Hear, hear!
There’s no way that this leaverman should be allowed in the Dem caucus. No way!
Go get ’im, Edub!

I had originally thought the â€no confidence†vote to be a dry run for impeachment proceedings. I’ll give Senator Schumer the benefit of the doubt for now and that there is a plan in place. Does the failure of the cloture vote indicate that AGAG is home free until Bush goes? Or does Speaker Pelosi now begin impeachment proceedings, with the understanding that Schumer has lots of stuff that will make it very difficult for the Senate Republicans not to vote in the required numbers? Or will the impeachment proceedings be stayed in return for something, like appointment of a special prosecutor? One thing about the Rethugs, they certainly know how to keep all their pawns in place in this chess game.

EW,Thank you for the lowdown on the cloture vote. I want to hear the Senator’s who voted â€No†on cluture explain the reasons thay have confidence in Gonzalez as AG. I wonder how many would cite the lack of evidence of illegal activity. I’m struck by the low bar… in the shins.

Not one GOP would defend AbuG on the floor of the Senate today, choosing instead to slime Schumer for being political (!) and calling the vote political grandstanding and of no consequence. Also, Hutchinson thought they had better things to do. Ha-ha, KayB, you funny lady.

gdmfsob

Not that I enjoy being redundant, but I have to say it one more time:

FUCK JOE LIEBERMAN!

(& btw – I don’t think he works for KKKarl Rove. Rather I think he really works for Sharon Netanyahu.) I have a well connected sister-in-law who teaches piano in a number of well apportioned CT yeshivas in CT who has told me so. Not that it would be rocket science to figure it out–what is rocket science is to figure out why it is so difficult (or sacrilege to say) to figure this out.

The Democrats should take his unused commitee chair away from him and re-assign it to a Democrat….Or maybe Reid should trade Joe for Hagle….someone who actually has principles.

Woodhall Hollow….You are so correct…Joe’s true allegiance is too his religion/Israel. He is not a loyal American, just like all the other Neo-Cons traitors.

Reid needs to lance the boil yesterday.

KdmFromPhila,
Why would McConnell want to be Majority Leader right now? He probably has more fun watching Reid make an ass out of himself(ie: HoJo).

I just thought of an argument applicable to this entire debacle. Isn’t calling this â€no conf†vote partisan in itself an admission that AGAG is a partisan. The AG is supposed to be non partisan, thus a vote on confidence is by nature a non partisan vote. Anyone who calls it a partisan witch hunt is in fact admitting that Abu is a partisan. They are proving the point. Just throwing it out there.

I don’t think Joe’s loyalty is to Judaism. I think he’d choose Israel over his synagogue, if it came to a choice. (I know at least one Jew whose contempt for JoeL is great.)

I say throw the bum out and see how long he bounces! (And while we’re at it, tell Harry Reid ’no more speeches in Congress, ever!’

Mimikats and DeeLoralei – I don’t know if, in fact, this is true; but I read somewhere back in late January or early February that the organizing resolution Mimi refers to (and she is definitely right about about the leader and committee percentages) also specifically names the committee chairs. If this is true, then it would not permit Schmoe Lieberman to be removed from his committee chairmanship. Does anyone else know the answer to this?

Just watched the RGJoe vote at C&L: I think it was Schumer and DiFi at the last minute on his shoulder, moving away together. With DiFi’s anger at the firing of Carole Lam, I’d say she had an interest in that vote.

I wonder if RGJoe has a conflict. Isn’t the Connecticut USAtty, who’d investigate illegalities like slush funds in a USSenate election, serving at AbuG’s right hand right now? Perhaps there’s a reason why RGJoe voted in favor of AbuG continuing to serve. Besides the regular assaholic reason.

Liberman’s hypocracy knows no bounds. After his awful speech condemning Bill Clinton he has the nerve to side with Alberto Gonzalez.

If that doesn’t say something about the man from Connecticut.

may i suggest this thought to my fellow commenters here:

when you have a one vote majority,

and that one vote is recovering from a severe brain injury,

that is not the time to act on righteous indignation,

even if it IS righteous.

the democrats are increasingly being portrayed as not keeping their word (re 2006 elections).

that’s not accurate.

democratic leaders are working their asses off to do the best they can.

IMO nancy pelosi has been a remarkable leader. i’d love to see her as the first woman president.

harry reid has done a number of â€courageous†thing, including today’s vote on abu g. and letting the feingold option on iraq come up for vote.

each time he has lost.

that takes guts and courage to do.

remember, for congressional leaders, the first job requirement is to be able to count the votes, a priori.

reid can count.

(by contrast, knowing ahead you’re almost likely to score five touchdowns on your opponents does not count as courage, in my book).

there’ll come a time to deal with lieberman, but it ain’t now.

he already knows he’s a dead duck in the future, that’s why he’s behaving like he is; he no longer cares.

from my perspective, that says a lot about his character.

but then i’ve despised the bastard since he piously attacked clinton on the senate floor in 1998.

i love al gore, but my wife can attest that when gore picked lieberman, i counted that a mark against his (gore’s) good judgment.

and i still do.

joe lieberman, the bassett hound of the senate.

re: it’s the treason, stupid! ew, i don’t know if you are already using this quote but i would use ghwb’s â€it’s the most insidious form of treason†frequently.

