Obama’s Art Of War

Lieberman: “Well, they let me stay in the choir, but from now on I’ll be singing soprano.”

This is not ‘CHANGE’.
If they can get 60 democrats to vote the same together – on a serious issue, I’ll eat my laptop.
This is a great photo of Joe showing how continuously, obnoxiously smug he is.
I second the schmuck reference, but he doesn’t care, this is his way.
Harry Reid should change his name to Harry Arse.

And so the Dems continue their ’strength through weakness’ policy that has served the nation so well up till now. He should have been thrown out on his ear. 60 votes mirage notwithstanding.

Jonst,
I hate to disagree with you once again.
Now, mind you that I believe the decision to keep this man on borders on cowardice if the rules of play do not make clear who achieved the upper hand. AND ONLY IF. In other words, if in fact the control that Lieberman seems to have kept represents only a front, a way for him to retain his sense of worth, irrelevant for us all but important to him, then he becomes a useful tool in the hands of capable leadership. Only time will tell.
If on the other hand, he becomes a nuisance, then I will join you in decrying this “strength through weakness”.
My sense tells me that Barack Obama does not indulge in weakness. His decision to sidestep public financing during the campaign speaks clearly to this. Whether he and his team will follow through on strongly managing the “stooge” they have denied the Republicans deserves our close attention. (By the way, the road to the exalted place Mr. Lincoln occupies in both our politics and myth – including Mr. Obama’s calculations and theater – that road had many forks, potholes and worse detours.)
Finally, and this is really important, jonst, the 60 votes is no “mirage”. The 60 votes represent a real hammer of power – thinking of Thor, mind you. And they don’t have to be Democrats!

I agree with your analysis. I think that Obama has acted in accordance with his basic “post partisan” theme. It allows him to claim the moral high ground and denies Lieberman and the Republicans their Favored Victim Status. Although the committee ship cannot be taken away without a vote which is subject to filibuster, if Joe steps over the line, his actions can portrayed in a “strike three” manner which will further diminish his stature. In the meantime, his vote on areas of agreement is more likely. Joe has four years left and how he spends that is going to be interesting. In addition, the Republican Connecticut Governor is up for re-election in 2010. She won in a landslide but who knows.

I wanted to see Joe punished on this one. I do not think he was. But upon further consideration I would have to agree that he has been vanquished more cleverly.
DHS was a focus of the 9-11 Bush administration.
Joe’s seeming slap on the wrist was his dismissal from the committe that will be creating legialation on global warming.
In Obama’s administration which committe will get more progressive focus. They removed Joe not from where the action was, but from where it will be.
Obama made a surprise speech to the governors conference on climate change the same day as Joe squeezed out his reconcilation.
He has won his Masada. Without action at DHS it will become another cabinet acronym and furthemore if something does happen negatively who has been responsible there in the senate through two administrations…
The more I think about it the more brilliant it is. It paints Obama as a reconciliator while removing Joe from where the action will be…
very forward thinking policy and ancient skills one of our first tastes of lao tzu in the white house

I’m ambivalent. I would have liked to have seen Joe punished more severely, and I worry that he could do some damage by continuing his poor leadership of the Homeland Security committee.
On the other hand, the way Obama handled this shows true statesmanship. He comes off looking magnanimous, while almost brushing Lieberman off his shoulder in a “you’re-not-important-enough-to-worry-about” way.

What I don’t understand is why everyone keeps assuming that “keeping Joe” will assure a 60 vote Democratic super-majority [even assuming all other Democrats stay in line and MN+GA go our way]. Would YOU trust Joe to deliver that 60th vote? How, exactly, are Dems going to “enforce” any promise they may have extracted from Joe in the “you can keep your chairmanship” negotiations? They gave up any leverage they might have had.
I hope Obama proves to be a good poker player, because I just don’t get this AT ALL.

This type of “engagement of politicians”, is called appeasement, not a true statemanship. The voters of Connecticut were clear how they voted, yet no change… just deals – same old things…
Maybe they won’t notice
Wishing, won’t make it different.

Michael – I love your read of the image. Schmuck! The sea of reporters giving him no attention – that’s classic. In fact, looking closer, I’m wondering who ARE they looking at??? Something or someone BEHIND Joe is much much more interesting than that traitor is NOT saying at the podium.
I’d also like to point out the “podium” he’s using that looks like a handpainted, baby blue, cardboard prop from a sixth graders’ play.

