PERRspectives: Sheep, Unicorns, Kamikazes and Joe Lieberman

December 15, 2009

Sheep, Unicorns, Kamikazes and Joe Lieberman

When Vermont Republican Senator Jim Jeffords balked at supporting President Bush's wildly irresponsible tax cuts in 2001, the retribution from the White House and its GOP allies in Congress was swift and severe. Ostracized and humiliated, Jeffords became an independent, briefly shifting control of the Senate to Democrats. Assessing that sea change, Connecticut's Joe Lieberman joyously proclaimed:

"This is historic. It gives us the opportunity to set the agenda."

As it turned out, of course, not so much. With the aid and comfort of 12 Senate Democrats, Bush got his tax cuts. And eight years later, it is Lieberman himself blocking the historic agenda of President Obama and the Democrats at every turn, all without ever getting the Jeffords treatment.

Why?

Theories abound. The most common explanation centers on Barack Obama's almost pathological preoccupation with consensus and "changing the tone" in Washington. In his pursuit of a mythical bipartisanship that doesn't exist, President Obama seems convinced it is represented incarnate by McCain supporter Joe Lieberman. Call it the "Unicorn Theory."

But given Obama's repeated humiliations at Lieberman's hands, that hypothesis doesn't seem to go far enough. After all, Senator Obama backed Lieberman in his 2006 race against Ned Lamont. And despite being savaged by Holy Joe throughout the 2008 campaign against John McCain, the new President Obama insisted Senate Democrats preserve Lieberman's committee seniority and chairmanships. Even Jesus spoke of only turning the other cheek once.

So what other dynamics at work might explain Joe Lieberman's unprecedented leverage and seeming imperviousness to payback?

One possibility is the "Sheep Theory." That is, Joe Lieberman must have photographs of young Barack Obama in flagrante delicto with a sheep. And given his Democratic colleagues unwillingness to publicly denounce his treachery, Lieberman's Flickr account must also include some snaps of Harry Reid and others in the caucus going the full Tiger with Santorum's dog, Cornyn's box turtle or another of God's creatures.

But what explains Joe Lieberman's seemingly unquenchable thirst for sabotaging his former party? Were his nightmares of global terrorism after 9/11 so horrific that he felt duty bound to support virtually any Republican response to it, no matter how ill-advised or dangerous? Perhaps more important, was Lieberman's disgrace at losing his 2006 Democratic primary to Ned Lamont so profound that he would wage jihad against left and center alike?

Sure.

Call it schadenfreude. Joe Lieberman is finding pure joy in the suffering not just of the liberal blogosphere and progressive activists, but in the agony of his one-time Democratic friends he believes betrayed him in his hour of need.

And with the Joementum gone from his own White House hopes and his career in its last throes, Lieberman apparently has nothing to lose. For him, there is no tomorrow, and that makes him an extremely dangerous man. More than willing to down in flames with his former party, Joe Lieberman is now a political kamikaze.

As I wrote in 2004, it's all a far cry from what happened to Jim Jeffords eight years ago:

An early indication of the vindictiveness of this administration came with the saga of Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords' defection from the GOP in 2001. This is a tale of double-retribution. First, Jeffords refused to back the Bush tax cut plan in 2001. As The New Republic reported in June 2001, the White House responded by gutting special education programs supported by Jeffords and by threatening the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact critical to the Vermont milk industry. To add insult to injury, the Bush team took the unprecedented step of not inviting Jeffords to a White House event honoring a teacher from Vermont. They even denied Jeffords' office White House tour passes for his constituents. His departure from the GOP seemed understandable then and now; his one-time colleagues of course are making his tenure as an independent a lonely one.

Ultimately, Jeffords was shunned by his Republican brethren and was even booted from the "Singing Senators," a group of GOP colleagues which included Strom Thurmond hagiographer Trent Lott (R-MS), future Attorney General John Ashcroft (R-MO) and wide stance enthusiast Larry Craig (R-ID). Humiliated and abandoned by his former friends, Jeffords retired from the Senate in 2007.

Of course, that won't happen to Joe Lieberman. Barack Obama and the Democrats, apparently, don't believe in the politics of payback. And even if Lieberman doesn't have pictures of them with sheep, Senate Democrats are acting like them.

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