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Harry Reid: "Joe Lieberman votes with me a lot more than a lot of my senators." Oy Vey!

MARK KARLIN BUZZFLASH EDITOR’S BLOG

On November 18, the Democratic caucus will decide, by secret ballot, whether to strip Joe Lieberman of his Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee chairmanship.  (Yes, that's a mighty important position in terms of our national security, and Lieberman has spent the last couple of years making sure that his committee did nothing to enhance our national security by being a yes man for the Bush Administration's dead end, incompetent policies.)

Yesterday, I debunked the notion that Lieberman is needed for a potential 60-vote "filibuster proof" Democratic Senate majority, if three of the outstanding senate races go Democratic. 

First of all, Harry Reid recently defended Lieberman's "value" to him (while also giving him a perfunctory scolding): "Joe Lieberman votes with me a lot more than a lot of my senators. He didn't support us on military stuff, and he didn't support us on Iraq stuff. But you look at his record, it's pretty good."

What this confirms, of course, is that Reid -- contrary to conventional wisdom -- could not whip a 60 seat Democratic Senate into a party line vote to stop obstructionist GOP filibusters.  Reid pretty much lets Democratic senators vote the way that they want to, so what makes anyone think, as we pointed out yesterday, that Reid would suddenly be able to instill party line voting discipline on a cloture vote? If Joe is one of Reid's "loyalists," the irony speaks volumes about Harry's velvet fist in a velvet glove.

There is virtually no likelihood that the Democratic Senate caucus will vote the now "Independent" Lieberman out of the Democratic side of the aisle.  Some of the Dem senators like Lieberman, and some fear if he is stripped of the vital Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee chairmanship he will jump to the GOP caucus.

But so what if he does? Isn't our national security more important than Joe Lieberman's GOP Neo-Con war policies running the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee?

And since the Democrats will almost never get 60 votes to stop a filibuster unless they get a majority leader who knows how to instill party discipline, Lieberman isn't needed to reach that mythical 60 votes, since it won't matter (and the odds are that the Dems won't win all three outstanding seats anyway).

Let Lieberman be Lieberman. Free him of overseeing a committee which implements policy that he has fundamentally trashed President-elect Obama about.  Allow Joe to have some integrity by forcing it upon him by kicking him out as chairman.

It's not going to affect the 60 votes needed for a filibuster, because Lieberman is going to vote against most filibusters since he sides with the Republicans on foreign policy and judicial appointments. 

Let Joe, who attacked the Democrats in the most scathing fashion during the 2008 election, be Joe.  He even -- yes, he did -- warned that if the Dems reached a 60-vote senate it might damage the national security of the United States. In fact, while talking to the infamous Glenn Beck, Lieberman opposed the very notion of Democrats filibustering!

Harry Reid and the "friends of Joe" better wake up and understand that their obligation is indeed to the national security and well-being of the nation, as well as to carrying out the mandate of President-elect Obama.

Let Joe be Joe.

Let him go, finally.

MARK KARLIN BUZZFLASH EDITOR’S BLOG

Also see: Joe Lieberman: From Mensch to Schlimazel in Just Eight Years


They're ARE "carrying out the mandate of PE Obama", Mark.

It's just not a mandate you like. Yes, the caucus and chairmanship decisions are Senate business, but they're also party business, and Obama is the party's leader. Obama has not only refused to lead the fight against Lieberman, he's said he "doesn't hold any grudges", he wants Lieberman to remain in the caucus, and he wants Lieberman to retain his Chairmanship.

If Obama wanted Lieberman out of the caucus or stripped of his chairmanship, it would be done. Yet he's signaled he's fine with Lieberman remaining in the caucus and keeping his Chairmanship, giving cover to those who might be reluctant to get rid of Lieberman. So while you criticize Harry Reid and the "friends of Joe" for failing to put the country's interest and national security ahead of political concerns, you may want to ease up on the criticism, or at least spread some around in Obama's direction. After all ....

... they're just doing what their PE wants them to do.

