Vengeance is sweet, but, like candy, is often disappointing when it's over. I, as much as anyone in this community, would like revenge on Joe Lieberman for his sanctimonious Senate campaign, his war mongering, and his back-stabbing campaign against Barack Obama during the election. Let me be very clear here: I'm not a nice person. I like to see my enemies twist in the wind. Schadenfreude is my favorite emotion.
But, as I read cooler heads' thoughts on the future of Joe Lieberman, I have found myself persuaded to delay vengeance in the name of Statesmanship.
Statesmanship can be seen as pragmatic, or romantic. Whichever your view, the concept is clear: putting country first over your political fortunes, even over your constituents' beliefs, is a statesmanlike activity.
Joe Lieberman is no statesman. He's a sanctimonious prig, a bloody-minded war hawk. Upon losing the Connecticut Democratic primary he declared himself an independent in order to continue pursuing the position that he'd already technically lost, a standing insult to the Democratic voters of Connecticut and the US. His views on the Middle East make most Jews I know nervous that he's trying to set off World War III. His attacks on Obama during the election blazed new ground in sheer awfulness. Joe Lieberman is a schmuck.
And he also votes with the Democratic Party on social issues the majority of the time. Yes, that's right: our enemy is also our ally. He's our frenemy.
Further, we* deserve more than a little blame for making him chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairsin our desperation to pump up our party's national security resume.
Joe Lieberman is a consummate self-serving politician, and a war hawk, no doubt. His actions over the past eight years are best explained as calculated attempts to 1. keep his senate seat and 2. become either McCain's Vice President (pre-Palin) or Secretary of State, Defense or National Security Advisor (post-Palin).
But the fact remains, despite all of that, we need his votes.
And now we're left with this miserable schmuck's miserable paradox: We still need his votes on social issues, but we don't want him using his HSGA chairmanship to stymie the Obama administration with the investigations that Lieberman denied the Bush administration.
The answer may be to appeal to Lieberman's better angels: strip his HSGA chairmanship, but offer him Ted Kennedy's chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. The advantages are many-fold: Ted can't keep this up for much longer, Joe is defanged and put to work doing something useful for society, and the Democratic Party keeps him on our side of the aisle, somewhat.
This may be the best solution we can achieve while still aiding our goals as progressives. And it's also the statesman's solution.
Huge thanks to the Kossaks whose conversation inspired this thought.
*Yes, I realize the netroots didn't do this, but the party did. We get to eat their mistakes, like it or not. "More Better Democrats" anyone?