Lieberman won't say he's sorry
First of all, I have never forgiven Joe Lieberman for standing up in the US Senate to make a speech telling the world that he thought what President Bill Clinton had done was naughty...very very naughty. And icky.
No one in the Democratic Party was happy he did this.
But the Republicans sure were happy. All by himself Joe Lieberman had painted a coat of bipartisan respectability on their impeachment coup.
And dang, did he ever make the press happy. It encouraged them to treat a silly affair between a middle-aged man and a star-struck young woman as a matter of national importance.
The media had a ball writing about oral sex, masturbation, thongs, and dances with cigars as if they were missiles in Cuba or burglars in Democratic Party Headquarters. They could sniff and sneer and fret and fume as if a President's adultery was the most appalling and nation-threatening act ever committed.
It's funny, after eight years of Bush and Cheney, the media still get more worked up over Bill and Monica than they do over the War in Iraq.
No, nothing good for the country came from Lieberman's speech that day. Nothing good could have come of it. But that wasn't the point.
The point was to let all the world know what a moral and principled and decent man Joe Lieberman was.
Okay, now we skip a multitude of Lieberman betrayals and come to Election 2008. Joe Lieberman should be booted from the Democratic Caucus, not just stripped of his chairmanship, for his support of John McCain.
The right thing to do would have been to quit the Democratic caucus, change his registration to Republican, and then go out and campaign for McCain. But no, he gave a speech at the Republican Convention and denounced his supposed Party...then he went out on the stump and vigorously campaigned against Obama, implying that he is a Marxist.
And now it seems that President-elect Obama would let bygones be bygones.
Okay, I'm sure a requirement of political survival is the ability to get past offensive things said during a campaign...and maybe Obama's rescue was more about building a bridge to McCain. Maybe Obama wants to make nice so he can call in chits when he needs them.
As much as I'd enjoy watching Lieberman beg for crumbs off the Republican table, I'd rather win on health care.
Before Senate Democrats decided not to punish Lieberman for his betrayals, a couple of senators thought that he should have to "apologize" for his behavior during the campaign.
But words like "sorry" and "apology" have not been heard from Joe Lieberman. He was on "Meet the Press" yesterday and Tom Brokaw brought up the word "regret"...Lieberman continued to be evasive. He said he felt regret about remarks made in the "heat of the campaign." Brokaw said, "I hear the word regret, but not the word apologize." Then Joe said that he's "going forward. You can take from the word "regret" what you will. I wish I had not said some of the things I've said. But again, we all do it."
Brokaw also asked him which campaign remarks he regretted most...Lieberman said, "I don't want to go into the details."
Here is some of that interview in case you missed it:
I found his "regrets, I've had a few" routine irritating...especially when he skated by Brokaw's questions with, "That's in the past. We have to look forward. God gave us eyes in the front of our heads to look forward"...blah, blah, blah. It makes him look even more idiotic...nobody believes that a few months ago constitutes "the past."
Go forward where? People who do the things Joe Lieberman has done do not have the right to go forward with the Democratic Party. They belong out on their ass.
But Obama is cutting Lieberman a break...or maybe we're seeing a sign of Michael Corleone in Obama. Keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. Throwing Joe a bone now he can put the squeeze on him later.
One can only hope.