(No subject)

<moved>

Reid self-punked

Reid is the rood we no longer care to bear. What a pathetic milquetoast. It speaks volumes to the kind of failure in leadership as Senate Majority Leader Reid has provided when he can say with a straightface, that Lieberman who is not a Democrat, who supported the Republican presidential nominee, campaigned for Republicans against Senate Democrats, has openly stated that a 60 vote Democratic majority would be a threat to national security.....
"Joe Lieberman votes with me a lot more than a lot of my senators."

First of all I would question for just which nation does Lieberman have such concern for security. If he is talking about the U.S.A., hasn't he so much as saying Democratic senators cannot be trusted with the security of the United States if they hold seats. Lieberman is an absolute disgrace as a senator and Reid is nothing moree than his butt boy. "Hey Zeus Tap Dancin' Crises On a Crutch," get rid of both these carbuncles on the butt of the body politic. Let the Republicans deal with Lieberman, they'll soon be sick of this pupick. And as for Reid, he's been nothing but a cat's mouse for the Republicans just toy with before figuratively before getting bored with him and biting his head off time after time.

With Reid's attitude toward Lieberman and backed by Obama combined along with Obama's selection for chief of staff and some of his "concilatory meetup with McCain, whose bio is a life long miserable, lying failure in every facet of his life, from prep school. affirmative action appointment to the Naval academy where had his father not been an admiral this slug would have been dumped before completing his first semester, a pilot who with even a generous stretch was less than mediocre. a corrupt failure of congressperson, as a senator,a a presidential candidate, a failure as a husband, a father, as a human being; he sheer paucity of even a scintilla of anything praiseworthy about McCain is exceeded only by the nimiety of his nascissicism and his assumed sense of privilege and specialism and delusion of grand and glorious heroism. The euphoria of the election is fast fleeting. Much more of this uselessness and I'm calling for a "do over".
As for Lieberman, Reid and McCain , put these three misanthropes in a wash tub, throw in Palin as navigator and set them adrift off the Alaskan coast.

The Skeptical Cynic hath spake!

Santa knows when you are sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good.
Unfortunately, so does Bush,
Cheney, Rice, Mukasey, and...
the FBI, ONI, CIA, MCIA, NSA,
DIA,MI6, MOSSAD, AIPAC,

I hate to use the "c" word, but Harry Reid is a profile in...

I hate to use the "c" word, but Harry Reid is a profile in... cowardice. Either cowardice or abject, raving, incompetant ignorance regarding our nation's security, for as we all know, Senator Lieberman as Chairman of his damn committee, SABOTAGED a TIMELY Senate Investigation of ENRON FRAUD in 2002. Which investigation, if successfully managed & prosecuted, would have saved Senator Paul Wellstone's and Max Cleland's, and other important Democratic, seats in the 2002 election. (Odds are that neither Repubs. Coleman nor Saxby Chambliss 'won' their seats by the intention of voters in Minn. & Georgia respectively; the fact that Sen. Govt. Affairs & Oversight Committee Chairman Lieberman REFUSED to prosecute that Enron investigation, and TIE ENRON FRAUD _TO_ the Bush White House, ENABLED the Republican thefts of Wellstone & Cleland's seats in those mysterious "election votes disagree with exit polls" elections.)

Harry Reid, you are playing an extremely dangerous game: in coddling Joe Lieberman, YOU ARE ENABLING DICK CHENEY. Just how many more 9-11's or anthrax attacks do you want in this last 65 days of Bush adminstration lame duck hell?

How about the pirated oil tanker with 2 million barrels ??

We need to get rid of Reid NOW.....

Traitor Joe is an insult to the party and all good DEMS....Get rid of Pelosi as well. We elected this majority for a reason. If the GOP had won this kind of mandate, they would execute a scorched earth policy just as Bush and Rove did in 2000 when it took the Supreme Court to do "the fix". Bush didn't even acknowledge how close that election was and the fact Gore won the popular vote by over 1/2 million. The GOP never looked back with any thought of ruling in a bipartisan fashion. Screw that...

To the point..if Joe Lieberman is so damn valuable, how could a fully loaded oil tanker bound for the USA have been UNescorted off the east coast of Africa? Joe Lieberman has his hands in this in some manner because if money is being poured down the drain in Iraq and we have a domestic airport security system that shakes down 85 year old grandmas, then how it the F..K could something like this happen so many years after 9/11 re this hijacking.

