Uh uh. You reap what you sow, and Lieberman deserves this in spades. The only way for him to redeem himself is to do the honorable thing and fold his tent. This man's arrogance, however, knows no bounds. He's going to try to put as much blood in the water as possible.

This isn't "happening" to Joe. This is what joe is doing to himself and his legacy. Nobody forced him to kiss Bush, to criticize Democrats, or to vote for the Exxon-friendly energy bill. And no one forced him to ignore the voters in his own state after they chose a different candidate.

This is just a old man who has lost his bearing and doesn't know how to give up his grip on power. I saw it in 2004 when he tried to claim 3rd place in a primary where he placed 5th. It's all about Joe, all the time, and nobody can tell him any different.

We know Rove reached out, maybe he's going to staff him. Mehlmen wouldn't commit to supporting the Republican, so it all fits together.

I agree with you that for Lieberman it is all about him, but I don't know about the old-man-who-has-lost-his-bearing theory.

No one forced him to bad-mouth Clinton 8 years ago. Was he an old man then? That strikes me as another case it all being about him. Read that speech again, it's all about him - his offense, his disappointment.

The man's a weasel, and has been for a while. If he really cared about what was good for the country, or good for his party, he would kept his disapproval to himself.

The fact that Gore had to go and chose this scold as his running mate was a major misstep and set the tone for the Gore campaign, but that another subject.

Nothing like a bit of scapegoating...everybody knows that the staff holds press conferences and gets in front of the camera.  Ummmmm, Joe...look in the mirror dude.

Not only does it take time, but it takes people being available. Most professional operatives are already on campaigns - Lieberman already had to hire out-of-state staff (the ones he just fired) - and it won't get any better, now. Add to that the fact that there probably aren't a lot of activists and operatives who are excited enough about Joementum: The Revenge to ditch their current gig, and Joe's definitely in serious trouble.

Unless, of course, he goes all the way to the Dark Side.

Carpetbagger, via kos:

Two independent sources have confirmed that some Lieberman aides decided well in advance of yesterday's primary that if the senator abandoned the Democratic Party for an independent campaign, they would resign in protest. Given yesterday's results and Lieberman's announcement, that's exactly what's about to happen.

The staff "shake-up," in other words, isn't necessarily Lieberman cleaning house -- it's Lieberman losing staffers who won't work for someone who isn't a Democrat.

Have questions about the Cafe? Try here.

There has always been something of the lap dog about Lieberman, desperately eager to stay on as a permanent Senator. It seems to me that there was something a little too smug, self-satisfied, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou about Lieberman. This happens to many people who have been in the Senate for too long; they start to think their stuff doesn’t stink. Lieberman has been corrupted, much as McCain, by having been in the Senate for too long. Neither can talk straight; neither understands truth; McCain went to a fundamentalist school to launch his Presidential campaign and made nice to them; Lieberman pretends he's been against the Iraq war. Being in the Senate means making compromise after compromise, and after a while you will say anything that doesn't rile the heavy contributors and hope you can do the same for the majority of your voters. So when he loses, the real Lieberman emerges.

In the end, we will see that militant narcissism is what ushered in the Joetterdaemmerung.

Crablaw Weekly

Nancy Irving

I think it's time to bring back the "sore loserman" tag, haha.

Seen this detail?

Lieberman Staff Exodus

To prepare for his indie CT SEN run, Joe Lieberman asked for, and received, resignations from his entire primary campaign team (staff and consultants). In addition, Lieberman announced that his longtime state director and political aide, Sherry Brown, would takeover as campaign manager, and his former senate communications dir., Dan Gerstein, would serve in a similar role for the campaign.

The release specifically notes the campaign will be searching for a new pollster and media consultant to replace Stan Greenberg and Carter Eskew, respectively. Greenberg's partner, Al Quinlan, actually served as the principal strategist for Lieberman during the primary. As we previously reported, there has been a quiet search for a new consulting team going on for at least a week. The primary requirement: Democratic ties. The Lieberman camp does not want overt GOP ties on the vendor front.

More Dan -- how grand!

Sheila in CT