"When I give my word, I stick to it, and I'm definitely going to organize with the Senate Democratic caucus," Joseph Lieberman told a Boston Globe reporter yesterday. Playing upon the slogan of his Energizer-Bunny re-election campaign -- "Stick with Joe" -- Tuesday night at his Goodwin Hotel victory party the Connecticut Senator quipped that the love of his life and mother of his children, Hadassah -- "even before Al Gore made me his running mate, you made me the luckiest guy in the world" -- had sometimes complained that she was STUCK with Joe. Our own photo above, a bit out of focus, but the love comes shining through. We were there amidst the horror -- brutally loud, relentless music that made us want to kill and maim -- and wonder -- a roomful of rich and poor, elegant and dowdy, happy, happy people. The security presence was nearly undetectable. Maybe it's a Connecticut thing. Pamela and ourselves, members of the opposition that we are, were totally swept up into the buoyancy of the moment.
"With Democrats and Republicans jockeying for control of the closely divided Senate, both parties will need Lieberman's vote," asserts the Boston Globe:
Lieberman reiterated his pledge to remain with the Democrats, saying a prime consideration was maintaining his 18 years of seniority on Capitol Hill in order to help Connecticut.
Lieberman said he spoke by phone Wednesday with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who called to congratulate him. Reid assured him he will keep his seniority, Lieberman said.
Lieberman also said he has no interest in serving in the Bush administration. "I would reject any offer, which has not come, and, I believe, will not come," he said [Rummy's replacement is already out there, but who knows what GW & Company may be cooking up in their toil-and-trouble cauldron?]
The acolytes at Joey's victory party Tuesday night were filled with wonder and joy. We mingled with a phalanx of devout yellow-tee-shirt-clad union firemen (above) whose enthusiasm and sweet, all-American good will touched our heart, if not our mind.
When it comes to Joey Lieberman, he's one of the best, but a politician is a politician. This from his August 2000 acceptance speech as Al Gore's running mate:
For more than 20 years Al Gore has been a leader on the environment.
He and I will continue the work we have done together to keep our air, water and land clean. We are going to continue to work to make sure that a child can drink a glass of water, or a father can fish in a stream, or a family can go to a park, without having to worry that their health and safety is at risk.
Tell us another one. We hope Joey's had his fill of those glasses of snake-oil water served up by the wolf-criers of global warming and will be moving on to more pressing matters in his new, double-barreled position of power.
The view out our window at the Goodwin Hotel in Hartford on a rainy Wednesday morning yesterday as we awoke to a stark new political landscape and tried to come to terms with the election returns from Hell. The pollsters had gotten it right, Karl Rove and many of our friends on the right side of the aisle -- including our own hope-against-hope self -- had gotten it wrong. As Dubya told the White House Press Corps yesterday, the Republicans had taken a "thumpin'." Power corrupts, and it did. They bought their tickets. Us -- we? -- voters, unfortunately, went along for the ride: The Democrats didn't win so much as the Republicans lost. Yecky poo. But, as the song goes, "That's life." Time to pick ourselves up and get back in the race.
More toe-curling rhetoric from Senator Lieberman's Gore VP acceptance speech back in 2000:
Two weeks ago . . . our opponent claimed that America has a hollow military.
I must tell you, that made me angry.
America . . . we know better than that -- our fighting men and women are the best-trained, best-equipped, most potent fighting force in the history of the world, and they will stay that way when Al Gore and I are elected.
As depressed as the economy may be in Connecticut's capital city, their primo men's furnishings store, Stackpole Moore Tryon, is right up there with our own Louis of Boston. Tuck, above, poses for the camera but earlier picked out an awesome belt and unflappable umbrella for us to bestow upon him as belated birthday gifts.
As bad as things may seem now to so many of our fellow Americans, had Al Gore been elected, who knows? We'll have to admit we're wicked disappointed with the way GW has been jerking us around of late. We love and admire Donald "things we don't know we don't know" Rumsfeld with all our heart and soul and guess one of the pundits on one of the cable shows was right last night when he used the "s" word, scapegoat. Taking a fall for the team. We're pretty sure that history, that clear-eyed, take-no-prisoners taskmistress, will show Donald Rumsfeld to have been one of the towering figures of the early 21st century. We may not live to see it, but our grand nieces and nephews will. This just in from one of our favorite commenters, Gayle Miller of And you thought YOU were cranky?:
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if in fact Sec. Rumsfeld insisted on resigning as a final service to his President. That's the kind of guy he is and that's the kind of loyalty GWB inspires.
Whatever the causation, I am so going to miss Rummy -- his lack of patience with idiots (a lot of congresspeople and most of the press corps) and his unbelievable courage. Can you see any Clinton appointee running BACK INTO the burning Pentagon to save some of his people?
We adore Gayle's turn of phrase re Secretary Rumsfeld's "lack of patience with idiots." One of our all-time favorite Dick Cheney quotations in response to a clueless "reporter's" verbal assault comes to mind:
I disagree with the premise of your question.
Jesus himself gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He hid not his face from shame and spitting. Nobody said it was going to be easy.
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