This oil tanker highjacking is the biggest security/terrorist breach since 9/11 with huge downside potentials on some many levels.

How could this have happened? Well...we have idiots like Lieberman running committees that are not doing their jobs because they have such a poltical agenda they have lost sight of what's important. Lieberman is the big supporter of the war in Iraq which has drained us on focusing on IMPORTANT national security issues.

For Reid to continue to defend Lieberman is beyond the realm of rational thinking....

If events like this tanker highjacking can still happen by a boat full of non professional irregulars, then we have not progressed one minute past the check in counters at Logan, Newerk, and Dulles.

We have no clue on what is important and what is not important in terms of overall national security.

We pick something like airport security and jump all over it with both feet, then we ignore port and high seas security.

We invade and occupy a country that had zero to do with 9/11 while spending a trillion for the show. Then we allow oil tankers like this to go unescorted....The oil companies are too cheap to buy Haliburton gun boats to defend their product but the USA spends hundreds of billions on these mercenaries to guard a few high profile people in Baghdad Green Zone.

Lieberman has his hands in all of this. So now what, Harry Reid, you still need this ugly little man from Connecticut to bastardize the very concept of "party".

Reid and Pelosi need to be ejected from leadership roles in the Demorcratic Party or else in 2010, we are gonna face a reversal of fortunes. And Obama needs to man up and get rid of Lieberman as well. In fact, he should LEAD the charge on this one. If it is the Jewish American vote that is holding Obama or Reid back, then that sends a disgraceful message to existing LOYAL members of the Democratic Party with that background.

How much more damage could one person do to the Democratic Party who was once its very candidate for vice president? What does it take to have some character and politcally waste and render this tool from Connecticut and cut him off?

Lieberman must go! He has betrayed his party and sitting on vital committees re our national security, he has betrayed his country by putting politics in front of REAL national security policies. Reid by keeping Lieberman in these posts is thus guilty of same thing as Lieberman.....party politics and vote counting ahead of national security.

We have had enough of Lieberman.

We have had enough of Harry Reid.

We have had enough of Nancy Pelosi.

Obama needs to clean house. That's WHY we elected him and gave him the Congressional majorities to do what needs to be done.

We need change...

We do not need to go along/get along with the racist GOP or their policies of domestic and international failure. We need to stop that failed policy of appeasement that started with Speaker Tip O'Neill as he got hypnotized by Ronald Reagan.

Bottom line...if the GOP had won in this same manner, they would have as one of their main goals right now an effort to wipe out the DEMs forever and in fact that was EXACTLY Rove's STATED policies a few years back.

We cannot tolerate consumate evil and incompetence as portrayed by Lieberman. Let him defect to the GOP. The GOP will treat him like a leper. Let Joe Lieberman be run out of town into the waiting arms of history.

He was insulting Obama for months...He did that publically and loudly. I don't really care what Obama might think personally about Lieberman. Obama is the leader of our Party...I don't want ANYBODY messing around with the LEADER of our Party though that LEADER might have some personal problems with delivering party justice to this jerk. Obama has to do what might seem distateful to himself to kick Lieberman out of the party. Obama really has no choice but to do this or else what other hard choices will he HIDE from in the future (and this really isn't a HARD choice when you think about it..it is just simple disposal work that MUST be done).

How many downticket DEMS did Lieberman hurt, Harry Ried? How much more hard earned DEM money was NEEDED to repair REAL damage Lieberman was doing to our party??? Damn it all....what does it take for the so called leadership of this party to WAKE THE F UP???????????

Lieberman was supporting McCain....he then supported Palin and the down ticket of the GOP. This man damaged the very agenda of the DEM party..everything we stand for from labor rights to women's rights to foreign policy was attacked when Lieberman slept with the enemy.

When Lieberman openly endorsed the GOP tickets, he thus supported candidates who had ZERO desire to be on the DEM side of the above stated issues. Did Lieberman EVER consider exactly what he was doing in terms of hurting the DEM party on those issues? And how nuts and full of crap do you have to be to support the GOP when YOU KNEW they would vote AGAINST these very issues YOU supported? How fu..king ignorant are you? What kind of low esteem do you have to have to sell out your values in order to be tagging along with McCain and Palin..inserting yourself where you were not really welcomed.....where you disgraced yourself in front of the nation? How does ANYBODY explain behavior like this?

