Two words for Joe: Buh-bye!

I am damn glad that the Democratic Party seems to be uniting around Ned Lamont. My biggest fear for Connecticut was that the DLC Dems would rally around Lieberman if he lost by a hair and decided to run as an indie. However, they seem to have backed away from Lieberman too. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a major DLC-ite, has come out in support of Lamont, as has Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Jeff Greenfield of CNN has astutely pointed out that there were more reasons to not support Lieberman than just his support for the Iraq War and the growing power of the Executive branch over the Legislative and Judiciary branches of government. He rightly pointed out that Lieberman's strong Orthodox Jewish faith made him very susceptible to going along with Religious Right stances on issues like the Terri Schiavo case. Never mind the truth about the Religious Right: their support for Jews and Israel and yadda yadda is only because the Book of Revelation says that there will be 144,000 Jewish converts to Christianity, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes, evangelizing the heathen during the End Times. Of course after that mass conversion it's back to "turn or burn" for the remaining Jews. But that's a detail the Religious Right tends to keep from their "beloved Jewish friends."

Greenfield has also mentioned that Lieberman has been soft on Civil Rights, and a critic of Affirmative Action. He also supports school vouchers, something that could have major Church/State repercussions and which in all the places tried seems to attract a certain type of huckster to the places that have tried them, the kind who doesn't care about students but cares a lot about the voucher money. In Milwaukee, WI, where there was a voucher program for students at the worst-performaing public schools, there have been fake voucher schools busted which are staffed by unqualified "teachers" and which have "curricula" which consist of playing board games and watching movies.

There are other reasons Greenfield didn't cover. Lieberman is a major crusader for censorship of media. He is one of the bluest of bluenoses. He has publically railed against the evils of movies, TV and videogames, and would like to see official censorship of media for violence and sexual content.

In short, Lieberman really does belong in the Republican Party. And now he has his chance to be a GOP tool. By running as an independent, Lieberman will peel off the more conservative Dems and make it that much harder for the legitimate Democratic nominee to win against Republican Alan Schlesinger, unless Lieberman also peels off support from Schlesinger as well. Basically the Republicans have two horses in the race, three if you count Diana Urban who is also running as an independent Republican candidate. The Dems have but one horse in the race: Ned Lamont. Hopefully Lamont will win. If not, then the Lieberman who returns to the Senate will be a radicalized Lieberman without any desire to vote Democratic, and further into the GOP column in all but name. Lieberman needs to be beaten like a big bass drum. Bye bye Joe, don't let the door hit you on the way out.