Wonkette
OH THAT BARACK, he has decided to play the Bigger Man: “President-elect Barack Obama has informed party officials that he wants Joe Lieberman to continue caucusing with the Democrats in the 111th Congress, Senate aides tell the Huffington Post.” And because Joe Lieberman cannot help the situation in any way by, say, resigning his committee chairmanship honorably, this means probably very little will change. Fine. Let the baby make his fuss and have what he wants and he’ll come off all the worse in public perception. On the other hand, Hill staffers are urged to take turns leaving flaming bags of poo on Lieberman’s front stoop, nightly. Although Joe will probably enjoy eating them… GRRRR can’t win with this guy. [HuffPo]
Keep your friends close and your frenemies closer.
You’re only going to spoil him if you give in every time he cries.
Joe kinda knifed Barak in the back. However, the Senate situation in Alaska, Minnesota and even Georgia is not yet resolved, so … but really? I thought he’d be moved to another committee at the least.
That’s okay. Barry will ship him off to Gitmo to errr….oversee the closing of the facility. Yeah, that’s it.
Since the resemblance is so close, why can’t Holy Joe just speak as often as Harpo Marx did?
What’s lost in all this is that Joe really does suck as chair of homeland security. That, and, that he is a biatch.
Ladies and gents, meet the new White House butler.
Why is Hopey only 88% of the President I want him to be? The other 12% would take a shovel and smack deputy dog in the face so hard his imaginary girlfriend dies.
“People say I am ruthless. I am not ruthless. And if I find the man who is calling me ruthless, I shall destroy him.”
Robert Kennedy
Oh, Barry. You and all your hopeful foregiveness. I can feel the healing from here.
Obama should appoint him ambassador to Isreal or something. Then everyone would be happy!
Turns out that Lieberman supported Obama all the time, he just palled around with a known Republican so he could encourage him to suspend his campaign, and pick Sarah Palin as his vice president.
No no no, he said he wanted the Democrats to ‘cock-ass’ with tailgunner joe. Seriously, he wants Joe to get the same buttsecks he gave to the dems by backing Johnny-Mac!
Oh, that is so demeaning for Jackass Joe. The new President condescends to let him keep his job, and lets him know that his treason was meaningless, fruitless, and pathetic.
Got to hand it to Barry, it’s a big turd to swallow turning the other droopy cheek on Joe Loserman. However, Allah only knows what kind of fresh hell Droopy Dog might have unleashed on us had he been free to make sweet love to the GOP. He’ll get his…in time. Sweet time.
Ugh, Obama’s first Presidential pardon.
Joe is Bridgeport to Barack’s Litchfield.
Uh, Barry, I’ll just consider this another “false start”, unless, you pull him aside and cuss him out again, now that would be
comedypolitics gold.Monkey: I agree. It’s true; the best revenge is success. Suck it, Joe.
Dammit, Lieberman, you slippery little weasel. Two years ago you took a big crap on the Dems, and ran an underhanded sore-loser campaign after losing the primary, but they forgave you because without you they had no majority, so suddenly you were the most important guy in the damn senate.
And now THIS time, Barry forgives you because transition is enough of a pain in the ass without having to deal with senator drama, and also because if the uncalled senate races go to the dems, they’ll still need you to get to sixty. Which would make you, once again, the most important guy in the damn senate.
How do you DO that?
Great, once Joe finishes pleasuring his prostate with that gavel, he’ll start using it to investigate any and all perceived transgressions of an Obama administration.
Turning the other cheek is not an option in politics, unless you want matching black eyes.
Still no CHANGE.
I love that this is on Joe Liberman’s Wikipedia page.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/Liebermanbushkiss.gif
Can we please get the crazy Zoolander gif put on Obama’s page? Pretty please?
I guess after Liebs gassed on about post-partisanship like this, Obama kind of had to play along: http://tinyurl.com/5swgsm
Lieberman is SO professor Snape with a bit more weazle and some of that guy who hangs out at the 711 with the old pee cologne.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
LIEberman will get his just desserts in good time.
Homeland Security may be one of the ‘programs’ that Mr. Obama deems superfluous and ineffective.
buh-by Joe. Pack up this department and go home.
We could function just fine with the NSA, FBI, CIA and FEMA.
I hope the term ‘homeland’ itself is banished starting Jan. ‘09.
…has the ambassadorship of Syria been filled yet? Getting to and from work would resemble a HALO death match!
m_supercomputer: Except the Israelis.
TPM is reporting that Bill Clinton is “making calls” on Joe’s behalf. WTF?
youknew: Except for the 200 (so far) identified Bush ’signing statements’ that Obama will over turn (on everything from stem cells to the environment and privacy issues)
and Mr. Obama starting the process to close Gitmo and give those poor prisoners habeas corpus.
The reemergence of Jeffersonian Enlightenment is a bit refreshing. No, no change at all, right?
