Not to piss folks off any further...

But a reader asked what the process would be for removing Lieberman as committee chair if he acts up and starts investigating Obama, starts endorsing Republicans again, etc. It's not pretty. Senator Bayh pretty much lied on TV the other night when he said they could just remove him. They can't just remove him. It would take a vote before the entire Senate, Republicans included, and they'd need 51 votes to remove him - but then, it could be filibustered, so they'd really need 60 votes to remove him. Fat chance.

One more thing. I do enjoy Lieberman and his allies spinning this entire affair as bloggers being "angry" and wanting irrational "revenge." As I mentioned yesterday, this is the poker "tell" at play again. No one exemplifies anger and revenge better than Joe Lieberman who chose to betray his own party in a fit of personal pique because he wasn't popular enough to win his own primary. It was Lieberman's anger and revenge that got us into this mess in the first place. Read More......

Get to work, Joe

As Adam writes, it's now time for Senator Lieberman to earn his stripes and help get Al Franken and Jim Martin elected to the Senate from Minnesota and Georgia. Read More......

BREAKING: Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens loses re-election bid

We're up to 58 seats in the Senate. Not that it really matters, they'll still cave when it counts. But still... AP:

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term. The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday's count. That's an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.

Stevens, who turned 85 Tuesday, also revealed that he will not ask President George W. Bush to give him a pardon for his seven felony convictions.

Oh, and as I wrote earlier, the comments function should be far easier now - you don't need to register, just click and comment. Read More......

How can we afford not to focus on health care? We can't.

Yesterday, Ted Kennedy returned to Capitol Hill and that means health care will be on the agenda:

The brief appearance by Kennedy, who made a surprise return in July to vote on a Medicare bill, represented an opportunity for him to show colleagues that he remains energetic and engaged, and that he intends to reclaim his committee post in January and take charge of the Obama health-care agenda. Some Democrats had speculated that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) would attempt to assume the chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) rolled out his own health-care bill days after Obama was elected, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also expects to be a leading participant in the effort to establish universal health care.

Kennedy has a head start on them all. Despite his illness, he directed his staff months ago to begin work on legislation that would vastly expand health coverage, a career-long goal of his.

Take charge, Ted.

And to push the health care agenda, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which has been a wonderful supporter of the blogosphere through their advertising, has a new ad:

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Begich lead grows to 2,374

ADN:

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich's lead over Sen. Ted Stevens is growing in today's ballot count in the race for U.S. Senate. The latest numbers, issued just before 1 p.m., show Begich up by 2,374 votes.

The Division of Elections expects to release more numbers between 4 and 5 p.m.

Today's count of about 24,000 absentee and questioned ballots should pretty much decide the race, although there will be a few more overseas absentees to count over the next couple days and a likely recount in early December.

Since the state moved to mostly machine counting, recent Alaska recounts have resulted in little change in the final tally.

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Cheney indicted

And his little dog too. Someone is so getting a pardon for Christmas. From AP:

A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.

The indictment criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies.

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Steny Hoyer: Don't expect us to be real Democrats

Today, Senate Democrats showed us that disloyalty and trashing the Democratic agenda have no consequences. Joe Lieberman was rewarded for his bad behavior.

Next up, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Using the coded language of the right wing, Hoyer said today that Democrats in Congress aren't really going to be Democrats:

As the House prepares to elect its leaders, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is challenging the idea that the expanded Democratic majority and its leaders will make a hard left turn.

“For the first time in decades, we are a true national majority party—and if we want to stay that way, we must govern like one,” Hoyer (D-Md.) is to say in a speech today at the National Press Club, according to excerpts of his remarks obtained by The Hill.

Hoyer did, in fact, deliver this speech today at the Press Club. But, he wanted the message out in advance that he'd be trashing the left, which is why his office gave it to The Hill in advance.