At what go. dam.. point do the Democrats DEMAND some sort of standard to be able to be called a Democrat?

Damn it all....Mr. Security Man, Lieberman....how did that oil tanker get hijacked?

I have had it. Reid and Pelosi need to be tossed aside for not having ANY standards of behvavior or control of their own party. We have SO many talented, loyal, patriotic, intelligent members of the Senate and House that could fill these two jobs.

Why do any of we DEMS put up with this lack of backbone for one more day? Why doesn't Obama assert himself in this issue NOW and forcefully. Lieberman didn't just do small things to nip away at the DEM PARTY....he did things that were so outrageous re the Republican National Convention that alone should have had him kicked off the chairmanship of any committees.

But he did MUCH more starting with his turncoat run for Senator ....his blind support of this war....his support of Palin and down ticket candidates....his continually lording over the DEMS with his tipping point ONE vote in the Senate.

And now the VERY thing Lieberman thinks he's good at....national security....we now have a city sized oil tanker under control of terrorists off of Africa.

Yeah....the Democratic Party NEEDS guys like Lieberman.

The United States of America NEEDS guys like Traitor Joe Lieberman.

Enough.

Hint: It's not just Lieberman.

Nice post. Everything you say about Lieberman is correct. However there's one point you seem to be overlooking:

THE DEMOCRATS LET IT ALL HAPPEN.

Not only does this apply to Lieberman, it also applies to the war, torture, deregulation, serial Republican election fraud, and all the other nightmares over the last eight years.

I share your outrage at the Democrats' behavior. But the time to voice your opinion passed two weeks ago. Do you think they notice or care what you post in a blog?

Your vote for a REAL progressive party WILL get their attention. Unfortunately too few people did this last election.

It's like housebreaking puppy. You'll get nowhere with just praise. At some point you have to say "bad dog!"

I think we're in for four years of un-housebroken corporate-funded Democrats that think they can get away with ANYTHING to please their corporate paymasters. (As long as they're not as bad as the Republicans.)

you are correct ....If we had a true Labor Party...

I could not agree with you more.....however Pelosi and Reid led this party for the last two years when indeed they were given an anti-war mandate in 2006...and they chose to simply ignore the will of the people in that regard...then the economy became the lead issue starting in the spring of 2008 though the COST of the WAR has been and always will be the underlying cancer to this economy.

If we had a true Labor Party....one for working people..which is just about ALL of us...starting at the grassroots rather than top down, then we would be starting a true political revolution in this country....the current third parties do NOT in my opinion focus directly on working people and their concerns from health care to retirement to halting the practice of treating outsourcing U.S. corporations with the protections of U.S. domestic tax laws.

Most successful 1st world countries ARE unionized to the hilt. This is a fact the idiot republicans don't want you to hear.....From the Heritage Foundation to the mainstream GOP...the very first item they go after re the economy is workers and their benefits. My answer is that there are more of us than them and we should have a Labor Party if only to bring the DEMS to tow and make them realize who is paying their bills.

I do not want to accomodate with the GOP. They are the minority in this population. Obama's FIRST order of business is to keep it that way by hiring thousands of FBI agents, thousands of U.S. Attoreys and go out and ENFORCE FED election laws. We should NEVER see poor and minority people in lines 7 hours long to vote. We should NEVER see arbitrary purging of voter rolls in certain states just because the can get away with it.

Obama needs to make election reform, voting machine proliferation, and paper trails for ALL electronic machines mandatory. Then anybody who violates the law, will be prosecuted and jailed. So all hints at accomodating these knuckle dragging brown shirt Mega tele evangelical idiots who think the universe was created 4,000 years ago..all hints of election cheating should be eradicated....These nut groups will NEVER again project power as they have due to tricks and cheating from the Supreme Court on down. They will be relegated to forums no larger than their kitchens.

After OBAMA got elected, the corporate media driven by advertising sales was more concerned about some arch conservative post election GOP conclave and the Republican governors conference..both meetings already talking about 2010 and 2012.... with Sarah Palin running around like she was Joan of Arc!!!!!! What kind of freakn' world is that?

