Letting the bum off the hook

I'm writing this before it happens. Not because I'm prescient, but because I have a feeling I'm going to be mad as hell later today, and not capable of writing my thoughts coherently.

The Senate appears to be poised to let Senator Creepy Joe™ Lieberman get away with it.

Unfortunately, it's what many of us expected, and dreaded. Ruff Tuff Harry Reid hasn't shown a stiff spine in the entire time he's led the Senate, so how can we expect him to show one now.

Our own Senator Chris Dodd, who is in something of a compromised position, will serve as Lieberman's defender.

What's the example that gets set here? Obama and Dodd would like us to think that their magnanimity, and forbearance will demonstrate a new unity in the Senate which will allow us to reach across the aisle to get things done.

Pardon me gents, but haven't you ever heard the old maxim, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..."

You can mark the day on the calendar that the most skeptical among us predict that neither the Republicans, nor Lieberman will show cooperation unless their own best interests are served. Lieberman is using you now, as he used you before, and he'll use you again and again, for self-aggrandizement.

The filibuster-proof Senate? Don't make me laugh.

Lieberman is currently a party of one, and the symbolism of the egoism should resonate.

I understand, you're all in the same club, and you'll have to face oily Joe in the elevator, but understand, when you let him back into the fold, he'll be laughing behind your back as the elevator door closes.

As for the Connecticut constituents of Dodd and Lieberman, if this deal gets done, the majority of us will be even more disgusted than we are now. If this deal gets done, it will be all the proof we need that the new Senate, the new attitude, the new openess is exactly like the old.

And, as always, all of us are wrong, and you, you who are so wise that you let a sorry President execute an immoral law, you who allowed our Constitutional freedoms to be stripped away, you who allowed torture and abductions, you who oversaw the demise of the economy...you are right.