Think Progress nailed Senator Joe Lieberman three months ago right here in this article published on July 20th, 2010:
Lieberman: Utilities Want A ‘Breather’ From Letting People Breathe
"As negotiations on a stripped-down bill to limit global warming pollution from coal-fired power plants reach the final hour, Sen. Joe Lieberman(I-CT)is sympathizing with the utility industry’s attempt to suspend Clean Air Act rules on pollutants that kill tens of thousands of Americans a year".
My intro was too long...again. The rest of this quotation and my diary is under the fold...
"At a meeting with environmentalists, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers "led the call for regulatory relief on a number of existing Clean Air Act programs dealing with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury, including a new EPA rule proposed last week that deals with interstate pollution." However, thirty-one environmental and health organizations sent a letter to senators last week calling such rollbacks "simply unacceptable." Center for American Progress senior fellow Van Jones called it a "literal poison pill." Today, Lieberman made the ironic claim that polluters "just want a breather" from clean air rules:
"That’s a tough one. They frame it in a different way. They just want a breather. And not an eternal pre-emption. These are all topics of negotiation. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing here".
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/...
No Joe, you're not elected to represent the special elite moneyed interests or to "give away the store" to the major polluters-or all of your negotiating points before you get to the negotiating table, and failing to extract a single a quid pro quo from them in return for breaking the same rules that are supposed to apply to everyone else who breaks the law! Just like you did by giving the Banksters and Wall Street gambling casinos the keys to the treasury and not demanding any accountability before rewarding them with their extortion of the public's money!
And this is the same Joe Lieberman that the Hill is reporting could be "the Kingmaker" of the Senate, if the repubs pick up 9 seats in 14 days, making it a 50/50 split, with VP Biden expected to be the tie-breaker every single time the repubs filibuster by delay.
http://thehill.com/...
"No good deed goes unpunished."
So what kind of message does this send to our side? Get primaried by your party-and lose, run and win re-election as an I in name only, which is laughable because everyone knows what true flag you sail under: the one that benefits Joe Lieberman the most!
Endorse and campaign for the repub nominee John McCain, and reap the maximum reward for your treachery. Defy the party and president--who welcomed him back into the fold with open arms--and not only do you get to keep your powerful plum job as Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and continue to caucus with us--and thus becoming privy to any and all of our most intimate strategic plans and talking points for the floor debates on every single major Democratic legislative proposal, but you now may benefit directly from our party's demise, having your own throne resting on the ashes of our party you helped defeat. Now you may become a "King-maker".
But the benefits to you and the pitfalls for us of showing your true colors as a turncoat who couldn't be trusted in or out of our sight, are as unlimited as our inability to read the handwriting on the wall: When and if we lose our Majority to the very same repub hands you betrayed us into, now you get even more power to obstruct our agenda.
Looks like a win-win for you, doesn't it?
All thanks to what? The president forgave you for the sake of a "senate comity" that if I hear this one more time, I'm going to hurl my guts out-or was it political expediency, Joe? This goes against the grain of rational thinking and opposes every true dyed in the wool Democrat's will that's still a true believer in the concept that elections have consequences and committee chairmanships and caucusing privileges are rewards reserved solely for staunch party loyalists-not the disengenuous or betrayers of our trust and good graces.
They don't say "no good deed goes unpunished" for nothing. I have a strong feeling that we're going to live to regret giving you another chance to cash our blank check of implicit trust, where none was deserved, and for one whom our eternal scorn and derision was the order of the day. That is, unless your name happens to be Joe Lieberman. President Harry Truman fired General of the Army Douglas MacArthur for showing less arrogance of power than you have, Joe!
Joe Lieberman, you turned your back against your party and for this act of public treachery, you shall forever remain, in my mind at least, personna non grata. "A little leaven leavens the whole lump". If we were to allow one particle of your treason against our Democratic party to go unpunished, it would contaminate it and poison the whole well of progressive Democratic waters forever. It would set a dangerous precedence only exceeded by our party's abject failure, thus far to hold the war criminal Bush accountable to the rule of law, but which instead of facing justice has been given a lifetime get out of jail free card.
It is true, that after the November, 2008 elections, we were supposedly entering into another "era of good feeling", flush with victory over the Bush "little boots Caligula" slash and burn legacy of lawless men, and that, there are still some noble ideals alive and well, that rise above bitter partisan politics. But this is and was always about party discipline and about who we are as a party, every bit as much as it is about obeying the rule of law and restoring the Constitution that Bush saw fit to scrap every single day of his miserable career.
Today, we face an economic disaster of historic proportions. Our nation's morale is shaken, our free republic hangs by a thread, and with it our beloved Constitution within the mere whisper of the words "martial law" of being blown away. We are in a real shooting war on three fronts, that with each passing day threatens to bankrupt our treasury. And if we manage to extracate ourselves from these quagmires, another one looms on the horizon with Iran. This possibility is a real and ever-present threat to world peace, that could cause a global conflagration and world depression. And all thanks to the war criminals who tortured and slaughtered hundreds of thousands in all of our names, our nation is both reviled and feared throughout most of the world. And still, the winds of hope and change prevailed, America seemingly awakened from its blissful slumber, or drunken stupor, whichever one prefers.
