This morning the majority of our Democratic Senators confirmed our fears and allowed turncoat Senator Lieberman to remain the head of the Homeland Security committee in the Senate.
I think most of us here at Daily Kos are very familiar with Senator Lieberman's offenses against our party, starting with supporting the Iraq war even when most of his constituents turned against it, and continuing through his exploiting a loophole in Connecticut Law to run as an Independent when he lost the Democratic primary.
Lieberman was the beneficiary of a perfect storm in Connecticut politics. Several years back, the state moved the primaries up from September to August, but failed to move the deadline for filing as an Independent candidate as well. This loophole allowed Senator Lieberman to file as an Independent candidate for the Senate after his primary defeat, instead of forcing him to choose that option a month prior to the Democratic primary.
As luck would have it, the Republican running in 2006 was exposed as a compulsive gambler who had wracked up big debts gambling under assumed names at the casinos on the East Coast.
On May 20, 2006, Connecticut Republicans nominated former Derby Mayor Alan Schlesinger. In July, it was revealed that he was involved in inappropriate gambling activities: Schlesinger gambled under the alias "Alan Gold" to avoid detection as a card counter. On July 21, the Hartford Courant reported that Schlesinger had been sued by two New Jersey casinos for gambling debts. Schlesinger quickly faced fire from state party officials and some, including Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, called on him to withdraw.
Schlesinger refused to withdraw and his poll numbers, never high, went down to single digits.
Lamont, who had run a strong primary campaign, stumbled in the general election campaign, while Lieberman once again demonstrated his mastery of political campaigning. I started to see t-shirts and bumper stickers saying, "I'm sticking with Joe." Lieberman won the election.
That was then. This is now. We need to dedicate ourselves to the defeat of Joe Lieberman in 2012. We can send him back to New Haven! Today is the first day of the last four years Joe Lieberman will ever serve in the United States Senate!