Fellow Kossacks, I am also pissed about Joe Lieberman.
I want to know who voted for him and who voted against him. I want to hold him up as an example. I want to put someone in charge of his committee whose views match those of most Americans, and their President-elect. I want my pound of flesh.
But I also support Barack Obama. I support him almost unconditionally -- or as close to unconditionally as I think I could ever get in politics. I trust him, his team, his gut, and his vision for the country.
And by all accounts, his support and advocacy for Lieberman -- whether explicit or implicit -- played a large role in the vote today that left him holding his gavel.
More after the fold -
I got a good seat on the Obama bandwagon. I was in early. I liked him over a year ago, back when folks were still talking about Edwards winning and the CW had Hillary trouncing everyone. I did a lot of Monday Morning Quarterbacking -- "why isn't he attacking her on this?" and "dude needs some better ADS!" and "c'mon -- do you even WANT THIS?" He was too calm. Too poised. Too collected.
But I learned to trust them. I'm sure you did too. You wanted him to claim the victory in the primaries when it was 99.9% certain rather than deferring to Hillary and waiting another 6 weeks for the last 0.01%. "McCain has a huge head start!" you complained. But he waited. It turned out fine. You panicked over Wright, Ayers, passing up public funding, etc. He handled it all brilliantly. You wanted him to hit McCain harder. "Presidential politics is serious!" you said. But he laid back. It worked out. The guy has a zen quality to him -- a discipline -- that is awe-inspiring. I'm sure in time you learned to trust it.
So -- trust it now.
Be pissed about Lieberman. Be pissed that he gets to smugly sit there atop that committee he has no business even being on. Get angry that the whole "change" thing you thought we voted in is being trampled on. Talk about deserting every Senator who voted to allow him to stay. Make this your cause du jour if you want -- as if it's as important conceptually as the economy, or the war, or Gitmo, or jobs, or health care are practically. Fine.
But in two weeks, let it go.
Trust Obama. He knows what he's doing. Don't be That Blogger -- the one they talk about on the tee-vee -- who won't accept anything that moves the country towards his agenda other than a complete 100% embracing of his agenda. Be a movement progressive -- fine. But accept that Obama is going to do some things you don't like. And while he didn't "do" this, he certainly played a role. And you didn't like it. Hey -- you knew it was coming.
Be ok with that.
You know that Obama has had wordswith him on this issue. You know that Obama knows what his committee does and what role he plays. You know that Obama wants his agenda moving forward, and fast, and wouldn't endorse a position that would stand in the way of that. You know the caucus will reconsider if Joe keeps going on Fox and trashing Obama or behaving with or voting with the Republicans over and over. And you know there's a good chance Lieberman will be voted out in a few years anyway. Help his opponent if you want. No problem.
But for now, your President-elect has made the call that this is not the hill he wants to die on. He's decided to let bygones be bygones. He doesn't want to start his term with headlines like "Lieberman punished for McCain support" and "Partisanship still rules as Lieberman booted from committee" and so on. He wants to clear the air. And poor Joe: all that stumping for McCain and the dude couldn't even clear 175 EV. Explore pity. Think about what a putz Joe must feel like. Consider how much he may feel like he owes Obama for his leadership in this. Consider how that may pay off down the line. Consider how neutered he is right now. Assuming the Dems don't hit the 60 mark, his staying won't make or break anything (even if they do, you know it's about votes, not seats); he doesn't have any special power here. He's going to have to earn it from here on in. He's likely on a short leash.
I know, I know -- someone else would have done it better. The morons are spineless. There is nothing too egregious that they will actually stick to their guns, or act on principal.
But look at it this way: if you think the Senate "leadership" right now sucks -- and I think many of you do -- but you like Obama's leadership and vision, then hey, here's a great example of the Senate just caving and doing what Obama told them to do.
If four years of that is what we're in store for, I think I can deal with that.