Uncle Joe

I don't care - I like Joe Lieberman.

Yes, his voting record is extremely liberal but he goes his own way and I appreciate that. Shoot, when I couldn't bear to vote for either Bush or Kerry in 2004, I wrote in Lieberman with Zell Miller as VP.

Now anything that upsets those radical leftwing whack jobs at DailyKos makes me happy. And I am particularly happy today because the DNC (which has treated Joe terribly in the past) is leaving Sen. Lieberman relatively unpunished for his "sins" during the election season.

(The Democratic Caucus voted in a secret ballot which is ironic as their leader has said he wants to let Unions get rid of secret ballot votes but that's another post....)

The story on Fox News is...

"Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign." ...

"Lieberman's colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday on a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel. He loses an Environment and Public Works panel subcommittee chairmanship, however."

That the Senate Democratic Caucus thought this ritual was even the slightest bit worthwhile is astonishing. Both Obama and Reid had to wave them off. To punish Lieberman would make Obama look bad before he was even sworn in, drive Lieberman even further away from the democrats and make real the paranoia many feel that to criticize Obama is to risk punishment. Free speech violations for everyone!

I once watched a Liberal from AirAmerica shout "Oh, so its not what you say, it's what you do that's important." And the Conservative saying, "Ummm, yes." It isn't that Lieberman votes consistently with democrats that was important, it was that he said nice things about a conservative.

At least Joe Lieberman isn't that crazy relative in the basement Zell Miller talked about in his speech at the Republican 2004 convention - that would be Joe Biden. And from the look of it, Crazy Uncle Joe Biden is being kept in Obama's basement while Uncle Joe Lieberman gets to walk outside.

For now.