Connecticut Democrats: Screwed Again By Lieberman

Earlier in 2006, the blogosphere was patting itself on the back for the Democratic primary victory of Ned Lamont against Ole Holy Joe. A primary victory for Lamont was unexpected, and interjected a whole new sense of vigor to both the campaign, and the blogosphere's efforts to see Lamont elected in the general election.

Lamont's eventual defeat didn't come as a surprise, as many Democrats in Connecticut opted to vote for the candidate they knew for decades and trusted. A weak Republican candidate who, in the end, pushed conservative voters to Holy Joe didn't hurt either.

But Lieberman, who was given the political fight of his life during the election season, promised his constituents, that he would stay true to his values and caucus with the Democrats. He also made a few other promises while on the campaign trail as well.

During an interview with CNN in January 2006, Lieberman said, "Look, the committee, as you said, Soledad, released some documents that our investigation has uncovered that showed specific e- mail warnings of the overwhelming nature of Katrina, the expectation that the levees would be busted and the city would be flooded and remain submerged under water for weeks and months. They went to the White House Situation Room.

We want to know who got it. And look, we all know three days later the president made a comment on television that nobody expected the levees in New Orleans would be broken. How was it possible that the president was not informed of the information that came to the White House earlier? And I think not only the American people deserve that information, the president deserves that information.

So that's -- we need White House cooperation that we aren't getting to be able to tell the story and answer those questions."

Later, Lieberman made a promise to voters to go after the Bush Administration and investigate the grossly mismanaged response to Katrina. Turns out, Lieberman wasn't so much "telling the truth."

From Newsweek:

"Sen. Joe Lieberman, the only Democrat to endorse President Bush’s new plan for Iraq, has quietly backed away from his pre-election demands that the White House turn over potentially embarrassing documents relating to its handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans."

Holy Joe, who seems to believe he's the Most Important Person in the Senate, particularly because he's now best buddies with the President, doesn't seem to understand why he was elected by the people of Connecticut: to maintain his Democratic principles while working with the Administration, not for them.