Hoyer, as usual, has it all wrong. If Democrats want to stay in power, they need to enact the agenda of change for which people voted. The Democrats need to actually lead, something Democrats often seem incapable of doing. Instead, too many Democrats, like Hoyer, undermine the progressive agenda every step of the way. The biggest problem we're going to have this year won't be from Republicans. One of their leaders, Eric Cantor, told the Washington Times the GOP is irrelevant:

"Where we have really fallen down is, we have lacked the ability to be relevant to people's lives. Let's set aside the last eight years, and our falling down in living up to expectations of what we said we were going to do," Mr. Cantor told The Washington Times in his district office outside of Richmond. "It's the relevancy question."

Cantor is right.

So, the biggest obstacles to change will be Democrats like Hoyer who will undermine the agenda that the American people think they're getting from President Obama. The corporate-backed Democrats prefer pablum and inaction. And, we've already seen that Senate Democrats are spineless. The Democrats on Capitol Hill are going to be their own worst enemies.

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Obama picks Eric Holder to be Attorney General

Obama has apparently chosen his Attorney General:

President-elect Obama has offered Eric Holder the position of attorney general, and Holder has accepted it, according to sources involved in the process. The formal announcement has been held up while Obama transition team members ran the idea past key senators. And Obama wanted to announce members of his financial team first -- Treasury Secretary and so on.

Holder is a former superior court judge and U.S. attorney in Washington and a former prosecutor in the Public Integrity section of the Justice Department. He was Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno, during which he was well regarded. At one point, he strongly considered running for mayor of Washington, D.C., but decided being the No. 2 official at Justice was too good to pass up.

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"This is about telling you that you mean nothing"

Jane Hamsher is right.

The Democrats have sent a clear message to all of you out there, to the entire blogosphere, but also to the larger Netroots (and that includes MoveOn, Media Matters and everyone else in the progressive online space). You don't matter to these people. They don't fear you, so they don't care what you think. Here's Jane:

Asked what it would mean if Lieberman kept his chairmanship, one Senate Democratic aide said bluntly: "The left has been foiled again. They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes. Their influence would be in question."

I hope this puts to rest the notion that this is all some master stroke of kumbayah, of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

This is about telling you that you mean nothing. That democracy is a nice word, but it should never threaten the entitlement of the most exclusive club in the world.

No matter what Joe Lieberman does, the people who are protecting him hate you much more than they hate him.

Jane is unfortunately right.

Look. Politics isn't about being liked. It's about being influential. It's about making a difference. But to have the ability to create change, you have to make the powers that be take notice of you. They need to either fear your ability to hurt them, or envy your ability to help them. The Netroots has entered envy territory, but the fear factor is lacking. As the Democratic aide quoted above said correctly, we don't put enough fear into the Democratic party. They either don't think we have the power to hurt them, or they don't think we'll ever use it against them.

Joe Lieberman knows what pushes the Democrats' buttons. He knew that the only way to get their attention, to gain their respect, to get them groveling on their knees, was to beat the living crap out of their candidates viciously and publicly, and then threaten to join the Republicans if the Dems didn't reward him for his betrayal.

Quite simply put: We're too nice. Which is ironic, considering our reputation. The Democrats still think that we're angry children, typing away in our basements, who don't know a lick about politics. And while some bloggers might have been newcomers to politics years back, they aren't new any more. Jane Hamsher at FireDogLake has built a massive email list with massive fundraising capabilities that she's already proven. Cross Jane at your own peril. Markos has a huge online machine at his disposal, and over the past 7 years has learned to wield his influence deftly. And I like to think that Joe and I, among others, know a thing or two about getting the media's attention as well.

The Democratic party, the Democratic establishment, doesn't like you. They want you to go away. That is, until the next time they need you.

They rarely show us any support, but they always want our help when things start going sour. You may have noticed, over the past six months, a dearth of election-oriented ads on our site from the party organs and the various campaigns who begged us, and continue to beg, for help. You may have noticed that, save SEIU and a handful of others, far too few non-profit advocacy groups ever bother supporting the blogosphere through advertising. We hear cute little excuses about click-through rates and limited ad budgets, when the point in those groups advertising on the blogs shouldn't be about whether or not the ad itself is effective. It's about showing your support for a movement you are all too willing to exploit when you need us. But when we need you, where are you?

