I'll bet that a lot of you folks out there are still baffled as hell as to how such a Twilight Zone-like episode could have gone down for real yesterday.
Well, I am the ghost of Rod Serling, and I now submit for your approval an explanation for why Obama & the Senate Dems kissed saved Lieberman's ass yesterday;
it wasn't about the magic number 60,
it wasn't about the Senate good ol' boys club,
it wasn't about Harry Reid's unfortunate spineless birth deformity,
and, it wasn't about Obama channeling Abe Lincoln, or Obama cleverly making Lieberman his bitch;
it was about the money, as in, follow the money,
namely, megabucks financial contributions from individuals & organizations generically referred to as the pro-Israel lobby, who I suspect put the word out that they would perceive a Lieberman slapdown as an anti-Semitic act, and that they would withhold their financial contributions to Democrats as a result if Lieberman was slapped down hard, and I suspect that it was Lieberman himself who asked that that threat be delivered to Obama & to the Senate Dems.
That's right, Lieberman blackmailed Obama & the Senate Dems, but it wasn't with dirty pictures,
it was with pro-Israel lobby money.
(more)
And no, this is not about Jews in general, but is about a particular extremist wing of American Jewry who is financially well-heeled who likes to use their financial clout to fullfill what they believe is their life's mission, which is to be the holy saviors of Israel. Most of them are affiliated with AIPAC. These types believe that Joe Lieberman is Israel's best friend in the Senate (how some right-tilting American Jewish newspapers literally described Lieberman in 2006.)
When you see politicians like Pelosi & Reid waiting in line to speak at AIPAC's annual convention, it is not because of their burning love for Israel that they do that, rather,
it is about the money.
There is a very good book out about this phenomenon of the American pro-Israel lobby, and ironically, and proving the core thesis of this book, when this book first came out, certain financially well-heeled Jews threatened to withhold their financial contributions to Harvard, where one of the book's authors taught, as a form of protest against this book. The names of these protesting Harvard endowment contributors are in articles in the public domain. They openly admitted to doing such, and why they did such.
I know this story because I heard this book's author tell this story on NPR.
This is NOT a snark diary. I am quite serious here.
UPDATE: Point of clarification; When I mention Obama here, he was not concerned so much about a loss to his own campaign contributions here, as much as he, like Reid & Pelosi et al, were concerned about an overall drop-off in big bucks campaign contributions to the regular House & Senate Dems in general, as well as to the DSCC, DNC, DCCC, etc.