Lieberman should pay a price that should not include a Death Sentence.

[Perky]

Look I think he backed McCain on principles that I disagree with, but I certainly understand. He crossed the line when He spoke at the RNC and went after Obama and down-ballot Dems.

If he doesn't realize that, the screw him.


If he does, then he should get something less than a death sentence. Suspend him from the Caucus, Put him on probation. Publicly reprimand him in the caucus. But I don't think you should take away a chairmanship, because his actions while egregious do not rise to the war that would ensue, "DEMs punish Lieberman for reaching across the aisle, for putting country above party...blah blah blah." That is not the way to start a great 100 days. And yeah... it does matter.



Force him into a speech in which he talks about "choice". Make it very hard for the GOP to put their are around him.

Look.... to the extent that he knows he needs to mend fences, to the extent that he knows he need to apologize, Put him on a short leash (read that as give him a short rope) He is already in Purgatory.....Just don't make him a martyr for the GOP to trumpet.

[ProSense]

1. Stop the madness!

No Democrat is talking about kicking Lieberman out of the caucus.

[brendan120678]

Delete - Dupe. Oops.

[brendan120678]

9. No Democratic politician in Congress...

is talking about kicking Joe out of the caucus.

However, many Democrats here on this site and around the country are in favor of it.

[genna]

2. No chairmanship for Joe. That said why not let him receive the wrath he worked for

:tinfoilhat:

[endarkenment]

3. But I don't think you should take away a chairmanship,

So then Lieberman should be in charge of the committee empowered to investigate the executive branch. The same Lieberman who has sided with the criminal Bush administration over and over again? The same Lieberman who INVESTIGATED NOTHING for the years he held this chair?

And the LOYAL Democratic Senator next in line for a chair position should be told to go pound sand.

Why?

Go and study what this committee is chartered to do:
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=About.Jurisdiction

[Poiuyt]

6. Exactly - In addition to being a traitor, he wasn't a good chairman for that committee

[DJ13]

4. "I don't think you should take away a chairmanship"

Sorry, but his desire to perpetuate the war makes him unqualified to Chair that committee.

Even if he wasnt a traitor to the party, he should be removed from having the authority to steer that committee in the direction of his ideology anyway as his beliefs run counter to the election of Obama, and he would be an impediment to the goals that Obama campaigned, and won, the Presidency on.

[ddeclue]

5. SCREW THAT! I want him OUT... I wanted him OUT in 2006.

I'm done with him.

Game over - if he wants to be a Republican then we shouldn't be begging him to stay.

Good BYE and Good RIDDANCE.

Doug D.

[pgh_dem]

7. He didn't reach across the aisle. He jumped across,

and flung crap like a zoo-monkey back at our side of the aisle.

I still see nothing in any public statements of Obama, Durbin or any other Democratic leader that suggests Lieberman retain his chairmanship. He doesn't belong on Homeland Security at all. His foreign policy positions are STUPID, not principled disagreement, and those positions dictate the majority of the votes where he goes against the Democratic positions.

Let him be chairman of the "I'm a complete fucking nitwit sociopath on Foreign Affairs" committee, specifically crafted for any recognized candidate of the Joe Lieberman for Connecticut Party.

[BlueCaliDem]

15. But this Politico piece is, for me, troubling:

"Aides cautioned that there are not simply two camps — keep him or dump him — in the Senate Democratic caucus. Instead, a number of options are being considered that would allow him to keep his chairmanship and remain in the caucus but still suffer some sort of penalty."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15551.html

Pres.-elect Obama's name doesn't show up here, but Senator D. Durbin's does. I see a sweeping "yea" vote to keep Lieberman exactly where he is with a slight wrist slap for his outrageous behavior campaigning for Sen. McCain - after our ire settles, of course.

Change is slow in coming in Washington...

[insanity]

8. He fucked himself

Let him pay the price. In politics loyalty is important.

[walldude]

10. Yeah great idea! Stand there with your back to him and

once he digs the knife out of Obama's back, he can use it on you. This is not the first time Lieberman has betrayed the party and if we let him stay it won't be the last. How many times does this man have to defy the party before someone grows a fucking pair and tells him to piss off? I know maybe we should wait till he gets voted out! Oh wait.. we already did that.

[PassingFair]

11. He should be stripped of everything possible.

I suspect they are waiting to
see what happens in Georgia,
Minnesota and (Alaska?).

Personally I think we should throw
the little extortionist out on his ass.

[backscatter712]

12. The compromise I've been hearing about.

Is to pull his chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (which we should do, because that committee has oversight power over the Executive Branch, and if Joe chooses to be obnoxious, he can start investigations of the Obama Administration and issue subpoenas and be a real pain in the ass. Quite frankly, I don't trust Joe any further than I can throw him, and with my bum feet, I shouldn't be throwing anybody.)

