The best punishment for Lieberman: call his bluff

[yurbud]

LET him leave the Democratic caucus and give up his Homeland Security chairmanship. Leaving is the only leverage he has.

Since he is hardly giving the Democrats the filibuster-proof majority on the most important issues, his presence is worthless.

His chances of being re-elected as a Republican are probably nil (unless the Democrats STILL help him after he gives up even the pretense of being one of them).

Best of all would be the poetic justice, having him would serve on the GOP. Glory dog Joe would not be able to resist the temptation to suddenly become more progressive and continually petulantly threaten to leave the GOP if they don't do what he wants.

[brooklynite]

1. The leverage he has is voting "no"

Unless you can poach Snowe, you can't get 60 votes; unless you get 60 votes, you can't achieve Insurance reform (Reconciliation only lets you address the funding items in the budget). You can expand coverage, but everyone with private insurance will still be screwed.

[yurbud]

5. we don't need 60. We need a majority leader who will force real filibusters and let the

GOP lose the remaining political capital they have.

One thing Bill Clinton did that I admired was calling Newt's bluff about shutting down the government over a budget deal. He let Newt do it, and all the blame fell on Newt and the GOP in the public's eyes.

[Inuca]

10. The 60 votes limit

IS what real filibusters are nowadays. The days of Mr. Smith goes to Washington are gone. From what I know, the only additional thing that Reid can do is keep them in the Senate non-stop and force them to sleep in their offices (for short periods of time, he can force them to come to te floor just to answer present at any time). There was such a "fun" night that I remember from a couple of years ago when they were fighting to get an Iraq resolution passed against the R filibuster. Fun to watch the Senate throughout the night (no work th enext day :-)) and to see bleary eyed Senators called to the floor every couple of hours, but do you venture to guess what the final outcome of this exercise was?

It's way too easy to just say "it's Reid's fault, why can't Bernie Sanders be majority leader?"

[walldude]

2. LMAO.. they'll probably give him an award for this..

The man campaigned for the other side, he stands against the dems every chance he gets. He supported Sarah Palin for god's sake and they gave him a fucking chairmanship. They'll probably give him the Congressional Medal of Honor for this one.

[Individualist]

4. Even the CMH wouldn't surprise me any more.

[Motown_Johnny]

3. This has to be about cashing in after he leaves office. I don't see how anything we do to him

while in office will make a difference.

[yurbud]

6. I just wish we could steal the picture of him fucking a goat the GOP uses to blackmail him...

[backscatter712]

9. We can at least dump him on the back bench.

Let him defect to the GOP. At least he'll only be an asshole to our faces instead of stabbing us in the backs.

[woodsprite]

7. But the problem seems to be nobody with balls or power WANTS to punish him. n/t

[yurbud]

11. exactly. Like the GOP, he is the EXCUSE for half-assed action, not the reason

[BrklynLiberal]

8. I agree. Let him filibuster for the rest of the year.

What we would get as a result of "negotiating" with LIEberman for his vote, would not be worth anything anyway.

As was pointed out by Digby in another post, the result would be a bill that no repuke would vote for, that would do Americans no good, and that the repukes would be campaigning against next year and in 2012.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/anything-by-digby-last-friday-i-wrote.html

[graywarrior]

12. LIEberman is laughing at us

He is loving this. I hope he gets what's coming.

[BlueMTexpat]

13. May Lieberman get what he so richly deserves!

That will likely be a fitting punishment for this POS.
And may any Dem Senator who did not support to Ned Lamont against "Joementum" also get what s/he so richly deserves!

[graywarrior]

14. Hell, yeah!

[L0oniX]

15. Remove him from his position on the Senate Arms Committee ...that should shut him up.