Lieberman Stripped of Super Delegate Status
The Democratic Party has stripped Joe Lieberman of the Super Delegate vote to which his Senate seat would otherwise entitle him because of his endorsement of Republican John McCain for president, Mark Pazniokas reports.
Lieberman’s endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo.
Miller, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, not only endorsed Republican George Bush four years ago, but he delivered a vitriolic attack on Democrat John Kerry at the Republican National Convention.
The Democrats responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate. Lieberman will not be replaced, DiNardo said.
So, the Democrats have responded to Lieberman with spitballs. Spitballs! At least they didn’t call him an “occupier.” Nothing makes a Connecticut Jew angrier than that.
In all seriousness, though, it stands to reason that a guy actively campaigning for the other party’s candidate shouldn’t have a vote at the convention. One wonders if Lieberman would have had the gall to try to exercise his vote even were the ban not in place.
Story via Jane Hamsher via Ministry of Homeland Security via Google
Think this could push him to the other side? (i don’t know if he’d be welcome though).
And why is Lieberman sitting next to Steve Martin in the picture???
They didn’t kick him out for no longer being a Democrat? I thought they would have stripped him of his superdelegate status for being elected as an independent more than his endorsing McCain.
“One wonders if Lieberman would have had the gall to try to exercise his vote even were the ban not in place.”
Fear not that he would. This is a man who after publicly agonizing and wringing his hands over the difficult moral choices in choosing abortion had no trouble in coming out fully in favor of partial birth abortion.
This is a man so principled that once he was chosen as Gore’s VP he immediately dropped most of his principled positions in favor of being elected VP in the liberal party.
This is a man who like McCain has one major conservative position. The war in Iraq. I suspect his strong orthodox Judaism and his love for Israel is why. I support him on that – but I never once would confuse that erratic choice with conservatism – nor do I with John McCain.
Speaking as a Democrat, I cannot wait until we pick up enough seats to safely bounce that guy out of our caucus.
No lock step, no vote. How else could you run a party?
One wonders if Lieberman would have had the gall to try to exercise his vote even were the ban not in place.
“One” may wonder, but the rest of us have no doubt on the subject. What would restrain him? Loyalty? Integrity?
If a New England Patriot player sometime in the middle of Super Bowl began actively rooting for the Giants, me thinks that his teammates might have a wee bit of a problem with it. Voting in lockstep isn’t really the reason for this rejection of him.
No lock step, no vote. How else could you run a party?
Lock step is one thing. Joe Lieberman is something else entirely.
If you think the Democrats march in lockstep, perhaps you should look at votes in the Senate. They couldn’t stick together if their lives depended on it.
Now the Republicans, that’s where you’ll find lockstep. Check out any filibuster vote and see who who really marches in lockstep.
Please…let’s keep Joe’s relationship with Larry Craig out of this–We all know that Joe likes to “cross the aisle,” but what a horrible image!
Gee, until reading the comments I had no idea how bad Lieberman was. Why would the democrats even let someone like that vote to organize with them in the senate? Why wouldn’t the democrat stand up for their principles? Why would the democrats have even made him a super delegate in the first place?
Oh yeah. The democrats would do anything to have the power to rule.
I don’t see a big deal in this story.
I think it makes sense to say a party member actively campaigning for or endorsing a candidate from another party doesn’t have a say in who the party representative should be.
I don’t think it is so much a slam on Lieberman-it is keeping the party decisions within the party.
I suspect Lieberman understands this as well.
See!!? The Democrats know that Lieberman isn’t one of them, so why can’t we do the same and dump McCain overboard?
YAJ tells us that Democrats would do anything to gain and hold power…indeed! They’ve obviously learned well from Republicans…