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Say you aren’t Joe, Matt

I’ve been writing this blog since early 2005. When I started, I was one among many Connecticut left wing bloggers, all of whom, so far as I know, have fallen by the wayside, blog wise, and confine themselves to twitter, a medium in which I have never felt particularly comfortable. Anyway, in those long ago days when we thought we were enduring the worst president that we could possibly have (what fools, we!), while we might disagree around the edges, there was one thing about which all us lefty bloggers agreed. Joe Lieberman had to go. And, eventually he did. I still have fond memories of “The Kiss”, a mobile work of art put together by Connecticut Bob, depicting Bush kissing Lieberman as Bush walked down the aisle to deliver his state of the Union, and yes, that really happened.

Well, here we are in 2020. Only a few years ago Joe’s name was bandied about as a possible head of the FBI. Even worse, it was reported that Joe was an closet Trump supporter, which would come as no surprise to those of us so glad to see the back of him.

So, where am I going with this? I get approximately 100 emails a day from Democratic candidates asking for money. One of my most frequent correspondents is Matt Lieberman, Joe’s offspring, who is running for the Senate in Georgia. As a Democrat, of all things! I don’t actually read the emails, but I’ve gathered enough from the subject lines that he is claiming to be very much in the running to win the race. There are actually two Senate races in Georgia, one to fill the seat of a guy who retired early and was replaced by the loathsome Kelly Loeffler.

Now, I’ve come to a place politically where I feel quite strongly that any Democrat, particularly in the Senate, is better than any Republican. I’ve even gone so far as being prepared to settle for a “moderate” who can win in lieu of a progressive that would likely lose. See, e.g., the Democratic Senate primary races in Maine and Kentucky. But I just can’t bring myself to actually give money to a Lieberman. I know I should do some research and try to find out where this guy stands on the issues. Who knows, maybe the wind was blowing really hard, and he fell fairly far from the tree. Then again, what’s a Connecticut guy doing living in Georgia, never mind running for the Senate. Long and short, I’m just not prepared to believe he’ll stick with the Democrats when they need him, unless he’s prepared now to say he’s not Joe.