According to Roll Call (via RAW STORY), several Democratic aides are extremely upset that Senator Lieberman has hired former GOP spokesman Marshall Wittmann, the fifty-two year old political pundit and activist who worked for the Christian Coalition , served as a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), was a legislative director for the conservative Heritage Foundation and once was the communications director to Sen. John McCain, as Sen. Lieberman's new senate communications director.
"Senate Democratic aides are a tad nervous about Sen. Joe Lieberman (Whatever-Conn.) hiring a former GOP spokesman to be his new communications director," Mary Ann Akers writes for Roll Call. "Especially those working for potential 2008 Democratic presidential contenders."
"Several Senate Democratic aides say they’re uneasy about the notion of Lieberman’s new communications director, Marshall Wittmann, sitting in on their weekly press secretary meetings," Akers reports for Roll Call.
There is a simply solution to their worries: DO NOT allow this guy into those meetings. PERIOD.
Just like Dems have to take a stand and must draw a line in the sand with Rethugs or be trampled upon come this new session of Congress, they MUST do the same with Lieberman and his Gollum.
“Now, everyone at the weekly meeting will feel like the turd in the punch bowl has a name,” said one communications director to a Democratic Senator.
Yet another Senate Democratic communications director, one whose boss looks a lot like a presidential candidate, said, “What’s more dangerous than a Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-Independent sitting in our strategy sessions? One who is a prodigious leaker. ... I think our ability to speak our minds and get something done in our meetings just plummeted.”
I have no doubt this is precisely why (or at least part of the reason) Lieberman hired Wittmann to begin with. Yes, there are other valid possibilities (he has an in in almost every right-wing alley and Yes, he is a link to the Senate other moderate maverick), but this seems much more of a direct threat.
Again, Dems must draw a line in the sand and say NO WAY to being held hostage by Senator Joe say-and-do-anything-to-remain-in-power Lieberman.
If you are a ROLL CALL subscriber, you can read the full article at this LINK
So, it's truly begun. LeiberSCUM is making is move and even some here might not see this particular action as a major power grab, it's only the beginning. All grabs must start somewhere. This was it.
More to follow...
UPDATE #1: You can find more on Whitmann;s hiring at Raw Story in an article originally posted last week: Lieberman hires former Christian Coalition spokesman as new communications director.
More to Follow...
UPDATE #2: Here more about Whitmann from that original RAW STORY artcile:
At his blog, Bull Moose, Wittmann has accused liberal and Democratic critics in the blogosphere of comprising "a left wing Cult of Bush Hatred."
"Because in the left wing universe, one must oppose everything the President supports," Wittmann wrote in February. "The truth is that a good part of the left believes that George W. Bush is a greater threat to America than Osama bin Laden."
UPDATE #3: I guess one of the points of my diary that some are missing (because I didn't make it clearer) is that Leiberman is not going anywhere.
He's NEVER changing parties. It's an empty threat.
He's having too much fun (and has too much power to lose) to actually leave the party. Beside losing power, he'd be skewered by EVERYONE.
Let's not forget how much fun this SCUMBAG seems to be having with his threats. This is part of a transcript of his Meet The Press appearance last week:
MR. RUSSERT: If in fact they ask for discipline in the Democratic caucus, and you start to feel uncomfortable with it, would you consider crossing across the--going across the aisle, and joining the Republicans, if they gave you the same chairmanship that you had, and respected your seniority?
SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah. Well, that's a hypothetical, which I'm, I'm not going to deal with here.
...
MR. RUSSERT: Jim Jeffords of Vermont crossed over and joined the Democrats.
SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: And they gave--they gave him his committee chairmanship.
SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah.
MR. RUSSERT: You're, you're not ruling that out at some future time?
SEN. LIEBERMAN: I'm not ruling it out, but I hope I don't get to that point.
The full transcript can be found here.
Again, Joe stay-in-power-at-any-cost isn't going to switch parties. He'd LOSE every ounce of the power he did everything to maintain in November.
RETHUGS aren't giving him chairmanship of ANYTHING even if he did. Can you name which Senator would be giving up his or her seat?
OK, I thought more about that statement. Perhaps it isn't as true as I'd like to think.
UPDATE #4: Some have referred to this as a diary of the far Left-Wing of the Democratic Party vs. (?). Centrist? You can fill in the blank.
This diary isn't about some in the Democratic party being threatened by maverick Joe's centrist views(?) or by a difference of political opinion.
This was about a traitor in our midst (Whitmann as well as Lieberman).
It's about a non-Democratic who gave a big F**K YOU to primary voters in Connecticut when they voted LAMONT in and him OUT.
It's about a scoundrel who high-jacked an election in order to maintain power.
It's about a man who's every move is about maintaining power - exactly what all DEMS were trying to vote OUT of office this past November.
It's about all the choices this guy has made which disrespect ALL Democrats, every step of the way.
It's about how every step this guy takes is meant to hold hostage a party who no longer believes his true loyalties lie with them or are were shared with.
And for the record, he's not a centrist. Anymore than McCain is.