An Easy Call

Loyalty is a virtue, but extremism in the defense of one's colleague may not be.

And so it goes that the Hartford Courant reported yesterday of the Democratic Senator from Connecticut commenting on the Democrat-Independent (elected as an Independent) Senator from Connecticut:

What does Barack Obama want?" Dodd rhetorically asked reporters Friday in Hartford. "He's talked about reconciliation, healing, bringing people together. I don't think he'd necessarily want to spend the first month of this president-elect period, this transition period, talking about a Senate seat, particularly if someone is willing to come forward and is willing to be a member of your family in the caucus in that sense."

After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met with Connecticut's junior senator, he issued the following statement:

Today Senator Lieberman and I had the first of what I expect to be several conversations. No decisions have been made. While I understand that Senator Lieberman has voted with Democrats a majority of the time, his comments and actions have raised serious concerns among many in our caucus. I expect there to be additional discussions in the days to come, and Senator Lieberman and I will speak to our caucus in two weeks to discuss further steps.

It seems a bit incongrous or disloyal- no, appaling- for a Senator who was assigned the chairmanship of a Congressional committee- in this case, the Homeland Security Committee- to have been an active supporter of the opposition party's presidential candidate. Yet, we all remember Joe Lieberman at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul this summer endorsing John McCain's candidacy for President:



He didn't stop there. Here he is in Ohio pushing for election of the Repub nominee



And Lieberman by John (and Cindy) McCain's side at Florida International University on October 17:




Even before the general election campaign, Lieberman attacked the Democratic Party, as when he told Bill Bennett on the latter's "Morning In America" (what would Reagan do?) radio program by claiming "the party seemed invested in a narrative of retreat and defeat in Iraq."



And he criticized specifically the junior senator from Illinois, who was soon to become officially the Democratic nominee for president:



Imagine what the GOP would do if one of its senators, defeated in a primary, were to run against a Republican senatorial nominee (then run against that nominee and win re-election); attack the Republican Party on what was then the biggest issue in the nation; criticize the presumptive nominee of the Party; and then aggresssively campaign for the Democratic nominee for President, as a surrogate, confidante, and frequent campaigner. At the very least, that Senator would be stripped of his/her role of chairman of a committee, thereby giving way for a loyal, or reasonably loyal, or not extremely disloyal, member of the party to head the committee. And that is how it should be in the case of Senator Joseph Lieberman, lest the Democratic Party strengthen its image as a party without strength and lacking the courage of its convictions, with the backbone of an invertebrate.