Joe Lieberman (party? - CT) doesn't seem to get it. He has spent 18 years with relatively good job security for a senator. Coming from CT, he has had freedom to operate without daily stress from potential challengers.
Now, the focus is on what he has used that position for -- and voters are unhappy.
Has Joe served the role of floating ideas about health care? Certainly not ideas that Democrats support. From his privileged position, he could have been a great advocate for nationalizing health care.
Has Joe used his position to try to stop the NSA program? He wouldn't have suffered in the polls for that. His voters are behind it. He could have been a great advocate for that.
Has Joe used his position to stop the US from using torture? I don't recall seeing him out in front on that, either. He wouldn't have suffered in the polls for that. His voters are behind it. He could have been a great advocate for that.
What about public financing of elections? I don't even need to research it, to know that Joe would work against that change. (Maybe it would be like SS, where he says the right thing, but we have to force him to act upon it.)
Has Joe been a party enforcer? No, obviously not. A party in disarray seems to suit him, as he's often last on-board.
You see, seats like his present a great opportunity for the party to work from. I can't help but feel that the past 18 years represent a lost opportunity for that seat. Sure he voted our way many times. But, a safe blue seat should be used to push ideas in our direction, to at least counter the center from shifting rightward.
When you recognize a lost opportunity, the first step is to stop the bleeding. Sure, there's no going back. But, correcting the problem is vital.
It just seems that Joe's got his own agenda, now-a-days... More interested in geo-political games than issues he was sent to work on.
Finally, I just heard that William Buckley was largely responsible for Joe getting in the Senator? What? On top of that, I googled Joe to fact-check some info, and this was about third on the list...
http://www.opinionjournal.com/...
Our Troops Must Stay
America can't abandon 27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists.
BY JOE LIEBERMAN
Tuesday, November 29, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.
Lost opportunities.