One Small Step for an Elector, One Giant Leap for the Electorate
Well, what do you know?
Joe Kennedy decided today that he would not run to fill the Senate seat vacated by his uncle, Ted Kennedy.
I should note that Joe Kennedy held a House seat for six terms, from 1987 to 1999, but his tenure in the House was not a particularly stellar one. Were his last name not Kennedy, it would be difficult to say that he was better qualified than any of the current Massachusetts House delegation. And perhaps his not entering the race will make the media pay attention to the actual policies that the actual candidates—none named Kennedy— might actually propound.
Labels: Joe Kennedy, Massachusetts politics, Senate, Ted Kennedy
Independent "Democrat"
Not long ago, Joe Lieberman was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President. And he seems highly motivated to prove how bad a Vice President he would be.
Today, the Senate voted to cut off debate on a motion to express no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose sworn testimony to Congress earlier this year seems dissembling at best and wholly untruthful at worst. Of the 53 votes to cut off debate, 46 came from Democrats and 7 came from Republicans. Four Democrats missed the vote—three who are running for President, plus Tim Johnson, who is recuperating from a stroke. The only so-called Democrat who voted not to cut off debate was "independent Democrat" Joe Lieberman.
When he first was elected to the Senate, Lieberman won by running to the right of liberal Republican Lowell Weicker. Nowadays, the left flank of the Republican Party has moved rightward—no one will mistake Norm Coleman, Susan Collins, Chuck Hagel, Gordon Smith, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter, and John Sununu for Jacob Javits and Lowell Weicker. Yet Joe Lieberman has moved even further to the right than the Republican Party has.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Joe Lieberman, Senate, stupid "independent" tricks