4tehlulz: I really hope that turns out to be a joke.
How many times can we forgive the Jews for turning their backs on The Chosen One?
I want reports of Rahm making Lieberman cry like a little girl sometime in the next four years or I am going to be very very disappointed.
Good, Obama has better things to do with his time than to babysit that piss-ant. As if there weren’t enough reasons to hate Connecticut already!
AngryBlakGuy: Awesome. I wish they would televise that live, every day.
4tehlulz: You have GOT to be kidding. Why in the hell would Clinton help Droopy Dawg? That must have cost Lieberman a really massive chit to be redeemed later and without question.
I imagine that Joe and his gal-pal Lindsay will have lots of CT gay-marriage monkey love to celebrate his redemption. Poor, poor Hadassah.
Maus: Cogito Ergo Bibo:
I wish I was bullshitting.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/243793.php
Who did Joe Lieberman have to blow to keep his committee chairmanship? He’s a VIRGIN!! OMG, I just got a mental image of Lieberman blowing someone…must stop now…ack.
AngryBlakGuy: I suggested special Envoy to Iran. It would be a sort of FUCK YOU to BOTH parties!!!
dirtyboypdx: You may have just figured out why Bill is doing this favor; he’s just returning a favor.
4tehlulz: UGH. Losing all respect for Bill. There had better have been a massive quid pro quo going on.
dirtyboypdx: Hope it wasn’t Clinton…
magic titty: Win.
Well, (1) He’s not saying anything about committee chairs.
(2) Seriously, this is the kind of thing Obama ran on - transcending political parties. He talked the talk, and if he didn’t walk the walk here, the Republicans would be all over him.
4tehlulz: On social issues, Joe is a liberal (why McCain could not have him on the ticket). He is a problem on foreign policy, but should be in Obama’s corner on health care and economy. Obama should have a very free hand with foreign policy (I don’t see much coherent opposition to Iraq withdrawal, etc), but may need every vote on other matters. so …
I’m still thinking about this line from a Washington Monthly piece about Lieberman I read yesterday:
“Why would he be so desperate to keep the gavel of a committee he hasn’t used? I’ll let you in on a secret: he wants to start using the power of this committee against Obama.”
I wouldn’t put it past him.
ella: “…he wants to start using the power of this committee against Obama.”
That would be — unwise.
No probs. Rahm will get the Mossad to take out Sen. Droopy the next time he visits Israel.
What Monkey said. If Barry makes a point of being petty and punishing Joe, it would be a distraction, like when don’t-ask-don’t-tell took over the first critical days of the Clinton Administration. Better for Hopey to act above it all.
But I am hoping Hopey will find a way to twist the knife. Like at a press conference when he gets asked about it, he should hesitate a second, like he can’t quite remember Lieberman’s name and what the fuss was all about.
This a smart move on Barry Unicorn’s part, I think. Reid can now kick Droop-Dawg out of his HS chairmanship, and then if the latter decides to leave the caucus, he’s the one who looks unwilling to play by Barry’s new rules. Reid will look a little bit vindictive and partisan, of course, but nobody likes him, so who gives a shit?
qwerty42: No, he is a problem because he stabbed Obama in the back after Barry saved his ass in 2006. He is not to be trusted on anything.
I really just don’t get all the suck offs the party leaders are giving him; chances are they’ll get that one or two GOP votes to get cloture on most votes, so he has no utility. Cut him loose and laugh at him when the GOP caucus ignores him, too.
This wasn’t forgiveness at all; it was a warning from the new President that Joe will be expected to toe the line, because he OWES the POTUS for agreeing to campaign for holy Joe. He said it nicely, but there’s no question that saying this was an authoritarian act.
In addition to Lieberperson as chairman, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee now has 8 Defeatocrats and 8 Repugs. Repug members Pete Domenici and John Warner retired in 2008 and have been replaced by Dems Tom Udall and Mark R. Warner in the 2009 Senate. On Nov. 4, Repug member Sununu lost his Senate seat to Jeanne Shaheen. Let Lieberperson keep his committee chair, but on Jan. 21st shift the balance on the committee to 9 Dems & 7 Repugs and thus take Joe out of the position of being tie-breaker (basically gelding him). http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=About.Membership
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
dirtyboypdx:
http://archimedes.galilei.com/stlcofcc/blogimages/lindsey-graham.jpg
4tehlulz: the relations in the Senate are not straightforward. Joe did cross the line — all more crappy because Barry did come to CT for him. Barry could let Harry Reid bounce Joe from a committee chair. But he has asked it not be done. There is a reason, but we may never know it. What happens to Joe is of no consequence to me; but this administration and the agenda it proposes are, so if Barry wants Joe, well, he was the victim and victor so he can have whatever he wants.
Dammit I was so looking forward to Joe Lieberman, Ambassador to the Solomon Islands.
populucious: in the footsteps of Ambassador Duke.
