New Haven Independent

Recently some of Joe’s friend’s have backed away from the Junior senator from Connecticut. Judiciary Committee chairman Senator Patrick Lahey , said in a Vermont Public Radio interview Friday, “I’m one who does not feel that somebody should be rewarded with a major chairmanship after doing what he did.”

And Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a statement: “To reward Sen. Lieberman with a major committee chairmanship would be a slap in the face of millions of Americans who worked tirelessly for Barack Obama and who want to see real change in our country. Appointing someone to a major post who led the opposition to everything we are fighting for is not ‘change we can believe in.’”

My father always told me that actions have consequences. Sometimes you do something regardless of what could be the consequence of your actions,;other times you weigh them carefully. Regardless, you live and die by your principles and stand up for what you believe in.

And according to Connecticut’s junior senator, that is exactly what he has been doing. He made no bones about believing his friend Republican John McCain would make a better president than Democrat Barak Obama. For months if you saw a picture of John McCain you saw Joe standing either right beside or right behind him.

In Joe’s mind he is an “Independent Democrat.” No one quite knows what that means, but our juniorSSenator has been caucusing with Democrats and keeping them in power in the Senate since 2006. Now the Dems have a sizable majority and Joe’s dalliances with Republicans like McCain and the inestimably unqualified Sarah Palin are less acceptable.

It was an engagement of convenience, and many Dems want Joe to give back the ring.
But the man of principle first and foremost seems to like power, and this committee chairmanship comes with lots of it and an equal amount of prestige. As chairman he oversees U.S. security issues, as well as the operations of a wide segment of the federal government. Joe says if I have to give back the ring, I may go fool around with the Republicans.

So it comes down to this: if Lieberman is as principled as he says he is, then he recognizes he made a choice in backing McCain, lost and now has to accept the consequences of his actions. If he isn’t… well then he fights for power and prestige and all that talk about principles means nothing.

Come to think of it, having few and elastic principles is what got us into the war in Iraq and has allowed us to unconstitutionally keep prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for years.

Oopsy… didn’t Joe Lieberman think both of those were OK?