Cruising toward Thanksgiving, with visitors arriving today and tomorrow, there won’t be much time for blogging. I need some time off anyway. Who knows, maybe the quality of this stuff will improve.
Anyway, I noticed today that Alex Koppelman, at Salon, has endorsed Peter Beinart’s view, at the Daily Beast, that Joe Lieberman’s opposition to the Public Option has precious little to do with principles and everything to do with his resentment at his rejection by the people.
So why is he doing this? Because he’s bitter. According to former staffers and associates, he was upset by his dismal showing in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary. And he was enraged by the tepid support he got from many party leaders in 2006, when he lost the Democratic primary to an anti-war activist and won reelection as an independent. Gradually, this personal alienation has eaten away at his liberal domestic views. His staff has grown markedly more conservative in recent years, and his closest friends in Congress are now Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham. For Lieberman, the personal has become political, and it has pushed him further to the right.
Okay, it’s hardly awesomely original analysis. But I just want to point out that it was my immediate reaction to his filibuster threat, and I don’t have access to former staffers and associates:
Joe Lieberman is a bitter man. He blames progressives for his ignominious defeat in the 2006 primary, and rightly so. He has no principles left, having abandoned them years and years ago. So he sees this as payback time, the chance to get back at us, and at the Democrats, including Chris Dodd, who backed the legitimate candidate in 2006.
Have I ever mentioned the shouting match I got into with a Lieberman supporter at the 1994 State Convention? That’s right-1994. I told him that Lieberman would end up as a Republican, and I’m declaring myself to have been right. I’m proud to say that I have NEVER voted for the man, at least not when he ran for the Senate. I was turned off by his campaign against Weicker, and I simply skipped that slot on the ballot until I had the satisfaction of voting for Ned.
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