Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Business as usual

No surprise here. The Senate voted overwhelmingly to keep Joe Lieberman as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.

Well, at least we had two full weeks to feel good about ourselves. Now it's back to business as usual in the Senate.

I have no desire to express outrage or disappointment. This is the way things are, and 220 years of Senate tradition doesn't change overnight.

Perseverance is key. Keep plugging away. We'll win some, we'll lose some others; yet, we can always strive to perfect a government that works for the people, rather than for themselves.

Congratulations are owed to Senator Lieberman. He plays the game better than anyone alive.

(yes, as A.C.R. pointed out, the headline said "ucual". Blogger doesn't have the auto spellchecker feature turned on for the title field apparently)

20 comments:

Let Joe Stay said...

OMG! That is very magnanimous of you! I agree, it was a fun two weeks. Later, friend!

Oaktown Girl said...

One of the things that makes it so agonizing is that this never would have happened on the Republican side.

Once again, the Dems allowed the media and the Republicans to frame the issue on their terms, claiming it was all about "revenge" and not about the fact that lieberman has been fundamentally opposed to Obama on national security issues and that's why he shouldn't keep his chair. Whoever gets to set the terms of the debate usually wins the debate. Game over before it even started.

All we can do is hope Obama really does have some heretofore unknown way to keep that asswipe in line. Obama's pulled off stunners before, let's hope he can do it again.

CT Bob said...

LJS - Don't presume to be my friend. I don't know anything about you, except for your anonymous blog posts. And I have a very low opinion of people who don't have the courage to stand behind their words.

OG - you're right. There's no way the Republicans would have let someone pull that kind of crap with them. It's why they held onto power so long, because they were unified in their resolve. They finally lost it only due to their insanely corrupt and incompetent Executive branch.

If they had anyone else in the White House for the last eight years, we'd absolutely be getting ready to inaugurate President McCain right now.

Let Joe Stay said...

You mean (sniff) we're not friends? Hmph!

CT Bob said...

Heh heh

Thought you'd like that!

Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

>>There's no way the Republicans would have let someone pull that kind of crap with them


Bull.

Palin did and we ran her because she was right.

Piling on after someone's already going down - well that's simply unsightly and uncalled for.

CT Bob said...

Say what, ACR?

Are you claiming that Palin did the same kind of things to her party that Joe Lieberman has been doing to his (former) party? For years? I'm trying to picture it, but I can't see anything except the most tenuous resemblance between the two.

Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

Palin got people tossed off commissions and even unseated her own party's Gov.

All of them, Republicans.











BTW - Business as "ucual"???

Bob Symmes said...

ACR - Palin only put the scres to her campaign...not her party. The national Republicans seem all too eager to have another sip of her Kool-Aid. More power to'em...drink up!

Palin wasn't right, she was WAY TOO RIGHT (wing) for America in these times.

Even though I usually disagree with you, you're posts have normally been intelligent and worthy of consideration. This last was an exception.

Let it go...you (and your party) will heal itself faster that way.

Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

You guys are missing it completely.

Palin indeed took on her own party:

She chaired the Commission beginning in 2003, serving as Ethics Supervisor.[63] Palin resigned in January 2004, protesting what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Republican members.[8][64]

After resigning, Palin filed a formal complaint against Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner Randy Ruedrich, also the chair of the state Republican Party,[65] accusing him of doing work for the party on public time and of working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. She also joined with Democratic legislator Eric Croft[66] to file a complaint against Gregg Renkes, a former Alaskan Attorney General,[67] accusing him of having a financial conflict of interest in negotiating a coal exporting trade agreement,[68] while Renkes was the subject of investigation and after records suggesting a possible conflict of interest had been released to the public.[69] Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.[63][8]


She followed that stunt by engaging a sitting Republican Governor in a primary and beating him.

CT Bob said...

Oh shit! The title field in Blogger doesn't have the auto spell checker feature! LOL! I only read the post about nine times and still missed it!

Palin's little backwoods soap-operatic adventures in local AK politics doesn't compare to Joe L's national campaign of sabotage to the Democrats.

