This Can't Possibly S**k Enough

Letting Joe Lieberman off the hook. At the very least, they should have gelded the guy, or turned him into a valet boy, or Senate dishwasher, or something:

As expected, Lieberman will get to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security committee, and will have a subcommittee chair stripped from him. Still, it was surprising to see him actually take the podium at the press conference -- indeed, it seemed that Democrats had not planned in advance to let him use their forum to talk to the press. And when he did speak, Lieberman came off as the clear winner, and did no favors for the party that had just let him off with a slap on the wrist.

As Steve Benen reports:

If we put everything else aside, the precedent here really is startling. As I reported last week, in 1964, Rep. John Bell Williams (D) of Mississippi and Rep. Albert Watson (D) of South Carolina both endorsed Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign, and both were punished by losing their seniority. Four years later, Rep. John Rarick (D) of Louisiana endorsed George Wallace's presidential campaign, and the party stripped him of his committee seniority, too.

Now, Lieberman endorsed McCain, spoke at the GOP convention, helped down-ballot Republicans, and smeared the Democratic nominee at every available opportunity, and the caucus decided to let him off the hook entirely.