The Gutless Dems

The moment Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders came out for stripping Lieberman of his homeland security chairmanship, RageKage said he knew the Dems would never follow through. I'm inclined to agree. When these two progressive Senators begin advocating a common sense policy, you can be pretty sure the rest of the party will rush in the other direction. (Sanders, though an Independent, can vote on the Lieberman issue with the Dems).

How gutless are these people? North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan has come out against Lieberman, but still refused to say how he will vote on the chairmanship issue. Meanwhile, Connecticut's Chris Dodd (who I generally like) says he is working on a "deal" to keep Lieberman in the party's good graces. (Let's hope he's as successful with this as he was with FISA.)

Here's another thing RageKage recently brought up: John McCain aside, shouldn't Lieberman be given the boot simply because he is horrible at his job in the Homeland Security committee?

I still don't quite understand why getting rid of this guy is so hard to accomplish. Is this all about Israel, or offending Likudnik Israel voters? If so, the Democrats are waaaay off base. The one thing that Lieberman has proven in his career on the national stage is that Israel hawks don't give a sh*t what he thinks. Twice he has been brought into a Presidential campaign, in part, to bring Florida Jews on board with his candidate (first Gore and then McCain). Twice he failed. That's right, the first time with a Democrat, the second time with a Republican, Lieberman could not deliver the goods.

Given this record, it seems that many Israel hawks are inclined to vote against Lieberman. So if Israel is what this is all about, I think the party needs to re-evaluate its estimation of Holy Joe's clout.