Lieberman Letter Very Strongly Worded

Suck. On. This.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign.

The Connecticut independent will lose a minor panel post as punishment for criticizing Obama this fall.

Lieberman's colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday to approve a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel. He will leave the Environment and Public Works panel, however.

I'm sure that condemnation cut him to the quick.

I was never that interested in saving Obama or the Democratic caucus from the mole in their midst, if they weren't interested in saving themselves. I do think it will ultimately have negative consequences, but it's their own fault. And I'll take no pleasure in being right.

Quite an auspicious debut for the newly powerful Democratic caucus.

...what Jane Hamsher said.

I hope this puts to rest the notion that this is all some master stroke of kumbayah, of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

This is about telling you that you mean nothing. That democracy is a nice word, but it should never threaten the entitlement of the most exclusive club in the world.

No matter what Joe Lieberman does, the people who are protecting him hate you much more than they hate him.

...I didn't realize that Lieberman wasn't just taken off a subcommittee panel of the Environment and Public Works Committee, but taken off the committee entirely. While some are saying that this is a meaningless punishment because Lieberman doesn't have differences with Democrats on climate change, that's not entirely true. His Lieberman-Warner climate bill was an awful giveaway to polluters because it didn't sell carbon credits 100% at auction, which Obama favors. If he's replaced by, say, Jeff Merkley on that committee, it does shift it to the left.