Joe Leiberman Must Go

8 Thoughts About the 2008 Election #5

The time has come to remove Joe Lieberman from his chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee. If I thought long and hard about it, I could find a million reasons to do this I'm sure, but I'll just run down a few. Then, this weekend, I'll show you some of the best criticism of Lieberman I can find around the web.

• Joe Lieberman is not a Democrat. When he lost his primary to Ned Lamont, he was effectively removed from the Democratic party by the voters of Connecticut. He chose to run as an independent, and he won his seat back because he promised to continue to caucus with the Democrats. Why should someone who is no longer in the party continue reap the benefits of the party's victory on Nov. 4th? How can the party allow someone who questioned the patriotism of our candidate to reap the benefits of the victory he fought against?
  
• Joe Lieberman has made poor use of his chairmanship. Despite the many disasters of the Bush administration on the Homeland Security front, there have been no hearings by Lieberman's committee. There were no hearings after Katrina. There have been no hearings about the failure to secure our ports. There have been no hearings about the no-bid contracts handed out by the Dept. of Homeland Security.
  

And ultimately, in the reason that ties this all back to the election ...

• We don't need him anymore. He was politically useful to have in the caucus when it gave us 51 and control of the Senate. Well, we now have a large lead in the Senate and it's time to send him packing. I don't really care if he stays in the caucus or not. If, as he claims, he still supports the Democratic Party on the majority of issues, then he won't leave the caucus. To do so would expose him as little more than a crass political opportunist who will sell his soul to whoever shows him the most appreciation.
  
• Additionally, with Begich pulling ahead, Franken closing in on Coleman, and a Martin victory over Chambliss, you might think we would need Lieberman in the caucus to hit the magic number of 60. However, he's said he won't be a reliable vote to bust Republican filibusters, so again, what use is he to the Democrats?
  

It's time to toss him aside and move on with the business of fixing this country.