They just LOST the day before!!!!!!!!!

and then the GOP acted like they only had to make a few minor tweaks.."get back on message" to reclaim what they think is their franchise...control of the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislative branches of government while they are the minority party in terms of population numbers.

What do they have up their sleeves for the next voting go around? Well, if OBAMA gets his sh..t together and enforces federal election laws, then we are not going to have to worry about these fascists coming back.

One more thing here in California... the California State Democratic Party TOTALLY blew it on not explaining and going nuts about the reapportionment initiative which was just one more GOP voting trick like TERM LIMITS was....

Now in this state we have the governor selecting a committee to do the reapportionment of districts for the State Assembly, State Senate...and get this...U.S. CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS!!!!

You think Prop 8 was/is controversial....well this redistricting trick was the issue they REALLY wanted and Prop 8 was just the "get out the vote" trigger for their bottom feeder haters.

The redistricting ploy means something to GOP corporate greed mongers because the more GOP guys in there, the more they can FIX tax laws etc. to help their bottom line.

Prop 8 and burning the flag and prayer in school and all similar issues are simply teaser products at the cash register for these creeps to get out the crazed wild eyed right wing voters.

Corporations could care less about this kind of patriotic religious stuff..it means nothing to their profit margin.

In fact boycotts against large corporations, churches, politicians, and other groups who supported Prop 8 could do great damage to them.

So somebody is gonna have to figure out the paper trail of support for Prop 8, then punish those who spent money on it, and simultaneously fund a new initiative to overturn this one...the same technique applies to the redistricting gizmo initiative....Do you realize many DEM voters only thought this applied to state district lines and did not apply to Congressional redistricting????

Our state was NOT falling into the ocean because gays could marry...(which I think is a GREAT idea so they can go to divorce courts in great numbers and get a taste of some REAL LIFE instead of gay parades in West Hollywood..letting them get married would make them EXACTLY like the rest of us...taking all the glitter and mystery out of that whole movement...LET THEM GET MARRIED and let's all move forward for crying out loud!!!!)...

How ironic it is for the MORMONS (who funded and manned street corners everywhere in support of Prop 8) to be lecturing American voters on the structure of marriage..their entire starting history was being RUN OUT OF STATES until they ended up in the desert because of their views on marriage..POLIGAMY!!!!! Wow...to be lectured by a group like this on the structure of what makes a marriage is like having the Knights of Columbus lecture us on priestly morality and purity......OOOOOOPS...they were the other masters and supporters of Prop 8, weren't they?

So Caliornia voters took the bait took away a right from gay folks but what the supporters of 8 were really doing was provide the hot button issue to sneak through this redestricting gadget as a way to overcome their state minority status.....jerk off the district lines and get your idiot GOP person in there.

The final vote for Prop 8 and this redistricting deal were about the same....and defied the other voting profiles...so this means the DEMS did NOT do their homework or spent the money on EDUCATING people to prop 8 and certainly were totally and absolutely NOT THERE on the reapportionment issue which in effect could end up being an act of political suicide for themselves as the trikc plays out with this appointed committee. What did your progressive party do about these two issues in Califronia???

Had the GOP controlled the state legislature..neither term limits NOR this redistricting ploy would have EVER made it to the ballot..

The DEMS f'd this one up as well. So with HATE and TRICK initiatives like this...WHY DO THE DEMS WANT TO ACCOMODATE OR MAKE NICE WITH THESE FASCISTS?????

My vote did count, BTW. There are plenty of DEMS who feel the way I do and we are just pushing this forward...

However... one of those steps is to PUNISH a stinking dog like Lieberman to the MAX. If there was a viable Labor Party...I would sign up TODAY. But the 3rd parties in this country as far as I am concerned are fringe groups and I will NOT throw my vote away on any of them. So don't act like you have THE magic bullet answer in some third party at this time. Grow up. You can throw your vote away but I won't risk that....

The whole point is to get the DEM Party to start acting like one and if they don't, we throw individual players out one by one if necessary.....Part of this process is throwing out Lieberman and Pelosi, and Reid. That's why I wrote the above raggin run on rant and this one.

Now if you have a better mouse trap that will work in this solar system re a third party.....then have at it...but don't come down on me for not throwing my vote away to some third party fetish festival that might make you feel good for the moment around election cycles...