Joe is useless to Dems, but more importantly, he is now useless to Repubs.
qwerty42: Barry wants him in the caucus; he did not take a position on chairmanships.
That said, now that I think about it, I could live with Lieberman keeping his homeland security chair under a Sword of Damocles. Could he take the pressure of Rahm looking on his every move from the shadows?
@%$#&*^*&^!!@@!!! #$@%$#@!!!
What good is victory without vengeance?
Is “caucusing” some sort of Senate code for buttsecks?
This just proves that Obama is an anti-American Muslin! Any Real American (TM) President would have had Joe waterboarded by now!
problemwithcaring: Take it easy, Joe isn’t a bitch. He’s a know Virgin. Once upon a time virgins were sacrificed so the rest of us can live.
I’ll retain the hope that Loserman’s been spared today only so as to be made to suffer the psychological torture of knowing that at some future date he’ll be found floating face down in the Potomac with a steak knife in the back and a ballet shoe firmly wedged in his anus.
Dear Barry,
Remember when, in Grant Park, you said some of us would be disappointed sometimes with your decisions?
Mission accomplished
Your friends,
Your supporters
AngryBlakGuy:
Are there any qualified Covenant Elites?
Anonymous Office Zombie:
Agreed and WIN!
This is stupid DC inside baseball crap. Joe is fucked, forever, regardless.
Be the bigger man, the healer, and let Little Joe maintain a pretense of still having some influence. Then, later, cut him off at his fucking’ knees. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Uncle Al: Well, seeing as that Barry is a Leo, he’ll find a way, trust.
Joey Joe (and company?) I agree. This is not the way I want Hopey to deal with douche bags!I’m sorry I just don’t have that much love.
Anonymous Office Zombie: Ditto Win.
The best part is he’ll never know when or how it is coming. Welcome to the new vengeance Chicago-style. Sweet, sweet time will erode Lieberdick Arnold’s facade and no one will have to lift a finger. Karma is a beautiful thing.
This is the first great teaching parable of Obama’s reign and people just need to just say Amen, OK? But lets just not forget that the first Jesus ended up getting beaten senseless then hung to death on a cross. The sweet deeds will have to be balanced with some shocking political beat-downs. Rahm better get to work–we know how democrats have issues with autority.
jood42: I totally agree. Now Joe owes Barry; and Barry will call that favor in later. One thing I learned during the campaign is that every time a whole bunch of us thought my Barry was making a mistake; he would turn out right, and we would turn our wrong. He won this crazy election. This guy doesn’t fuck up. He owns Joe now. He can always throw him under the bus later. My Barry always wins.
I’m late to the party so nobody will read this, but here goes:
Lieberman is a bitch and a sycophant (and an old virgin, granted). He gloms on to people with more power than him. He will shut his droopy mouth about Iraq and will do what he’s told everywhere else. He’ll be out in a few years. If there’s one thing to learn from the Clinton era: a good president never turns down a free blow job.
http://blog.seedsofdoubt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/destonio_oldjoe.jpg
AngryBlakGuy: Only Nixon could go to China…so let it be written so let it be done!
Prodigal son…but at a price, at least .99kg of flesh, to the GOP-lite swineherding beotch!
This kind of brother (back stabbing variety) should just stay politically dead and lost…
Monkey: Yes. Never rule out the use of forgiveness as a weapon.
cheeto_jeebus: That is really crazy; I had those exact same thoughts! And actually, the more I think about it the more I hope he really IS like Snape (at least in the way of eventually finding some redeeming qualities. not so much when it comes to the creepy, smarmy, greasy parts). Either way, and all Harry Potter metaphors/comparisons aside, though Obama is admittedly taking a risk, I think this really demonstrates how shrewd and politically brilliant he really is, and am hopeful that the rest of the party can put aside wanting to punish Lieberman for a while (he’ll get his own eventually, and I think or at least hope he will be moved to a committee on which he’d actually do some good, such as education). I think it is great to see that less than a week after being elected our President-Elect is ushering in the new politics he campaigned on.
AngryBlakGuy:
WIN!
Obama is ferreal, y’all. Briding the gap. Reaching across the aisle. Uniting the people.
Though it would be very satisfying to kick out Lieberman, it probably is more sensible to keep him around. Better to get the occasional good vote about him than have him determined to vote against us all the time. That being so, I think our President-elect has got the upper hand. This is being talked about not as the Democrats being forced to let Lieberman stay, but as Obama magnanimously allowing him to stay. Instead of the Dems looking weak and Lieberman looking like the one calling the shots, we’ve got Obama looking graciously bipartisan and Lieberman looking like a dog begging to be allowed to keep his bone.
heronimule: Hey, what’s with the CT hate? I live in CT,and can’t wait to vote Lieberman OUT. And I am sure I’m not the only one (also).