Joe Must Go

Joe's out; Ned's in. Can you believe I actually waited two days to post something about this? I mean, I have mentioned the Lieberman-Lamont primary from time to time to time.

In a travashamockery of a concession speech, Lieberman positioned himself as a self-serving jackass poised to hinder any longshot Democrats have of recapturing the Senate this November. He vowed to run as an independent, which will have a few major ramifications: 1) he could draw enough votes from middle-of-the-road voters to defeat both the Democrat or Republican challengers; 2) he could siphon off enough Democratic votes that the Republican wins; or 3) he WILL force the DNC to devote resources to one of the bluest of states in order to ensure a Lamont victory and the destruction of scenarios 1 and 2. Put it in perspective, will you War Room?

Lieberman has turned himself into the most vivid symbol of the insular, arrogant, corrupt and power-desperate Washington establishment, the sheer cravenness and corruption of which are what catalyzed the campaign against him in the first place.

Those who compose that entrenched Beltway power establishment -- the endlessly reelected political officials, the hordes of consultants and lobbyists who feed off and control them, and the pampered, self-loving "journalists" who enable it all -- are characterized by a single-minded quest to perpetuate their own power, flavored by a thinly masked contempt for the masses on whose behalf this system ostensibly plods along. Lieberman's conduct last night was a perfect textbook for all of those afflictions.

Well done, douchebag. Great Democrat you turned out to be. And the fact that he is so quick to declare a political disaster is particularly telling, as Joan Walsh writes " The notion that Lamont supporters are somehow "destroying the center" or killing bipartisanism is fiction; George W. Bush did that." And now Lieberman has to deal with the consequences of getting in bed with the devil and sucking him off.

Hey Joe-mo – you still have a little Dubya seed in your hair. Disappear already, will ya?