Comments on: Lieberman Has Always Been Predictable

By: stevelaudig

stevelaudig — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:36:43 +0000

Lieberman’s loyalties are to Israel and the Streets: Wall Street; Bank Street; Finance Street; Military Street; Money Street. He has no allegiance to Main Street or Rural Routes. Add to this that he routinely places the interest of another state [Israel] ahead of the interests of the U.S. so he is nothing more, or less, than a traitor. There’s no need to psychoanalyze him any more than another other pol except to note that his sociopathy is stronger than most. The best punishment would be to lock him in a room and have him watch and listen to his own, whiny, self. Like most political careers his is ending as a failure. A well-deserved one at that. The successor to the position he has found/created will be Evan Bought err Bayh.

By: chrome agnomen

chrome agnomen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:37:51 +0000

in short, lieberman suffers from the same condition as many others in DC–he cannot afford to be an honest person. the first symptom is IGMFU.

By: Norwegian Shooter

Norwegian Shooter — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:21:06 +0000

bayesian (fan of Thomas Bayes?), you’re right, not everybody in the Senate is insufferable, in fact, “most” goes too far. My main point was not to use personal psychology too much to explain decisions. As for your list, without dredging up examples, I would knock Kyl and Brownback off your list, but I don’t like their politics much, so I’m biased against them. As for the good guys and gals, I’ll list:

Durbin, Voinovich, Whitehouse, Murray, Alexander. When Graham first came up, I thought well of him, but those days are a distant memory now. As for future good guys, watch out for my homie, Al Franken. He’s decent to the core right now, hope the Senate doesn’t change that.

By: jetan

jetan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:44:24 +0000

God knows I don’t want to advocate intra-party purges but is it too much to ask that the Democrats pull the plug on the cretin’s committee assignments? Does he have the inside dope on Harry Reid’s sex life or something? The progressive base really loathes the man with a passion as do I. How in the name of Heaven does this odious hack hang on?

By: Johnny Pez

Johnny Pez — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:49:06 +0000

Back during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Lieberman discovered that he could appear on television as often as he wanted as long as he was willing to scold his fellow Democrat Bill Clinton. Gore picking him as his running made only confirmed his belief that being a scold was his ticket to relevance. Now, scolding Democrats is his sole reason for existence.

By: Kylopod

Kylopod — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:55:19 +0000

Several years ago, sometime before Lieberman left the Democratic Party, I had an argument with someone on Wikipedia over whether Lieberman was a DINO. I pointed to his strong record with the Americans for Democratic Action, and his weak record with the American Conservative Union. I then compared him to John McCain, in that both are widely perceived as mavericks, perhaps closet members of the opposing party, when in reality their voting record is more in line with their party than is commonly thought.

This is what the person I was talking to said: McCain, unlike Lieberman, has shown that he cares about the health of his party. I think this person was onto something. McCain, for all his faults, has shown considerable loyalty to the GOP. What’s stunning about Lieberman–and a major reason why he’s so disliked–is that he has never shown any real loyalty to the party, even when he was in it.

By: Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » On Centrism

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » On Centrism — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:52:13 +0000

[...] Larison: [...]

By: bayesian

bayesian — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:42:33 +0000

Fast Jimmy (and NS)’s theory is certainly supported by how strongly and publicly the rather damaged other Senator from Aetna (Dodd) has also worked to sabotage the public option.

For whatever reason – I have my useless theory just likely everybody else but I won’t bore you with it – the insurance companies don’t achieve quite the level of fealty among the Democratic establishment as some other parts of the financial sector.

I’m with Daniel in seeing this more as just another Lieberman tantrum. And I interpreted Daniel as meaning “unusually inflated estimate of their own importance” relative to other senators, for which I do think McCain and Lieberman are the clear league leaders. Ditto on sanctimonious moralizing, I think, though I agree the standings might be a little more clouded there.

But let me throw it back on you, NS –

I’ll give you some reasonably high profile senators that haven’t struck me as sanctimonious moralizers in the McCain/Lieberman fashion nor as having inflated estimates of their own importance (other readers’ nominations welcome) – feel free to give examples of where they were at least within striking range of the terrible duo for self-importance or sanctimony over the last say ten years:

Webb, (Bob) Bennett, Kyl, Feingold, Tester, Lugar, Hatch, Brownback

By: Norwegian Shooter

Norwegian Shooter — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:39:30 +0000

Fast Jimmy is too fast, he beat me to the Senator from Aetna point. Also, I think this post relies too much on personal psychology to explain decisions. For instance, most Senators “have an unusually inflated estimate of their own importance [and] tend towards sanctimonious moralizing.” Maybe Lieberman and McCain have this in spades, but everybody else has it in diamonds.

By: Fast Jimmy

Fast Jimmy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:14:49 +0000

Lieberman and McCain certainly have their problems, but I think bad judgment is almost as likely an explanation as simply being reflexively contrarian, although you make a strong case for their focus on big, important, high profile policies.
Another explanation that better fits the circumstances and makes more sense, is that the economy of Connecticut is hugely tied to the insurance industry, which is not a fan of the public option. Simply taking care of his big doners and constituents, even if the nation may suffer.