....the rest of us will try not to sink this DEM ship but have the wheelhouse cleaned out of idiots. Obama's election was the start of that process WE HOPE. If Obama tries to become everybody's favorite guy like letting Lieberman off the hook, scouting his arch rival Hillary to State, having a love fest with McCain like today......then maybe most of us signed up for the wrong crew again and you can laugh at us and damn us as you have here.

This country's political system allows for no coalition rule...but a viable Labor Party could sway the DEM PARTY in a more progressive direction without turning off the vast numbers of die hard DEMS.

If Joe Lieberman can get elected as an Independent, then multiplied over the nation, it is possible to elect Labor Party candidates at ALL levels of goverment..and then SOMEBODY would have to deal with that reality...In fact look at what just ONE Independent (Lieberman) has been able to do in terms of nearly controlling the Senate or scaring them all with his ONE vote.

So for this potential vision of the future...we give EVIL Lieberman KUDO's for showing us what IS possible in this two party system.

We are both angry and the corporate over-representation in our daily life is something we can all agree on. But let's not poke apart people who are on YOUR side of the argument here in the more general perspective.

Sorry you brought out the kitchen sink in me....but we need each other ultimately.

Think coalition. We CAN do this.
»

A few comments

There certainly ARE parties that represent working people in every election.

Both the Green Party and Ralph Nader support single-payer universal health care. They also support pulling out of corporate trade deals like NAFTA and the WTO agreements.

A Green-Party vote is not "throwing your vote away". You're confusing elections with horse races. In a horse race if your horse doesn't win, you lose.

An election is different in several ways:

1. Your third-party vote sends the winning party a message about what you support and why they didn't get your vote. (Your Democratic vote sends no such message, so it could be argued that YOU wasted your vote.)

2. If the Green Party (or Ralph Nader) got 5% of the vote, they'd receive Federal funding, and it would be harder to exclude them from the debates. (I've never seen this fact acknowledged in the corporate media; it's like they're afraid of people finding out about it.)

3. Your third-party vote shows support and encourages others to vote third party in future elections.

4. Your third-party vote makes it easier for that party to be on the ballot in the next election.

From your comments, it's obvious you're aware of the disgusting performance of the Democrats. Yet you characterize voting for a superior third party as "throwing your vote away". Why is this?

I submit that you say this because of all the votes the Democrats got in previous elections. From this it follows that when you vote Democratic (for whatever reason) you're giving them undeserved legitimacy.

Think about it.

yeah???...I've thought about it for decades....

and I keep coming up with the same answer...you are THROWING your vote away if you vote for a third party or worse, you are eating into Democratic votes and ensuring GOP wins.

You sound like you have your all or nothing insular world neatly figured out. No matter what political voting reality you SEE right in front of you year in and year out..you are gonna get that third party jump started and onto victory.

Turn around..there is nobody following you. You third party types are like a cigarette store or a cigar store...just as weird and just as unneeded.

Your advocacy of these various third parties is probably well intentioned and thought out but WISHING for results...any kind of positive results no matter how incremental..is NOT the same as winning elections. So you just go on wishing. Meanwhile the elections will keep going on and you will lose every single one of them because you want to be what??...different???....cool???....trendy????

There are 300 million people in the USA...given your way of thinking there should numerous SUCCESSFUL third parties. The REALITY is there are not any successful third parties no matter how much you theoretically try to convince others of what seems to be your version of some sort of self-satisfying political journey into oblivion during each and every election.

Sadly, these third parties have too often eaten into Democratic potential wins and let the fascist, racist GOP squeak by... Until we have a parlimentary system in the USA, this approach simply sucks and will not work.

I am not into "Sending Messages". We should be into winning elections. I don't want to encourage third party fetish voting..instead I want to encourage Democrats to get off their lazy butts and vote and give a loud voice to people like you. But that would result in you getting "soiled" by joining a larger group??? This disruption might be so allergic to your imaginary world that you might have to be hospitalized.

Obviously you hate the Democrats so NO amount of arguing with you on this subject will convince you of anything.

Go right ahead until hell freezes over and throw your vote away each election cycle.....and then you can continue to do it on the ice.

