In a move that helped restore some of my faith in the Democratic Party, Sen. Joe Lieberman has been stripped of his "super delegate" status. A super delegate is typically an elected member of Congress or an important DNC member who will be at the national nominating convention, a free agent who can vote for any candidate he or she chooses. By virtue of his previous experience as a Democrat, Joe Lieberman was a super delegate.However, after the 2004 defection from the party by redneck nutjob senator Zell Miller from Georgia, who proceeded to go on to make an embarrassing rant against his former party and John Kerry at the Republican National Convention, the DNC came up with a new rule.
Informally called the "Zell Miller rule", it disqualifies any Democrat who crosses the aisle to endorse a candidate from a different party from being a super delegate. Joe Lieberman qualifies for this rule due to his endorsement and sycophantic fawning over Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
I wonder if this rule can be extended to include other races. For instance, remember that useless quack from Louisiana, Sen. Mary Landrieu, who endorsed Lieberman even AFTER Ned Lamont won the senate primary? She crossed party lines to endorse the Connecticut For Lieberman candidate against the BTW, it's so nice that she stuck with the DHS Chairman after all those wonderful things that Homeland Security did for New Orleans right after Katrina.
Oh wait a moment...it DIDN'T!So, how about getting HER barred from the convention as a super-delegate? Anyone have Howard Dean's phone number? Because I'd love to hear what he has to say at that.
10 comments:
How about letting him Caucus with McCain's arse.
Throw the asshole out Henry!!!
Are any of the people on this list superdelegates?
"lawfully"? last i checked what lieberman did was legal. no law breaking.
Good point. I knew it didn't sound right, but I suffered a brain lock and couldn't come up with a more appropriate word at the time. I should have used "legitimately".
Does anyone know whether Joementum had declared himself for Hillary or Barack? I'm betting that (at least off the record) he was telling AP it's Hil, but I'd love to know for sure.
Um...I can't tell if you're joking or not.
Joe Lieberman never endorsed either. Nor will he. He's campaigning for John McCain. The Republican guy. He is actively working to see that Clinton/Obama LOSE this November.
Um...I can't tell if you're joking or not.
I'm not joking, but I was unclear. Most of the super delegates have privately told reporters which Democratic candidate they prefer; that's how CNN and Time are projecting the candidates' total delegate counts, not just "pledged" candidates. I'm wondering whether Lieberman stated a preference for Clinton or Obama BEFORE deciding to publicly declare for McCain. If we could uncover which Dem he privately supported, it could help cancel out the low-level but recurring attacks Obama keeps getting because of his "mentor" relationship with Lieberman.
Thanks for the correction on my blog, by the way -- I've fixed it. Back at the time, I was ticked that Obama was even stating a preference in the Lieberman-Lamont primary, and misremembered it as him stating that preference after the primary was over. I'm getting a ton of traffic to old posts of mine that are somewhat critical of Obama, so I'm doing my best to clarify my position that while Obama's no Feingold, he's nevertheless a hell of a lot better than Hillary on the issues that anti-Lieberman folks care about (war, bankruptcy bill, Iran).
Anyway, thanks.
You've very welcome. Glad to help clear that up.
Yes, the Lieberman-Obama "mentoring" thing has been used by Hillary supporters to demonstrate that he's not to be trusted. It's just a flawed argument.
The fact of the matter is, EVERY freshman senator is supposed to get an experienced mentor in the Senate, and back in 2004, despite his support of the war, Joe Lieberman was still considered a good (if conservative) Democrat; Barack's choice of him as a mentor wasn't a terrible idea.
Of course, in the interim, Joe has betrayed the party completely. I'd bet there's not many Democrats who would accept Joe as a mentor if the situation existed today.
Sorry for such a late comment, but I think it's relevant to add the Lieberman left the Democratic party in 2006, so of course he forfeit his superdelegate status at that point.
Lieberman left the Democratic party in 2006, so of course he forfeit his superdelegate status at that point
Hey, no need to apologize -- better late than never! Actually, I was blown away to learn that even after he lost the Democratic nomination to Ned Lamont, he RETAINED SuperDelegate status. The Connecticut Dem Party didn't pull his cape until just a couple months ago, when he endorsed McCain instead of Obama or Clinton.
Flabbergasting, yes. But true.
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