Bubble Boy

by digby

One of the most curious things I’ve seen recently is George Bush’s favorite Democrat going a little bit kooky for no apparent reason. What the hell is up with Joementum? Why so emotional and weird about this?

I have to think that he’s suffering from the same bubble boy disease as his best buddy. In the beltway, Joe Lieberman is the most popular Democrat in town. The political establishment is totally dominated by Republicans and Republicans positively love him. As far as he can tell, he’s the most popular guy in town.

Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to realize until now, even after his experience in the 2004 primaries, that outside the beltway he has been the poster boy for GOP appeasement going all the way back to the impeachment. His acceptance on the ticket in 2000 was out of respect for Al Gore — the grassroots could barely stand the sight of him.

His voting record is beside the point. Through his rhetoric he’s given tremendous solace to the Republicans over and over again at the most critical times. He’s advanced their most pernicious ideas, not through votes, but by continuously validating their premises. He’s not the only member of the party to have done this, but he’s the one who has gone the farthest to normalize the cheap, phony moralism the GOP sells as “character.”

He just doesn’t seem to understand the nature of the current political environment, probably because he is ensconced in the bosom of the establishment, sharing cocktail weenies with the cognoscenti and believing his own hype. The terrain looks far different from where the rest of us sit. “His way” looks a lot like treachery.

I did not think it was possible for him to lose the primary. But damn if it doesn’t look like it is. Lamont is an impressive candidate, attractive and well-spoken. His run is not joke and it appears that Lieberman is actually worried. Joementum seems to leave the door open to running as an independent if that happened, a la his nemesis Lowell Weicker. I don’t know why he wouldn’t just make the leap and join the GOP. That’s what his new idol, the very moral Frank Sinatra, did. Why play games?

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