Wake up and smell the concrete, pal. Work in this world. Hiding behind pretty noble phrases that make you seem apart and above the fray is laughable...I am laughing at you.

And furthermore...

Your "strategy" of unconditionally voting for the Democrats isn't working. They could have stopped most of what Bush did. They didn't.

Have you seen the latest news; they're letting Lieberman remain as chairman of Homeland Security.

The Democrats have no fear of selling out to the corporations with your unconditional support.

It. Doesn't. Work.

It's a question of values

I vote for Ralph Nader and the Green Party because they're the ones that represent my values.

The Democrats and Republicans stand united against single-payer health care. They stand united for NAFTA, the WTO, and outsourcing. They stand united for the government tapping all our phone calls and emails. They stand united for the continued occupation of Iraq. They stand united for corporate-financed parties and elections. They stand united for corporate control of our media.

This last outrage explains why third parties have been repressed in the US lately. Even you were unaware there are parties that represent labor and citizen interests.

Green parties share power in many European countries where the corporate power structure isn't as entrenched. In the US, over 200 Greens have won elected office at the local level. In the senate, we have one socialist. It's a gradual process. When the Republican Party started in the 19th century, they lost about a half-dozen elections before their first win.

"...eating into Democratic votes..." suggests somehow the Democrats are ENTITLED to my vote. First, if this is really a threat to them, they can support proportional representation like many European countries have.

Second, if the Democrats are so corrupt and take so much corporate money that people don't want to vote for them, they don't DESERVE to win.

It's called democracy -- get used to it.

Then go to Europe where your model of democracy exists.

It doesn't work here....You can combine up all your third parties and you still could not win one single seat in the U.S. Congress or Senate. Go and waste your vote. It's called Democracy. Right on.

Time to call Lieberman's bluff

He will have to run for re-election again eventually, and Lamont may be interested in a rematch. Take the chairmanship away from him, and let him go to the GOP--but that would be a risk for him. In his next bid for re-election he could find himself in a one-to-one race with Lamont, who I've read is currently polling 10% ahead of him in a possible rematch. The only reason he won against Lamont last time was that the Repugs added their support to that of the misguided Dems who continued to vote for him. But the mood of the country has changed a lot since then. I wouldn't count on so much support from "loyal" Dems next time around.

Reid and Pelosi, time to show you are serious about CHANGE by enforcing some party discipline.

Blame Connecticut

Okay, that's piling on, but Connecticut elected a conservative senator in favor of a progressive Ned Lamont in part because of the power Lieberman has accumulated by being in the Senate so long. Well, maybe if that power is stripped from him, as it should be (my God, the man is a traitor to the Democratic Party!), then next time he won't be so viable as a candidate. There should be consequences for his actions, or Joe will just continue his power-tripping obstruction and manipulation in the Senate. Nobody is worth THAT much, except in his own fat-headed power-soaked delusions.

Yes! I noted that Reid didn't oppose the Bush agenda either.

Maybe he didn't support it like his great friend Joe Lieberman did, but Reid provided no effective opposition to the criminality of the B-C administration. So why do we want to keep him in his powerful slot?

Get rid of Reid too!

How about getting rid of two *birds with one stone - or one stone very quickly after the other? Get rid of bushite lieberman and get rid of ineffective, enabler reid!

Time

It is time to get rid of these SOMETIMES DEMOCRATS like Reid, Pelosi, and Hoyer, and LIE-berman for sure they have no place in this new WE the People DEMOCRATIC Party. these are the very people that has done more harm to the party over the years that needed. All you hear out of there mouth are the REPUBLICANS my Friends,and LIE-berman the SKUNK my FRIEND. I am so sick hearing these words out of the DEMOCRATS mouths that I cover my ears ever time a DEM. is about to SPEAK.

Missed your chance...

I slightly disagree: The time was two weeks ago.

By acting as yes-men for the corporate Democrats, BuzzFlash and most liberals sent the message that the Democrats can be as corporate as they want, and still get unconditional support as long as they're not as bad as the Republicans.

BuzzFlash in particular ruthlessly censored all news of progressive third-party candidates. And you call yourselves progressives?!

Third parties only needed a few percentage points to act as the Democrats' conscience; letting them know they'll lose more votes if they totally sell us out to the corporations.

