thinking that the power elite of the Dems are the friends of the people or Progressives. They are a safety valve, nothing more.

It's hard to imagine a Senate Republican aide bitching about "the right".

is best left to the professionals. If Obama wants Lieberman to be granted this favor, I trust his judgment. I think he's got the better vantage point and understands the complexities, risks, and remedies.

Don Corleone: "Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as gift on my daughter's wedding day."

Joe, if he is saved from his well deserved fate, will be Obama's beotch.

That is the only way forward. Let us start by Jim Martin and Franken.

Josh,
Clearly you missed the Reid press conference.

Joe Lieberman is now a Democrat and a member in Good Standing in the caucus.

Stop calling him an independent. The voters in CT no longer matter.

and - don't spank me - that is exactly as it should be. It is not the blogging which won this election, it was the canvassing, calling, and contributing....

But mostly the fact that we had the best frigging candidate and campaign team in generations!

This "aide" volunteered a fairly profound confusion about why he believes we oppose Lieberman keeping his gavel; they seem to think this is just about being a reactionary pain.

I don't see where that "aide" said anything at all about why the left wing of the party feels the way it does.

It's interesting, though, that you would never see an anonymous Republican aide quoted as saying "we really put the Religious Right in their place on this vote."  Or "we really stuck it to the Club for Growth."  But somehow, and this is classic Beltway thinking, it is a badge of honor for Democrats to repudiate the views of their base as often as possible.

they are now confusing friends with enemies.

Senate Dems are dead to me.

The problem with the Democratic Party is its lack of party discipline. There are no sanctions for going against the party, no matter how aggregious the behavior. Sadly, the vote on Lieberman continues this pattern. You can't line up the votes for major legislation when party leaders can't issue credible threats to party members, see Clinton's national health care initiative. Until Democrats realize there are certain lines that can't be crossed, we'll continue to see more dysfunctional behavior by the Democratic Party.

Regarding the progressive blogosphere being powerless: it takes time to build up strength. We're in the infant stages.

It would have felt nice to throw Lieberman over the side.  And it would have made sense and delivered a message.  OTOH, now he can't complain that the Dems have alienated him and give the Republicans a talking point about the Dems moving to the left.

I'll give Obama the benefit of a doubt here.  Sometimes you play for the fourth quarter.  We haven't really started the game yet.  There will be plenty of time.

The liberal blogs are just plain out of touch with reality. Now maybe they don't like reality and they can try to change it but I definitely noticed during the primaries that blogs such as MyDD lived on a parallel universe. Creating a fight with Lieberman was never in the cards because its just not Obama's style. He's not into divide and conquer but bring together to conquer. He's trying to bring together as much power as possible in order to move an agenda forward.

I happen to think Josh is 100% wrong when says this is "bad politics." Its great politics. It may not be how we wish the world worked..its not what we want but it is the way it is...

I mean what are we looking for here: Argentina style politics? Study that for an example of how things don't work: its all divide and conquer.. create enemies everywhere and then ram through an agenda with no concensus just because you can.. then the next guy comes into power and he changes everything doing so in the same divide and conquer manner...Its ruling by sowing division...

Obama deserves whatever is coming to him from Lieberman. He could have easily stopped this, but he acted like a fool--and now Lieberman will make him look like one. Every inquisition Lieberman begins, is one Obama could have avoided and but decided to gamble on. He will deserve it.

This is AMERICA - the home of coast to coast idiots!

Over 30% of Texas voters still thought that Obama was a Muslim! THIS IS THE AMERICA our elected politicians work in - not the America that understands ANYTHING!

Obama has a 30% CHANCE of getting to 60 - filibuster proof - seats in the senate. THIS would get us 8 years to get who WE WANT on the Supreme Court. The SINGLE most important thing Obama can do in his first term is see that the SC is NOT LOST FOR A GENERATION!!!!

Cut the LITTLE SHIT!!! See the big picture.

The DEMOCRATIC party is MUCH MORE than progressives - BRILLIANT people Like Hillary are also home HERE and SHE will be a GIANT help in us keeping htis a MIDDLE  / LEFT(ish) PARTY!!!! By American standards that'll be a billion times better than what we've had!

It's not just that Lieberman campaigned for McCain and said nasty things about Obama that makes me want to throw him overboard.  It's the fact that whenever the Sunday shows want to get a Democrat to trash the party or "the left" Lieberman is their first phone call.

I intend to copy this quote and stick it in my replay the next time the DSCC emails me for money.

they have you by your balls. All they have to say is if you do not vote for us, who else will you vote for. You got not alternatives.

Now, do you see why I supported third party people all along even though I never voted for them at the Presidential level in the past? You need to have that possibility to keep the two parties honest. They do not have to listen to us on everything. But come on. This is outright spitting on our face type disregard.

I have a feeling the aide in question was probably an aide to someone like Schumer, as opposed to someone like Feingold, or even Boxer.

But the press loves this stuff.  They cannot stand people who are actually committed to political issues - it's so vulgar.  And people who are trying to ingratiate themselves with the press or with the establishment will also often adopt a similar attitude - it's trendy.  

On the other hand, I think too big of a deal has been made about fucking Lieberman already.

Confusing your friends with your opponents is one of the worst mistakes you can make in politics.

And yet Democratic leaders continue to make it.  

Is there a Darwin Award for Politics?

Joe Lieberman has told them, over and over, what he is about.

He gets more ink when he breaks from the caucus -so he will continue to do so.

And they've made him stronger when he does.

Beltway idiots think we don't understand. We really do. They care more about what their clubbies think than what grass or net roots Dems think.

And that's what needs to change.

I think they're keeping Lieberman to avoid bad PR.  It might not be a totally unjustified position to take.

The worst thing you can do is make it out to be a repudiation of the netroots, like the unnamed gopher quoted in the article did.  Because half of the netroots aren't even clear why they should be kicking him out.  Is it about Obama, or is it because he's a lousy chairman?  Had it been the latter, then we might have gotten traction, but I think that most people are angry at him over his palling around with the Republicans, and if that's the issue then maybe we should be asking whether or not IN THIS CASE if it's more important to enforce party cohesion than it is to set a bad example for an incoming President who's going to need bipartisanship to get a lot of things done.

Honestly, my sense of things around here is that most people want revenge on Lieberman (although to be fair, it's not just what he's done this year), and I don't think you want that to be the first thing that happens under the new regime.

Josh, m'boy,

Give us the skinny from inside the box - from during the primary run. Did the netroots lose its pull on East Wacker Drive the day you left? The day they blew the fundraising doors off? Once we won Iowa? How did a candidate for President who was in the original "Dean's Dozen" from DFA (before Howard went to the DNC) end up bringing the best-known war enabler (Sen. Clinton) even onto the SHORT LIST for State, let alone the name that's out there? Is this the folks from HillBilly land planting a can't-deny-it or is this something we all need to understand about President Obama? Is this his version of a Third Way? Is it "keep your friends close and your enemies closer?"

Give us the skinny from your view - and email me. I need to tell you my obamabiden.com story.

Eric Davis