In exchange, we would give him the Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. That committee's probably the one where Lieberman can do the least harm, causes the least controversy, gives the least prestige, and keeps Joe in a box, while still allowing him to have a chair, which is far more than what the GOP can offer. Currently, that committee's chaired by John Kerry, but Kerry's been in the Senate for quite a while, he's due to move up the food chain a bit to a more prestigious committee with more responsibility (Kerry's a good guy, he's earned it,) so we can safely give his committee to Joe.

It'd be a good rebuke for Joe - he loses Homeland Security, and loses a decent amount of his power, but still has some reason to caucus with us. We can still use Joe's vote if we manage to pull victories in the remaining three unsettled Senate races - his vote would be the one that gives us 60, to break filibusters.

[GoesTo11]

13. How about give him a less partisan committee assignment.

Homeland security is one where Repubs disagree with Dems, and McCain agrees with Repubs. Since he's supposed to be Mr. Votes with Democrats 90% of the time, it would make sense if he wants Dems to put him on a committee it should be one where he shares their view, maybe committee on discrimination or something like that. (Although kicking his sorry ass out is a fine alternative).

[4themind]

14. The way I look at the death sentence would be kicking him out of the caucus

as in that would be the worse thing that we could do. Taking his chair away would fall short of that "ultimate end", and there are legitimate competency issues involved in taking away the gavel from him IMO. NO hearings on the bush administrations role in Katrina, or ANY true hearings to address Bush administration faults in general, I believe he was derelict in his duties and that in and of itself can be cause to replace him.

He's already been publiclly reprimanded in a sense, and I don't know the mechanism of "suspending" someone from the caucus, why wouldn't the republicans just scoop him up right away, and give him a relatively better deal? It really doesn't move us half way between the concenrs of one side of the issue vs. the other IMO. Bipartisanship is about give and take from both sides, and if Lieberman is seen as wanting to give up virtually nothing(i.e. keeping his chair) then I trust the american people to see through that just like they saw through McCain's lies. This just looks like caving in. If my children misbehave, I don't send them to the orphanage, but I don't just give them a rebuke (grounding etc, are used as well).

We'll see what happens though.The other issue is that his endorsement of McCain have stoked my fear that this will Lieberman will use his chair authority to go on a witch-hunt into the executive office. If there's question about Obama's administration I'd rather it becoming from someone that is farther from McCain on moral/national security issues, not closer to him, so it's a matter for me of thinking that there are better candidates for the job and that he doesn't have a legal or god-given right to the gavel (not that you meant that). If he acts up again, during Obama's term it will be easier for Lieberman to claim it as a result of him doing his "job" of holding the adminstration accountable. IMO I just don't trust Joe Lieberman not to do that, given his previous actions.

[Perky]

16. There is no virtue in a Death Penalty. Let the caucus censure him

I understand people want a pound of flesh, But the impact of himw shilling for McCain was pretty damn marginal in the grand scheme of things.

Did he cost anybody the election? No. Did he have any REAL impact Down Ballot? There are some hear who seem to want to beat him up for the 2006 Senate election, but we allowed him to caucus then, we let him keep his seniority then, we let him keep his chairmanship then,

Now if you want to argue than he has proven himself ungrateful for what Reid allowed by his support for McCain, that is a different issue, Just remember he is not a Democrat he is an independent. We allowed him to caucus. We gave him the committee reigns. If he was a Democrat you would have to invoke party discipline, you would have to punish him.


But when you let an independent run a committee. You have to accept that he is going to operate independently.

[pgh_dem]

19. Death sentence is a bad metaphor

Nobody dies as a result of this asshole losing his chairmanship. As opposed to the many, many people (Americans in Iraq and the Katrina victims, as well as countless others in Iraq) who have ACTUALLY died because Joe Lieberman is such a venal, stupid, Bush-sucking sack of shit.

Bottom line, Joe Lieberman should have no authority to investigate the conduct of the Obama administration. He operates in bad faith. He agreed with Fox News that asking if Obama was Marxist/Socialist was a good question. Fuck him. Give him a deal on something else, but if it's Homeland Security Chairman or nothing, there's got to be a point the guy gets the finger.

[TheKentuckian]

17. No Homeland Security for Neocon Joe

I agree with those that think he should have been reassigned even if he was on good behavior.

I like the compromise above. I can live with that to keep the peace but if he's Homeland Security or bust then tombstone him.

[BurtWorm]

18. His just punishment is loss of the chairmanship.

If he holds onto it, it will come back and bite Dems in the ass. They don't have to tell him where to go afterwards, but it's no great loss if he decides to take a hike. Good riddance.

[WeDidIt]

20. He can have A chairmanship

just not THE chairmanship of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.