Your complaints of pro-corporate behavior are disingenuous -- You got what you voted for.

start over

I've long thought Reid wasn't the right senate leader for the democratic party. This confirms that concern. I was a big fan of Pelosi until she took Bush impeachment "off the table." In January, the democratic party and the country are going to have a new president. That seems like as good of a time as any to just start over & relieve Reid & Pelosi of their "duties," which seem to lie more with republicans and corporations than with decent Americans. I know there is a lot of Bush era damage that needs to be undone, but Reid & Pelosi don't seem nearly as concerned with taking back the country as they should. Of course Lieberman needs the grand ol send off, but as far as I'm concerned, Reid & Pelosi can go with him.

Reid's Lieberman without the yarmelke

Harry Reid's a centrist, secretly anti-free speech,i.e. "politically correct," pro-Israeli government, pro-military-industrial complex, pro-financial industry Democrat just like Holy Joe Zellmillerman.

With the Republicans in disarray, it's time to purge these "fellow-travelers" from the Democratic Party. Or at the very least, in-coming Democrats should force a culling of them from leadership positions in the US Senate and House of Representatives!

Failing that, perhaps it's time for a new, more progressive, more, dare I say, socialist-leaning, alternative to the Democratic Party.

Sign me up

I'd love to join a real party of the people. The Democrats and the Republicans both have an agenda that is destroying the middle class and working hard for their wealthy and corporate masters. As long as the Demopublican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America, we're screwed. We need a viable third party that will work for the people of this country.

So do it.

They already exist. The Green Party, Ralph Nader, the socialists are all excellent non-corporate alternatives that run candidates. But they can't do it without your support. It's disappointing that BuzzFlash joined the corporate media in censoring these parties and their candidates.

When a mock election was conducted recently where only the candidates' platforms were given (without their names or party affiliations), Ralph Nader won decisively. The support is there; the problem is the media that censor progressive parties.

the problem is Reid much more than Lieberman

Without a stronger leader in the Senate, the Democrats and Obama won't make much progress, even if they had 63 votes.

lieberman

because the dems do not enforce party line voting ( as repugs do ) what difference does it make where joe sits? all of his individual votes will be decided by his convictions, loyalties, morals, beliefs, and allegiances, just like all dems. harry says he votes with us often, and that will not change just because his feelings got hurt. give the chair to a loyal dem, we still hold a substantial majority, and the committee needs to investiagate bush wrongdoing which joe will not allow.

Time for Reid to GO

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are shaping up to be the twin anchors on Obama's new ship of state. They both seem to have no leadership qualities whatever, and the fact that the American public sees their popularity on par with George "El Pato Lisiado" Bush should speak volumes. Reid - out! Anyone who defends Joe Lieberman's actions in the past six months has no business leading the majority. Pelosi - out! Simply having a vagina should not shield her from criticism of her imponderable lack of leadership. Lieberman should start looking for a place to retire. I have half a mind to move back to CT just so I can vote against that big FAKE.

LIEberman Must Go

And he can take Reid (and P-Lousy and Hoyer in the House) with him....

Yet Another Reason Why We Need

Stronger Leadership in The Senate!!!!! If Reid's own words don't convince the Democratic Senators to give Lieberman the boot and get new leadership, then the REPUBLICAN MINORITY is going to run the show!! What's wrong with that picture, folks?

LIEberman Must Stop Making Me Double-Post

See? I'm so angry about Holy Joe the Quisling not being Pun-ISHED! for his treason against his own party (and his country, come down to it) that I'm posting twice!

Let Them BOTH Go, Joe AND Harry

You are exactly right about the filibuster and about Joe. We attack the filibuster by keeping a spotlight on those who obstruct progress, not by hanging on to an arrogant, self-absorbed loser like Lieberman. His committee chairmanships should be given to Democrats who worked FOR Obama during the campaign, not against him. The image of Joe and John side by side representing more of the same and ridiculing the much needed change Obama represents will never be erased. Also, Harry is not the right person for Majority Leader. He is weak and uninspiring, and clearly his judgment is flawed. For decades, Democrats have been overpowered by partisan neocon thugs. It's time to offset their damage by pushing back, (we can play nice later), and Harry doesn't have the stones.