BAG, I am stunned (though I really should not be at this point) for your continual hammering of Senator John McCain. My God – not only did you call him a caveman, but you placed him in the same group as the President. It seems like your intense opposition to the Bush Administration had prevented you from recognizing any of McCain’s bipartisan achievements or principled stands (opposition to torture, promoting the closure of Guantanamo, acknowledging the reality of climatic change and embracing policies to mitigate it, etc.). In an earlier post (http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2008/02/hillary-and-bar.html) you opened hoped to “destroy” McCain (though to your credit you did correct yourself). While I did not support McCain in the campaign, I still recognize he has done some pretty amazing things within, and outside of, the Senate and I think he could make valuable contributions to the Obama administration and the country at-large. During the senator’s concession speech, McCain could not have been more gracious and after the election he pledged to work with Obama. What more do you want from him?
How does continually attacking John McCain (or the GOP) fit with Obama’s post-partisan vision? How will mocking McCain help Obama unite the country and move it forward? Denouncing (or ignoring) virtually all of McCain’s accomplishments, or the GOP’s for that matter, is not good for the Democratic Party, or more importantly, the country at large. It will only create an embittered, angry, and vengeful opposition that will do everything it can to attack our new president.
You style this a “progressive” blog, but where is the progress? Isn’t the demonization of the opposition exactly what Bush and Company did?

“the face of a schmuck”
Now there’s an awesome idea for a photoshop.
Ironically, though, while Joe bears more than a passing resemblance to a giant foreskin in a suit, Obama intervened to halt the Senate’s figurative circumcision.

Too soon to be taking the Obama transition’s temperature at every moment.
As Al Giordano reminds us at http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield
“In this process of transition, we’re going to win some and we’re going to lose some. What’s important is that we win or lose like adults, and not let our disappointments or sometimes legitimate anger cloud our strategic thinking for the next battle. This is a series of fights. Those that keep their heads will win more of them.

HEY! the 60 votes isn’t the only big issue re Lieberman! Lieberman has chaired NO OVERSIGHT HEARINGS at all during his chairship. It’s the “Homeland Security and Oversight Committee”! He should be dumped for that, if for nothing else. Is that going to continue? Maybe not if Obama get serious about peace in the ME–THEN Lieberman’ll ensure some “oversight”–he’s a Likudist, as far as i can tell.

David,
Yes, I did walk back the “destroy” statement after the readership astutely called me out on my attitude. Here though, I’m lumping McCain in with the group for possessing the same primitive mind when it comes to confronting adversity (especially off-shore). What we’re seeing with Obama, although I already hate the new set of clichés, is a paradigm shift, in which Obama is operating outside that primitive, or better yet, dualistic way of thinking.
Now, I recognize the imparting of zen while “W” is still occupying the White House, for Gods sake, is going to confuse a lot of people who (like McCain and the other suspects) are hopelessly mired in “us/them.” But believe me (or don’t, but watch it unfold over the coming days), it’s over.
And one more thing while I’ve got the flood gates open. In my opinion, and it’s just my opinion, I think — the way Obama practices the art of war — that the 60 votes thing is bullshit … or let’s just say, a holdover from the old mind.
In fact, I’m not even sure, if we asked him, if Obama would agree that having the 60 votes is the optimal circumstance. I say that because the kind of dance involved in “getting to yes” with whoever is in the way (blue dog Dems one day, liberal dems another, moderate repubs another, and again, watch, the reddest of the red), is — in itself — the transformational jujitsu which is going to — stick-and-carrot confrontation after stick-and-carrot confrontation — break America out of this knee-jerk, us/them polarization and, in the spirit of what has been coined “post partisan” politics, finally allow us (in spite of ourselves) to confront challenges and consider solutions on a non-prepackaged, creative, case-by-case basis.
…And yes, I imagine — as the quote-unquote compromises and backsliding start to roll — there will be plenty of instances where I, too, will have to be dragged away kicking and screaming.

Here’s what I see in that photo: a ball-less, possibly dick-less man! He had to have handed “them” over to somebody. This decision displeases me no end but, oh my, what he must have had to agree to in order to keep the chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. I wonder if he had to get on his knees too…LOL!

Joe owes him big time. Obama campaigned for him in 2006. Obama saved his a** for the chair position.
This is an LBJ move. However you think of Johnson, he got the Great Society stuff through the Congress by calling in every favor he had. Obama may not have that magnitude of political juice, but he’s working on it.
Lieberman’s an odious little man, but I think Obama has him in his back pocket.
I think Obama will do quite well, thank you very much!!!

(What)”Homeland Security”? We don’t need no stink’n'Homeland Security’!

pushpin, I hadn’t thought of that angle. It is an interesting perspective.
With FISA firmly in place there really is less a DHS chair gets to do. And if the Nat Sec ALL FEAR ALL THE TIME noise gets ratcheted down that furthers limits the opportunity to showboat. All while Obama who seems to be on a climate change mission of late pushes the action in a Joe-less arena.
In that light the look on Lieberman’s face makes sense.

The Last Supper.

Sure, Obama comes out as a winner, he played it perfectly.
But the Senate Dems come out looking just as much like the spineless slugs that we have been seeing for decades.
60 Dem votes is a mirage, whether the Georgia Dem wins or not. As a member of the Dem caucus, Lieberman is going to keep playing his vote card over and over. We are going to get sick of seeing his ugly face as he twists the leadership to get his goddam vote.
If he was thrown over to the Republicans, then he would have no power to subvert the Dems, and he would probably create gas pains in the minority party.
And that’s what’s going on in the photo. Lieberman’s got gas, and everybody around is trying to ignore the offense.

BTW, Mauimom, apparantly he is a very good poker player.