Letting Joe Lieberman go without punishment.

[Eric J in MN]

Evan Bayh argued on Rachel Maddow's TV show that there would be more votes for progressive items if Lieberman isn't punished.

The problem with his argument is that it doesn't consider conservative Democrats in the Senate.

If they see that Lieberman wasn't punished for actually campaigning for the opposition, then they will be confident that if they vote with the Republicans then they won't face consequences for that.

[jgraz]

1. Lieberman has already said that he won't help break filibusters

I don't recall the interview, but he said it would be "disastrous" for the Democrats to have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

[MarjorieG]

3. He only helps keeping theirs, and never supporting ours.

[tbredbeck]

4. Ouch

If he really thinks that way, then strip his chairmanship and toss his ass out of the caucus. I've mostly thought they should go fairly easy on him as long as he played ball, but it he won't break a filibuster then what's the point of keeping him around?

Toss him!

:dunce:

[tbredbeck]

6. Lieberman with Glen Beck, discussing filibuster

Here's an audio stream:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9AAVg2jZeI

[jgraz]

7. Ew, Glen Beck. I knew there was a reason I blocked it out

[MarjorieG]

2. We're not monolithic on voting, a good thing, Joe's only targeting Obama for oversight a bad thing.

If we cut him off then, when claiming the country's good, how do we appear? I've no problem with principled disagreement, but Joe's taken it on himself to stop all filibusters, and throw a wrench at all times.

Dirty player for his piety and fake concern in his voice.

[Caliman73]

5. At first I thought Obama was doing a good thing

The more I think of it and the more I hear about Lieberman's stances I say kick him the hell out. We aren't going to have 60 solidly Democratic seats anyway, even if we win the 3 races still undecided. Lieberman is no longer a Democrat. He is a self absorbed idiot who picked the losing horse. Now he just wants to disrupt. Rachel is dead on. That hack did nothing to investigate any of the Bush administrations blunders and crimes. Waxman had a full plate in the house and Lieberman did NOTHING. Now he wants to start investigating? Fuck him!! He can kiss the Republicans' asses. We don't need a complete traitor like him around the Democratic Caucus.

[jgraz]

8. And, we can probably get the Maine senators to break off for key votes.

I say kick him to the curb.

[Eric J in MN]

9. 'Bayh's Defense Of Lieberman Wrong, Senate Expert Says'

Evan Bayh: "And the final thing I'd say is, if he does retain his chairmanship, we still exert oversight over him and control over him. He doesn't have the ability to just do whatever he wants. The caucus still has the right to remove him from that position at any time if he starts going off on some kind of tangent."


But the Republicans could filibuster taking Lieberman's chairmanship away in the middle of the Congressional term.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/14/bayhs-defense-of-lieberma_n_143863.html