Sen. Leahy on Lieberman: No Plum Chairmanships

At last, a congress critter with some cojones:

We now have our first Dem Senator who has come on the record and called for Joe Lieberman to be booted from his plum spot on the Homeland Security committee.

In an interview with Vermont Public Radio today, Senator Patrick Leahy left no doubt whatsoever: He believes Lieberman should be given the push.

“Every Senator will have to vote the way he or she believes they should,” Leahy said, in a reference to the upcoming vote on Lieberman’s fate in the Dem caucus next week. “I’m one who does not feel that somebody should be rewarded with a major chairmanship after doing what he did.”

“I felt some of the attacks that he was involved in against Senator Obama…went way beyond the pale,” Leahy continued. “I thought they were not fair, I thought they were not legitimate, I thought they perpetuated some of these horrible myths that were being run about Senator Obama.”

“I would feel that had I done something similar,” Leahy concluded, “that I would not be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress.”

Lieberman is taking a hit in his home state as a result of his antics:

… a Research 2000 poll for Daily Kos asked Connecticut voters for their opinions on their independent senator. Lieberman’s approval ratings have dropped to an embarrassing 36% among his own constituents, and a 48% plurality want to vote against him in the next election. That number grows if Lieberman loses his committee chairmanship and begins caucusing with the Republican Party.

Here’s Rachel Maddow on why keeping Sen. Lieberman as chair of Homeland Security is lose-lose for the Democrats:

Via Jane Hamsher.

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Tags: Joe Lieberman, Patrick Leahy

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