DOES LIEBERMAN HAVE TO DON AN ELEPHANT SUIT, MARCH INTO THE SENATE & TAKE A 9 POUND DUMP ON REID'S HEAD BEFORE HE'S OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED AS A REPUG?

After being dumped by grassroots Democratic voters in the Connecticut primary, Rove, Cheney and-- as much as a lazy slug like him does anything-- Bush, moved into high gear to get their ally Lieberman re-elected. The Republican nominee, Alan Schlesinger had every right to expect the average 33% of the vote that Republicans get in Connecticut senate races. But with dog whistles sounding from Greenwich to Putnam and Salisbury to Croton, poor Schlesinger wound up with the lowest percentage of votes in a statewide race any Republican has ever gotten-- a mere 10% the other 20-24% went straight to the Rove-Cheney-Bush candidate, Joe Lieberman, who was re-elected with 50% of the vote.

Holy Joe was grateful and his been demonstrating his gratitude at every opportunity. Ostensibly he caucuses with the Democrats, although he usually sits with his two best girlfriends, Lindsey Graham and John McCain. (McCain's not gay; only his sweaters are.) The Senate Democrats, most of whom-- notably Reid and DSCC Chair Chuck Schumer-- did nothing to assist the legitimate Democratic candidate, Ned Lamont. And then they welcomed Lieberman back with a standing ovation and rewarded him with a high visibility committee chairmanship, from which he has a perfect pulpit to undermine Democratic initiatives and values.

He periodically threatens to officially join the GOP, which would have no impact on anything, and he has endorsed one rubber stamp Republican senator so far, Susan Collins (R-ME), and is threatening to endorse other Republicans running for House, Senate and the presidency. I hope he causes Reid and Schumer and worse Liberman backers (like the reactionary Mary Landrieu), lots of sleepless nights.

But it was little stunts like the one he pulled earlier this week that make Rove know what a great investment Lieberman was for the GOP. Launching into one of his periodic attacks on the Democratic Party-- which are pounded on by Fox News and other GOP propaganda outlets as though they had some meaning-- Lieberman aimed to bolster the thoroughly discredited and failed Iraq escalation position just as Democrats were trying to lure disenchanted Republicans into abandoning the Bush Regime's catastrophic agenda.

"I think either [Democrats] are, in my opinion, respectfully, naïve in thinking we can somehow defeat this enemy with talk, or they're simply hesitant to use American power, including military power," Lieberman said in a wide-ranging interview with The Hill.

"There is a very strong group within the party that I think doesn't take the threat of Islamist terrorism seriously enough."

Lieberman says he is annoyed by the mudslinging on Capitol Hill and Democrats' unwillingness to work with President Bush. But his critics say he has contributed to that polarization by his rhetoric and refusal to compel Bush to find a new way forward in Iraq.

As Lieberman sees it, however, the Democratic Party has slipped away from its "most important and successful times" of the middle of last century, where it was tough on Communism and progressive on domestic policy.

"I fear that some people take this position also because anything President Bush is for, they'll be against, and that's wrong," said Lieberman, a staunch advocate of the war. "There's a great tradition in our history of partisanship generally receding when it comes to foreign policy. But for the moment we've lost that."

Choke, Schumer, choke. You too Reid. You earned whatever misery Joe Lieberman brings to your life. Lieberman has steadfastly supported serial perjurer Alberto Gonzales and "during this month's Iraq debate, Lieberman was working behind the scenes strategizing with Republicans and was front-and-center in several GOP press conferences denouncing Democratic tactics to push for an end to the war."

The rest of us can do what we can to support progressive Democrats Tom Allen and Jim Himes running to defeat Lieberman's congressional allies, Susan Collins and Chris Shays, each, like Lieberman, a reflexive Bush Regime rubber stamp.


UPDATE: LIEBERMAN-- THE MOST SUPERFLUOUS POLITCIAL HACK IN AMERICA

Today's NY Observer gets it right: Holy Joe is playing a "bullying, childish game" but his influence has waned and the Democrats should give him the boot now.