Democrats Need To Stick It To Lieberman

DOH! DEMOS STILL NEED HIM FOR FILIBUSTER-PROOF SENATE

election'08: the race to clean the place

With majority rule in Washington are very real possibility, the LFR has run numerous postings calling on Democrats to temper their pent up anger over the past eight years to allow for the country to heal the divisions wrought by President Bush.

This has meant reaching out to poor white conservative voters, halting ridicule for voters who espouse to the religious right and, for Christ's sake, lay off Sarah Palin.

As far as taking the high road goes, there is an exit for Democrats to disembark when it comes to Sen. Joe Lieberman, the man more synonymous today with the word "apostate" than Judas.

The Hill reports today sources in the Democratic caucus are discussing removing Lieberman from his leadership position on the Homeland Security Committee. Sources say Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii would assume the gavel. Naming Akaka to the post would seem apropos since his surname may be what childish Democrats privately call Lieberman.

Yet, the Connecticut fence-sitter again has the party by the political juevos, so to speak. The Hill report seems questionable at a time when Democrats are scratching for a possibly unattainable filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate.

The Democratic caucus can flay Lieberman to a certain point, but they will still need his consistent vote despite his independent status. Further complicating matters, is the likely move of Sen. Joe Biden to the vice president's quarters.

Unfortunately, Lieberman has again foiled Democrats plans to stick it to him. Where have you gone, Joe Lieberman?

And that's two conclusions in row featuring 30 years references to famous music lyrics. Sorry.

Stop Talking About Palin; Start Talking About My Empty Wallet

VP CANDIDATES ARE USUALLY IMMATERIAL; MAYBE NOT THIS ELECTION

When political discourse becomes gossip page fodder, something is deeply wrong. Since Sen. John McCain announced Gov. Sarah Palin as his VP candidate, the horrendous political calculation is still evident. A highly green politician buttressing a rickety presidential candidate became a worry. Campaign-wise, the Palin pick has succeeded beyond any McCain campaign operatives dreams. Republicans win when the issues are secondary or non-existent. This election is now about Palin shooting guns and Palin wearing lipstick like a pig.(?)

Palin all the time has nothing to do with the issues confronting Americans. Palin isn't going to help create real jobs and increase wages. She is not going to help out energy policy other than further engorged the oil companies and health care won't be solved.

That the Obama campaign has been caught so flat footed by Palin is quite worrisome. They did not underestimate her as much as they did not place enough importance to the VP no matter who it was. This is rational thinking. People don't vote for the bottom of the ticket...ever and everyone knows the VP job is nothing more than ornamental. This election is so different than any other in this country let alone the world that conventional wisdom goes out the window.

When Barack Obama announced he would move his convention speech to the 80,000-seat Invesco Field, the prevailing wisdom was that McCain could never fill even one-fourth of the stadium. For months, the campaign has fretted over the fact that McCain has struggled to attract voters to his events. Since teaming with Palin, the problem no longer exists. Ironically, voters still are not enthused by McCain, but flock to see Palin so much now that the campaign is contemplating having the ticket appear together for fear of having Palin's events dwarf McCain's

Most likely the Palin phenomenom will die and the election will become about issues rather than personalities. What worrisome, is that Sen. Joe Biden is kissing old lady's in Pennsylvania in spite because they say they won't vote for a black man or a suspected Muslim, meaning the stigma of racism is very real especially among older voters. The same demographic that tends to vote religiously.

If Palinpalooza still has legs by her vice presidential debate, the Biden factor may further stoke the current media coverage that focuses on, what Obama calls "phony outrage" and less on kitchen table issues.

McCain and Palin seem adept at using gender has a wedge issue. There is no other politician in America that is more ill-equipped to traipse around possible land mines regarding gender than Biden.

The Delaware senator is biting, funny and satirical and prone to saying the wrong thing, which actually is a euphemism for saying exactly what you and me would say under the same circumstance. Once can imagine Biden being neutered in that debate while Palin exudes in the same politics of low expectations that scored Bush debate wins over Al Gore and John Kerry despite clearly flailing.

It's telling when the Grand Wizard of dirty GOP politics, Karl Rove, is preaching to Obama that he's paying too much attention to Palin, it's another problem when an presidential election is less than two months away and we're talking about subjects that have no bearing on the lives of ordinary Americans.

Third-Tier Dems Come Up For Air

BIDEN: 'I'M HERE! I'M HERE! LOOK AT ME!'

Sen. Joe Biden's time as a presidential contender is dwindling (was he ever anything but a somewhat plausible Secretary of State candidate?). When the star-driven press ran to Sen. Obama's comments about Pakistan, the gray-haired Delaware senator told the National Review's blog "The Hotline" that he's been saying we should get tougher on Pakistan for "five years".

Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, the other foreign policy elder also claimed he had already espoused such a strategy. So why aren't these two making more of a wave in the Democratic Party when foreign policy is what is driving front pages all over the country? Because we don't care about the big picture when it comes to the rest of the world.

It must bug the hell out of Biden and Dodd when pundits relegate their campaigns as vanity projects meant to be an audition for a spot in the future Democratic White House. But, Americans are isolationists at heart and despite our attention on Iraq and the Middle East as a whole, it's not what drives us to the ballot box.

Case in point, if Americans truly wanted a president like Biden or Dodd they wouldn't tell pollsters in droves that they want out of Iraq immediately. A more savvy electorate would understand leaving the region would set off a bevy of unintended consequences and disasters. That sort of appreciation of the complexities of foreign policy is nowhere to be seen in this country.

Despite our lack of attention to the rest of the world we also fancy leaders who represent something more than expertise in a part of the presidential resume. We want vision and someone makes tomorrow seem brighter than the day before. Two elders of the Democratic Party with little to say about anything other than Iraq belong at the state department not in the Oval Office.