I think that the best move with regard to Joe Lieberman is to provide him with an out. He can’t win reelection under any realistic scenario. He may get desperate and start flirting around with trying to win the Republican nomination, but it’s not a realistic option for him and it would probably cost him his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee. The president could use a more loyal, partisan chair of that committee anyway, because the House Oversight Committee is going to make trouble under the stewardship of Darrell Issa of California. I think it’s best to just get Lieberman out of the Senate and into a job that he doesn’t find to be a humiliating demotion. I don’t really know what he’d accept, but now that we have a Democratic governor in Connecticut we can be assured that his replacement will caucus with us and not show a preference for the McCain-Palin ticket. So, whatever it takes, Obama should find something to occupy Lieberman’s time. It doesn’t make sense for Lieberman or the administration to keep him around in the Senate for the next two years.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Why would Obama do that? Given how petty HoJo has been these past four years, he’ll do what ever pisses off Liberals/Progressives the most. And Obama and Reid have willingly enabled him the whole time.
This is a great suggestion. No ideas yet though for tasks for Joe.
send the guy to Israel. A) it’s where his loyalties lie anyway, and B) i’ve heard rumors h plans to retire there, so it would be getting a jump on finding a new residence.
Think he’d take an ambassadorship? Maybe a really good, ego-stroking ambassadorship? I’m not sure what the most prestigious ambassadorships might be, but whichever one is the most prestigious, offer it to him. Ambassador to France? To Germany? To the UK? To Israel?
Otherwise I got nothing. His pet projects all seem to be things that are overall harmful to the broader agenda, so putting him into the administration in a Secretary role seems counterproductive. I suppose he might do less harm in a Secretary role than in the Senate or running a re-election campaign, but he might also be put in a position where he can do more.
I’m not even sure what skills Lieberman brings to the table. He’s not particularly charismatic. He doesn’t show much evidence of being a brilliant “out of the box” thinker. His “insights” into problems tend to boil down to conventional Beltway “wisdom”.
His most “useful” skill is that he’s the “even the Democrat” guy. Which means he’s useful for Republicans wanting to make a case for something awful but he’s useless for anyone in his own party for just about anything except when he can be corralled into voting the right way.
I don’t like Lieberman because of his views on foreign policy, primarily. Domestically, he does flirt with the right-wing on things like school vouchers and “reforming” welfare.
But, he’s not all bad. He’s been an important leader on repealing DADT. He has a pretty good environmental record. He’s totally pro-choice. He did ultimately vote for the stimulus and Wall Street reform and the health care bill. So, there are things he can do to be helpful.
The problem is exactly that. He generally ends up voting the right way, but he’s not committed enough to the issues where he votes the right way to where making him a Secretary of anything would be a good move.
Where’s his expertise? Foreign policy and defense issues. Where would he do the most damage? Exactly the same places where he’s generated his expertise. Despite the pro-choice beliefs and an (eventual) correct vote on health care reform, it’s not like the man is a health-care wonk who would do a bang-up job as the head of Health and Human Services or anything like that. He would want to be somewhere where he’s hammering his primary interests, and that’s the sticking point because his primary interests are where he becomes the contrarian “even the Democrat Joe Lieberman”. What plum job could you offer him that would replace “one of the most powerful men in the Senate” where he isn’t going to do harm?
Thinking about it, the only one I can think of is “Homeland Security”. But I don’t see Obama asking Napolitano to step down just to make a political move to get Lieberman out of the way. So I guess my sticking point is that I don’t see Lieberman taking any job that Obama is willing to offer, and I don’t see Obama offering any job that Lieberman is willing to take.
Well, I can’t argue with you about his primary interest being foreign policy and national security issues, but he served on the Environment & Public Works Committee for years and has a good record of achievement. He lost his seat as punishment for campaigning with McCain, but he hasn’t forgotten what he knows, and he has been a point-person in trying to negotiate some compromise on a comprehensive energy policy because the chairman, Barbara Boxer, has no friends across the aisle.
He did ultimately vote for the stimulus and Wall Street reform and the health care bill. So, there are things he can do to be helpful.
And he helped water down the health care bill.
“totally pro-choice”? NOT. i know you don’t like her, but here’s hamsher from 2006, linking to the new haven register where the article originally appeared:
he also put Alito on the bench. that’s why they call him “Short ride Lieberman”, because he said, of rape victims mind you, “”In Connecticut, it shouldn’t take more than a short ride to get to another hospital.”
he’s pro-choice if it gets him a vote. i suspect he’s equally happy to be pro-life, depending on who’s signing the check.
Yeah, I remembered the short-ride thing after I made that comment, but that has more to do with his deference to religious beliefs than any non-committalness on Roe. He’s pro-choice unless some religious fruitcake with a hospital objects.
this is more than Lieberman deserves.
I could see him as solicitor general. He does have Yale Law School and Connecticut AG credentials.
Wow, I can just hear the sincerity of everyone here. Lieberman has been an irritant to the Democrats and will continue to do so. He describes himself as a Kennedy Democrat, and that is pretty much accurate. Living in Ct. I have followed Lieberman’s career ever since he defeated Lowell Weicker, and while I haven’t always agreed with him, he is not a bomb thrower, and has a resume as a consensus builder, something which is painfully lacking in in today’s political world. It might not make much sense for Obama to keep Lieberman in the Senate for the next two years, but can you hear the howls of protest coming from the liberals if Obama were to do as you suggest??!! Plus I really don’t think Lieberman would accept a job from Obama just to get him out of the Senate.
I’m sorry Boo-Man, but Lieberman will fill out his term in the Senate. Will he run again, I don’t know, but my gut tells me he will. Plus with the House now in Republican hands, and Ben Nelson still in the Senate, a man who is more conservative than Lieberman is, I think Joe is the last thing Democrats should be worrying about now.
Kill two birds with one stone.
The true left is shaking its collective fist and demanding a primary challenge…..Real Progressives for Lieberman!
Yes, but what to do in the meantime?
You did read Booman’s post, didn’t you?