Lieberman's Declaration of Independence!

I called Joltin’ Joe’s office in DC today with a few questions about reverse Joementum and his half-assed defection from the Democratic Party.

According to the guy who answered the phone, Joe considers himself “a loyal member of the Democratic Party.” When I pointed out that many established Democrats would now have to back Lamont, I couldn’t get the aide to guarantee that Joe would caucus with the Democrats should he win in November.

So much for loyalty.

Joe has been lamenting the left-wing extremism that led to his defeat, so I asked for a definition of what makes people like Lamont and Maxine Waters extremists in Joe’s eyes. The answer was pretty lame…
“Although the Iraq war is now… it’s now considered mainstream to be against it… umm… what makes them extreme would be the fact that they don’t consider a 90% voting record with the Democratic Party to be enough… umm… in other words, just simply because of his vote for the Iraq war that Senator Lieberman is somehow not qualified to be a Democrat… umm… I think that is why he considers them to be a little more extreme.”

I then asked him to tell me who has said that Senator Joe isn’t qualified to be a Democrat. The answer took me on a bit of a carnival ride with the aide attributing statements to Lamont’s campaign and me replying that those statements were never made. Finally, he got to the real thorn in Joltin’ Joe’s side: “By challenging him, he’s [Lamont] basically saying that Lieberman is not a fit Democrat to be in office.”

It really comes down to that… it’s all about Joe’s pride... it's all about his big head.

Later in the conversation, I asked if Lieberman thought the Republican majority was doing a good job in performing their Constitutionally required oversight duties in regard to executive branch activities. The answer… “I’m afraid I can’t really make a general statement about that.”

Weak.

The aide said Joe has stood up to the Bush administration many times. I asked him to name some. You can hear his pain and discomfort come through phone as he searches for an answer.

“He has numerous times criticized President Bush’s handling of the Iraq war even though he is technically pro-war, or pro keeping the soldiers in Iraq, rather.”

I’m not sure what distinction he’s making between these two positions, but I pointed out that any criticisms he’s made have only come since he’s found himself in a tight primary race. The aide said Joe simply hadn’t “made it quite as public or pronounced as he has now.”

Umm…yeah… right.

When asked who he’s been saying it to, the aide said that because he’s a moderate Democrat, Lieberman has a hard time getting on the talking heads airwaves. I’ll have to go back and listen to the Sean Hannity archives for all those time Joe was criticizing Bush on the air. I then went on a bit of a rant and left the aide a bit speechless.

Towards the end of the conversation, I asked if there was any proof that the Lamont people had something to do with the Joe2006 website going down. He said there was none, but under the circumstances accusing the Lamont people would be a “fairly reasonable thing to say.”

I asked him if the accusation without proof was a “responsible” thing to do.
Aide: “I really can’t answer that question sir.”
Me: “So it may have been irresponsible?”
Aide: “I really don’t know enough about it myself….”

Whatever.

You can hear the entire conversation here.