Shmekel of the Month

Joe Lieberman must be expecting something pretty good out of this administration. While DLC types have always heaped praise upon him for his centrism and just generally being the antithesis of the much-maligned but rarely in evidence "knee-jerk, angry liberal," he continues to justify every single criticism the progressive blogs had of him while seeking to oust him from the senate. To wit, that he isn't "bipartisan" so much as he is "chickenshit." He'll bash Democrats if it gets him on TV, and side with corporate interests-- and in this case criminals-- if he sees some advantage in it.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the only Democrat to endorse President Bush’s new plan for Iraq, has quietly backed away from his pre-election demands that the White House turn over potentially embarrassing documents relating to its handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. (. . .)

But the decision by Lieberman, the new chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, to back away from the committee's Katrina probe is already dismaying public-interest groups and others who hoped the Democratic victory in November would lead to more aggressive investigations of one of the White House’s most spectacular foul-ups.

I was way too gentle in using the term shmekel for Lieberman. How about flaming dickhead? Is it asking too much of a politician to leave gentility at the door when people are dying because of stupidity and corruption? Apparently so, considering Lieberman's eagerness to support the Iraq war no matter how he has to twist reality to get there.