I know the whole country and obviously the readers of this site are not happy with our junior senator in CT, Joltin' Joe Lieberman. Well, despite the fact that he appears destined to retain the chairmanship of the influential Homeland Security Committee, Connecticut citizens and Democrats are not standing idly by. There is a growing effort to censure Senator Lieberman in Connecticut, even though President-elect Obama appears ready to forgive and forget Lieberman's role in the campaign of John McCain.
This diary from a really cool site for Democratic politics in Connecticut tells what you can do and how to get your local Democratic Town Committee to pass resolutions censuring Joe Lieberman, which hopefully will push the State Committee to act as well. The committee next meets on 17 December, where it is expected to take up the question of censure.
There was a lot of talk about possible censure several months ago, after Joe declared allegiance to John McCain and started saying terrible things about Barack Obama, but it was tabled until after the election. Well, here we are. Sign the petition to
"publicly censure and repudiate the words and actions of Joseph I. Lieberman, and ask of him that he resign as a member of the Democratic Party of the state of Connecticut."
Joe has been working since the election to ingratiate himself with the party again, especially as it becomes apparent that Democratic rule may be here to stay. He is backpedaling on many of his campaign statements about Obama, particularly that he might be a terrorist and should be looked at with suspicion because "we don't know him very well." Now, as he tries desperately to avoid punishment and perhaps prepare for another run for re-election in 2012, he is desperately trying to compliment Obama at every turn and get in and stay in the president-elect's good graces. To wit:
"I've got to say everything President-elect Obama has done since election night has been just about perfect," Lieberman told reporters Tuesday during an early afternoon press conference at his offices in Hartford.
Link.
The chairwoman of the state party, Nancy DiNardo, was unsurprisingly only willing to speak in platitudes and generalities about Lieberman's fate. From the story linked above:
Nancy DiNardo, chairwoman of the state Democrats, said many Democrats "feel President elect Obama made it clear that he wants Joe Lieberman in the party."
"But with that being said, people are angry," DiNardo said. "I believe people want Joe Lieberman to know how unhappy they are he supported a Republican What form that takes I have no idea yet."
So what's next? Well, if you're from the Nutmeg State (as John Stuart says, Connecticut in the presidential election is just like nutmeg: nice to have but not really necessary), write an email to your local DTC or, even better, go to their next meeting. Push the issue onto the agenda if they're not planning to talk about it. Almost every DTC has an open forum time if you want to speak out on an issue. All the resources you need to do this are linked in this diary, and individual efforts will make a big difference in this effort.
Why is it important? Other than being a proverbial slap in the face for one of the most disgusting Senators currently in office (I include Dems and Repubs in that), censure by the state party may have an affect on state politics in the future. Lieberman is still our senator, and it seems likely that we will have to defeat him again to remove him from the Senate permanently. Passing censure here provides an almost automatic disqualification for Lieberman's possibly seeking the Democratic nomination for senate in 2012. Although he won in 2006 without the D next to his name, party support, especially in a small state like CT, is crucial for mobilizing supporters and GOTV. Lastly, censure offers evidence that we believe a harsher consequence should have been handed down by Harry Reid and the accommodationists in the Democratic caucus. It may echo when we have another Joe/Zell Miller episode, perhaps in 2012.
Most importantly, we're telling Joe Lieberman that we're mad, and we won't take it any more. That's something, right? And it's really our only recourse at this point.