| Hugh Bailey, CTPost Assistant Editorial Page Editor showers snark on all those who helped Joe retain that window office in the Senate.
Sometimes, there really is a difference between parties
Local Democrats must be so proud. James Amann, Bill Finch, Paul Ganim: their hard work is going toward bringing control of the U.S. Senate back to Republicans.
Surprising no one, Sen. Joe Lieberman has announced he will campaign and raise money for his good friend Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine. Collins is a Republican, and if she wins next year, it could go a long way toward putting her party back in control of the Senate.
Elections have consequences. Congress is this year finally holding hearings and trying to get answers from a White House that rules by executive fiat. President Bush will be gone after next year's election, but investigators will be sorting through the wreckage of his presidency for years. Restoring to power a party dedicated to looking the other way is bad for the country.
Yes, the light is finally shining on the slimey trail left by our Washington leaders.
When Lieberman lost the Democratic senatorial primary last year, he put his supporters in an awkward position. He decided to stay in the race as a petitioning candidate, forcing people who had backed him into either publicly switching allegiance or campaigning against their party's duly chosen candidate. It's hard to fault local
politicians for keeping their support with the guy who keeps the defense dollars flowing to Connecticut, but he didn't have to put them in that spot.
Well, that's not exactly true - Connecticut ranked second to last for return on federal tax dollars during Joe's tenure, while at the same time we've lost 50% of our defense jobs. What were these guys thinking?
Now, Lieberman has repaid them by supporting Collins, a moderate Republican up for re-election in a Democratic-friendly state. Collins has a strong opponent, Rep. Tom Allen, and tops the list of national Democratic targets. She votes to the left of her national party, but must know that that didn't help former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, the Rhode Island Republican who was well-liked and politically moderate, but voted out anyway last year by a fed-up electorate.
All right, place your bets right here! Will Bush hit 15% approval ratings before the end of the year? Double or nothing!
And it's not the first time he's pulled this. In 2000, he ran for vice president and his Senate seat at the same time. Had Al Gore won (or been allowed to take the position he rightfully won), Lieberman would have vacated his seat, and it would've been filled by then-Gov. John G. Rowland, a Republican.
I wouldn't take that man's word if he told me the sky was blue. Wonder how Kathleen Blanco feels now.
Say, look what I just found while googling -
Lawyer says FBI is investigating pro-Lieberman blog postings
06/01/2006
A Hartford lawyer says the FBI has agreed to investigate postings promoting Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's re-election on a popular Connecticut-based Internet "blog" Connecticut Local Politics in the names of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
Lieberkids- yeah, right. I never gave up the term Lieberthugs. So appropriate. Well, back to the editorial:
The Senate hung in the balance then, too, and his actions could have cost his party dearly. Had he dropped out, there were plenty of capable Democratic hands to fill in (we could all be talking about Sen. Blumenthal these days). But he had to hedge his bets - he had to assure his own place in the spotlight.
We'll never know what kind of senator Ned Lamont would have made, but we can be sure he wouldn't have spent time and money campaigning for Republicans. Elections have consequences, and all local Democrats who stuck with Lieberman and turned against their own party should be reminded of what their support has brought them - no oversight, no meaningful investigations from his committee and active support for Republicans. Thanks again, guys.
Maybe this editor will write a book, like George Tenet. |
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