot Coals?

Perhaps he's still feeling grouchy, openly fantasizing what he could do to those in the DNC that that stripped away his Superdelegate status (you know, for abandoning the Democratic Party - Did you, Torturin' Joe, really expect to sit in Denver and vote for Obama or Clinton, after you come out and endorse Here's Johnny Boy McCain?)


Bonus Lieberman Lunacy

Attaturk, from Firedoglake: Thanks Connecticut

ThinkProgress: Lieberman Defends Waterboarding: It’s ‘Not Like Putting Burning Coals On People’s Bodies’

Marty Lederman from Balkinization: Lowering the Bar: Well, At Least We're Not as Barbaric as the Spanish Inquisition

Breaking News! Lieberman Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”; Post-Debate Bombshell - Lieberman Announces Plan C – Will Run In All 50 States; Hires Nader For ‘Underdog” Experience; Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”

Maybe He'll Run As An Independent Super-delegate?

Or: Karma Pays A Visit To Joe Lieberman

The Garlic espied this juicy morsel late last evening;

Lieberman No Longer a Super Delegate

"Thanks to Zell Miller, there is a rule to deal with Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman's endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo.

Miller, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, not only endorsed Republican George Bush four years ago, but he delivered a vitriolic attack on Democrat John Kerry at the Republican National Convention.

The Democrats responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate. Lieberman will not be replaced, DiNardo said."

And we join Jane Hamsher, from Firedoglake, who offered "And for those who said they'd never lift their glass in a toast to Zell Miller...cheers!"


Bonus Lieberman Riffs

Breaking News! Lieberman Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”; Post-Debate Bombshell - Lieberman Announces Plan C – Will Run In All 50 States; Hires Nader For ‘Underdog” Experience; Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”

Pluto Planning Run With Independent Solar System; Takes Cues From Lieberman, Who Says May Caucus With New Galaxy

Another "I Told You So" ... Lieberman Living Up To His True Colors

Boy, it just keeps going south, more-and-more ...

It was bad enough, the Rightwing and Freakshow calls for him to be the next Vice President - on a GOP ticket, but it appears that giant of fair elections, Senator Joe Lieberman (R&I CT), is taking steps to, perhaps, achieve such.

Today, we get;

Breaking News: Lieberman will endorse John McCain

And, from the Garlic's intrepid reporting, we had this scoop last year;

Breaking News! Lieberman Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”; Post-Debate Bombshell - Lieberman Announces Plan C – Will Run In All 50 States; Hires Nader For ‘Underdog” Experience; Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”

Jilting Joe does it again ...

Bonus Lieberman Links

Pluto Planning Run With Independent Solar System; Takes Cues From Lieberman, Who Says May Caucus With New Galaxy

And who can forget "The Kiss"

A Newly Meaningful Relationship?