Not even close. That's like comparing a snow flake to Haley's Comet.

Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

>>Palin's little backwoods soap-operatic adventures in local AK politics

Gimme a break.


She knocked out a sitting Governor of her own party.

Lieberman OTOH has voted with your/his party 87% of the time and certainly has never cost a fellow Democrat their seat or for that matter a dime.

CT Bob said...

And she also spoke at the Democratic convention, and campaigned vigorously for Barack Obama, and spoke at length about the ways that John McCain was unqualified to be President, etc. etc.

Oh, that's right. She DIDN'T!

No comparison. She beat a sitting governor. Big deal. A measly 300,000 voters in Alaska give a shit. Outside of that, nobody even knew about her before the August announcement.

Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

>>Outside of that, nobody even knew about her before the August announcement.


Not at all.

It was amazing at how everyone acted "surprised" when her name came out.

I received more emails regarding how we should "tell (Mitt, Mike, your name here, etc.) to consider Sarah Palin" beginning at least 18 months ago.

Know how many I got in support of anyone else for VP??
Zero.


She obviously polarizes.

However she excited the Republican base better than anyone has in 20 years.
(My own wife was out of her seat cheering and clapping at the TV. The last time she acted like that the Sox had just won their 1st World Series in 80+ years.)

Many Republicans consider Palin to be Ronald Reagan in full drag.

Get used to it; like it or not you haven't seen the last of her.

Anonymous said...

Lieberman never cost a Democrat a seat? Hmmmm. Ned Lamont was the DEMOCRAT for Senate in Conn.
What a pathetic, self-serving little man. He blown any chance he had of helping the state of Conn. by being so selfish, but he saves face.


They better have him on a short leash.
UptowNYChick

Oaktown Girl said...

"Ucual" (or however it was spelled) - I just assumed it was some sort of blogger slang I wasn't hip to, probably because it was in the title of the post.

See Bob, now if you were slippery and cunning like lieberman, you would never have admitted your error and instead would have concocted a "cool blogger hip slang" story to cover your ass. Furthermore, it would have worked, and "Business as ucual" would have become the hip new euphemism for turncoat Democrats.

But I'm really glad you didn't do that.

CT Bob said...

heh heh, yeah, "ucual" is blogger slang for "relying too much on a non-existent spell checker".

I've gotten so bad that sometimes when I'm writing something pen to paper, I almost expect to see that little red line appear underneath words that I have a problem spelling! Absolutely true.

Spell checkers are the worst thing in the world; they've made me a WORSE speller, because I know that all I have to do is get close to the proper spelling of a word and then I can right-click on it and get the correct one. It doesn't actually help!

Anonymous said...

The task of getting rid of Lieberman ultimately belongs to us, the Connecticut voters. If he's silly enough to run again in 2012, let's stomp him.

And ACR, Palin is not the same. If you want an equivalent for Republicans, Chuck Hagel would be a better choice. Palin may have shaken things up in Alaska, but once she was on the Republican ticket, she fell in line with all the usual far-right Republican mantra.

I'm aware she'll be back, but I hope she'll at least take it easy on community organizers. I'm a small town journalist and I see firsthand the good those people do. Mocking all of them just because Obama happened to be one at some point was beyond classless.
I had never heard of Palin before this, and I was willing to give her a chance despite my liberal beliefs. But as soon as I heard that, I was done with her, now and forever.

Anonymous said...

so obama (D) wins and hagel (R) will likely join his cabinet. if mccain (R) won, lieberman (I-D) would have likely joined his cabinet. funny world.

Anonymous said...

Joe bet on McCain winning, hoping for the VP slot. When the hard men of the GOP said nojoe to McCain, it was too late for Joe to scuttle back home.
Now that Obama has prevailed, Joe is busy turning his coat yet again. Will it be right-side out now, or inside-out? What is Joe?
oldswede
[Turncoat supposedly derives from a military deserter who turns his uniform coat inside-out to escape undetected.]