Some things are worth fighting for, and dying for, if necessary to preserve, protect and defend our way of life:
Our country, from enemies both foreign and domestic.
Our Constitution, from tyrants and despots who would forever change its Preamble to read "We The Corporations"-thus, resurrecting the dead bones of a new and improved monarchy called pre-fascist corporatism.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The Bill of Rights, the wellspring from which all of our rights and liberties flow. If the Constitution falls on one point it falls on all points!
The Rule of Law and equal justice under law, which says no man is above the law and that there is a price for breaking the law, no matter who we are, no matter how rich, no matter how powerful, and no matter how strong our will is to break it and escape the Constitution's sword of justice.
Our Civil liberties, which define us as either being free citizens or mere slaves subject to a new king called tyranny and police state.
Our families, our children, and each other, which give us each a reason to love, work, and live.
Our homes, jobs, and sovereignty over our lands and our own bodies, and our own personal private lives, and the decisions we make every day, that are above any government or political party.
Our freedom to choose whom we marry, or whether or not we choose to bear children.
These things are unalienable rights endowed to us by our creator, above any man-made law.
And then, there is the small matter of the political party we each choose to belong-or not. This is not Nazi Germany, where Hitler decreed in his Enabling Act of 1933, that there's only one political party, requiring unquestioned allegiance and adherence to it-under penalty of death.
Nobody puts a pistol up to any of our temples and demands our immediate, unwavering obedience and loyalty to that party, whichever party that may happen to be.
I may change my political affiliation today, and change it back tomorrow. Or I may choose not to belong to any party at all, and become an Independent. I may choose to belong to Markos' blog and adhere to the rules he sets forth, or I may at anytime part company with you all. It is my own free choice as a free-willed, free-spirited, free thinking, self-educated, liberally-minded intellectual.
But the one choice I do not have, is that, once I chose to become a Democrat--as I did some 42 years ago, in 1968, when I joined the Young Democrats in High School at 15 in supporting Senator Bobby Kennedy until he was murdered on June 6th of that same summer--I understood then, and it is clearer to me even more today, the concept of honor, integrity, loyalty, and that if a man believes nothing, he will fall for any wind of doctrine or lie that is convenient or politically expedient.
I knew then, and I know now that actively campaigning against my party of choice with impunity, was no longer an option. And Joe Lieberman, whether you want to face the reality of your actions or not, in life, our actions, choices, and decisions have consequences.
"Elections have consequences".
Being a turncoat and a traitor has consequences, whether it's against your country, your Constitution, your family or your political party. It is a smack right across the faces of the rest of us who have shown loyalty--political dissent is not treason anymore than blind faith in bad leaders is patriotism--and worked day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, fighting for the principles for which this nation and party has always stood-with or without the likes of backstabbers like you.
Here's the man you should be, but the man you'll never be as long as you shall live only for your own selfish political whims:
I can only speak for myself. Conversely, no one else speaks for me.
When you promised to accept and abide by the decision of the voters and our party in 2006, I knew in my heart of hearts that you were lying, then, and I know you are lying now, and every other time your lips move.
I didn't trust you then. I don't trust you now. And I will never trust you again. Once a liar always a liar. Once a traitor, always a traitor. Once a turncoat, always a turncoat.
"A workman is worthy of his hire". Enjoy the 30 pieces of silver you earned in betraying our party.
Enjoy basking in the glory of your continued acceptence by the leaders of our party, despite your treachery.
Enjoy your status still in the good graces of the very party you opposed, and tried to defeat with all your power.
I am neither a coward who has to hide behind my keyboard, cowering in fear for my life, too scared or ashamed to reveal myself to speak these hard words towards you, that I sincerely mean with every fiber of my being.
Nor do I cry at the first sign of adversity, and try to strip somebody's citizenship on mere suspicions and innuendos without due process of law, based on not a shred of evidence, without charges, and without a trial by a jury of their peers like you cowardly tried to pass a law to do, just a couple of months ago.
But Joe, you shall always remain in my mind as a coward, a Judas Iscariot, and a Benedict Arnold of the lowest order, unfit for duty in anyone's service, save your own.
An exceedingly dishonorable man, who has no concept of either honor, or loyalty, to any party, but especially to this one.
Certainly, no longer as any self-respecting Democrat, who came before you or after you.
And if you would betray your brothers in arms, how can we be assured that you would not one day betray all of our countrymen into the hands of our sworn enemies, as well?
But our party's leaders-and I am quite certain, with your "betrayal with a kiss" still fresh in their minds as it is in mine, will all have their way with you. You will become rich by, in, and by virtue of your betrayal, and I will wax rich with contempt for a man who proved himself more than worthy of nothing but being beneath all of our unmitigated contempt.
They will forgive, and have forgiven you in our names, in the name of reconciliation, in the name of bipartisanship, in the name of comity, and in the name of national unity, as if they had the power to speak for all of us.
They do not speak for me!