Joe Lieberman wants to be called Democrat again.
AP: WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Lieberman, who won re-election as an independent, has a message for his Senate colleagues in the next Congress: Call me a Democrat.
...In Tuesday's election, Lieberman won strong GOP support and given the closely divided Senate, Republicans are expected to court him....So will he count as a Democrat or an independent who caucuses with the majority Democrats? In an e-mail message late Thursday, Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein said the senator will begin his new term as a Democrat.
(hat tip My Left Nutmeg)
Note to Senate Democrats - NO. FUCKING. WAY.
Lieberman can ask to be called Mary Queen of Scots, it doesn't make it so.
Joe Lieberman lost the Democratic primary, carried only
33% of the CT Democratic vote, and is guaranteed to endorse John McCain in 2008. He will undermine the Democratic message at every turn. From withdrawing from Iraq in a timely manner to implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations (Homeland Security funding based on risk, not pork) to implementing healthcare for all Americans to ethics reform (got $387,000 in petty cash, Joe?) Joe Lieberman can do nothing but erode and cloud the Democratic message.
Here's what Democrat and hero Sen. Daniel Inouye had to say about Lieberman's party dance:
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye has backed away from his support of Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman in his controversial run for re-election as an independent....
Inouye initially said that he'd support Lieberman as an independent because he was concerned about the single-issue focus on the war in Iraq that turned primary voters against Lieberman, who is strongly aligned with President Bush on the war.
But Hawaii's senior senator said he was disappointed when Lieberman made a speech "very critical of the Democratic Party."
"I told some of my friends after he gave his speech saying the party isn't the party he knew that he doesn't get my support," Inouye said in an interview.
Lieberman is going to call the Democratic party weak and wrong every time it suits his own interests. Belonging to a party doesn't just mean taking shelter under the big tent, it means helping to keep the big tent standing so all are welcome. Joe Lieberman did none of the work in building the party, cost Democrats a winnable seat with his turnout in Chris Shays district, and sounds like Dick Cheney a lot more frequently than he sounds like Dick Durbin. That we can do without. Here's more of good 'Democrat' Joe Lieberman:
"If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again."
That's Joe Lieberman saying the 18 Senate Democrats who vote for a timetable are more interested in the terrorists winning than defending America.
The man is no Democrat. He'll stab you in the back at the first opportunity. Consider this a public warning.