Joe Lieberman is a wholly owned subsidiary of the White House.

He was elected by Republican voters in Connecticut, and sold what was left of his political soul to make the deal. He has a personal apologia for his behavior, but (like many people) it has little to do with principle – it’s about him.

After 2009, he will switch to the Republican caucus either way – with a larger Democratic majority after his committee chair is removed, or to more properly align himself with the majority.

For now, he’s useful to Republicans as a â€bipartisan†voice, and to Democrats as a nominal member of their caucus. I don’t actually think he’s held in high esteem by either party.

I suspect Norm Coleman’s yes vote can be much more ascribed to his big money Minnesota Financial Supporters than to anything to do with Rove. You have to remember that a very small clique of Republicans have long been the fund raisers and source of funds, and at the center of that clique is the Heffelfinger Family.

By the way, Tom Heffelfinger now has a new client. He’s announced he will raise the defense fund and participate in the legal defense for General Pao. (WHO HE??) Pao is the Hmong General who splits his time between California and Minnesota’s Hmong community, and was recently indicted by DOJ for trying to buy machine guns, missels, rockets, other stuff, so as to start a revolution in Laos. The indictment is based on Patriot Act provisions. I find Heffelfinger’s choice of arms for and place of combat very much of interest here. (The Hmong were CIA clients during the secret war in Laos, and most migrated to Minnesota.) As they got their citizenship, most became DFL’ers — one of Pao’s neices is in her second term in the State Senate. Anyhow, I find TF’s decision to work on defense of Pao against Patriot Act type charges of some interest.

I find all the comments and compaints about Joe Liebermann abandoning the Democrats and in particular the Liberal Causes very strange.

I thought it was the Democrats and the Liberals that abandoned him this past election.

bmaz — the shooting was in Wisconsin, a St. Paul Resident Hmong was found guilty. It got fairly normal coverage in the cities, but I don’t think it changed perceptions all that much. Apparently the Wisconsin Prison System has had to put him in their mental unit — and I think many people assumed that was the problem.

Given the huge cultural differences the Hmong faced with migration, I think they have made a reasonable adjustment. Realize they had no written language on arrival — the U of Minnesota created a Hmong alphabet and dictionary for them — the younger generation seems to be doing reasonably well — using the community colleges and University to great advantage. Many problems get solved when you graduate and get hired your first group of Hmong Cops, which happened a few years back. They’ve done well in the Grocery business and the Restaurant trade, and have added true riches to the Farmer’s Markets. (Churches leased some land, and they went nuts growing Veggies.) But there are always residual problems — Hmong Culture apparently involves Fathers making marriage contracts for daughters, and then brides are â€kidnapped†— mostly it is just a form, but sometimes it is against the woman’s choice, and then US law kicks in, and Criminal Charges come into play. In the early years this was fairly common — less so now that the 2nd generation has become cops and social workers and can mediate when necessary. Apparently last year and this the graduating Medical School Class has the first Hmong Doctors, most of whom were born here — that should address some of the health issues for older members of the community, many of whom have minimal english. A few years back there was a so called â€asian Gang Problem†— I think it was about drugs mostly, but that has apparently diminished. I don’t know what to make of the Pao indictment, but with Heffelfinger deciding to take up the defense, perhaps it is not precisely as reported. (I really don’t see TH taking up bad or hopeless causes.)

For some reason, the State Department over the last couple of Decades has selected Minnesota and Wisconsin as a destination for refugee migrants of extremely different Cultures. We got the Hmong, and more recently the Somali. (Someone at state must think we are or were far too homogenius). So while there are and have been problems — the migrant institutional structure is healthy, and many of the second generation seem to do fine and prosper.

When Paul Wellstone died, the decision was made to totally rebuild one of the old Settlement Houses in St. Paul founded by Russian Jewish migrants in the 1890’s as his memorial, and just this year the new buildings opened. The Senate sent a lovely memorial — 10 million dollars actually — making for a true state of the art facility offering classes in everything, social services, health, mental health, huge support for community clubs and organizations, sports, arts, just a huge support system. When you have the resources to do that kind of support, you can do lots of things right. Before he died, Paul had promised to help Neighborhood House raise the money for their new building — too bad it had to be done this way. It is actually telling and funny — the first bill the Senate passed in 2002 right after the plane crash, the appropriation was for 10 million, but Bush did a put-down and cut off one million. Last fall when the Democrats re-took the Senate, in the lame duck session, they got real busy and found the money that had been cut, and hooked it on to a must pass bill. Typical.

Sara – Thank you. That is a better answer than I could have envisioned really; all things considered it sounds like the Hmong are doing ok. We had a group of â€Lost Boys†from the Sudan here in a suburb of Phoenix. They were doing pretty well until some boneheaded regulation out of Bush after 9/11 impacted them and it kind of fell apart. For the life of me, I can’t rmember what the exact facts were, but there were a lot of people saddened. Thanks again.

thanks sara,

not only a historian but an anthropologist to boot.

and a pleasure to read in either role.

arianna huffington really cuts loose against â€democratic dinosaurs†today

and shares sentiments with many frustrated and angry commenters here.

fun to read.