We need ongoing advertising revenue. This is our job. A huge recession is coming down on all of our heads. But that thought never enters anyone's minds when they beg us incessantly to use our hard work to help them do THEIR job. It's a one-way street in this town because we let them make it a one-way street.

And for that matter, has anyone ever gotten a single ad from Rachel Maddow's or Keith Olbermann's shows? How about Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert? We all think of their shows as "friends," and we always help them out when we can. But when it comes to helping us out? Nothing.

We are envied, but we're not feared. The DC establishment, the politicians, the non-profits, the corporations and the PR firms, all know that no matter how much they ignore us and refuse to support us, no matter how deeply they betray us after we bust our asses for them, we will always be there for them the next time they come knocking on behalf of the progressive cause.

I think that gravy train just stopped. Read More......

Wall Street pointing towards new lows before end of year

And yet Wall Street still can't decide whether they will hand out bonuses or not. It's incredible to observe this episode of greed and excess. We have a major problem as a country when we so readily reward failure. Let them earn their money just like everyone else and if they don't like it, tough.

"The price target for this year is still 6,700, so that's a lot of downside potential," Akker told "Squawk Box Europe."

Charts of the Dow show the "completion of a bearish pattern," which is "suggesting the same accelerated down move as back in October," Akker said.

The Dow [.DJIA 8273.58 --- UNCH (0) ] lost over 13 percent of its value in October. It closed at 8,273.58 on Monday, which is over 1,500 points higher than Akker's prediction for the year.

If the Dow closes below 8,175 then the next level of support for the index will be between 7,450 and 7,200, which were the October lows of 2002 and 2003, Akker said.

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The Energizer Bunny of bitter

Marilyn Musgrave, crazy ass anti-gay bigot, author of the Federal Marriage Amendment in the House for years, number one religious right ally, and big big big loser as of two weeks ago, STILL hasn't conceded:

Two weeks after the brutal loss, Musgrave still hasn’t called her opponent to concede or to congratulate the victor, as is not only textbook but also mannerly to do.

Moreover, Musgrave’s ill manners bleed into her own team. Rumor has it she still — 14 days later — hasn’t even thanked her campaign staff. (Again, textbook.)

Meeeeow. Not very Christian, Marilyn. Read More......

Senate Dems vote to let Lieberman keep chair

NOTE: The comments fizzled out, right when you wanted to let loose about Lieberman. They should be back now, give them a try: Comment Here.

Disgusting.

"Some of the things people have said I said of Senator Obama are simply not true."

Lying weasel to the end.

Maybe we don't need those extra Senate seats in Alaska, Minnesota and Georgia. I mean, I'd love for Begich, Franken and Martin to win, but what's the point? Why bust our asses for these guys, for the party, when people like LIeberman, who actually campaigned AGAINST some of these guys, are rewarded for their betrayal? It's becoming increasingly clear that the current crop of Democrats are genetically incapable of showing, or growing, a spine. The only way to get anything in this party is to publicly betray the party, to beat the living crap out of them, to stick the knife in deep and twist. Lesson duly noted.

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Bush's pardons

I was reading an article about how the Obama administration likely won't prosecute Bush officials who authorized torture, and it got me thinking more generally about Bush's pardons. They're coming, and they're gonna be nasty. Cheney and Rumsfeld are guaranteed. Anyone and everyone involved in the torture fiasco too. Other likely candidates: Karl Rove and Ted Stevens. I can pretty much guarantee Ted Stevens is on the list (just a hunch). (Which raises the question of whether he can be expelled from the Senate for a crime he's no longer convicted of.) Mark Foley is a tougher call. And then there's Abramoff. The last two would cause even Bush some heartburn, but don't think they're not being considered. Oh, and let's not forget about Tom Delay. Can you think of any others? I've toggled the settings and made it easier to leave a comment - you shouldn't have to register - try it and see by clicking here: Leave a Comment.

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$7 million book deal for Palin?

Seven million dollars? For what? When I heard this reported on the news this morning, I didn't quite believe it. But, then again, prominent GOP lesbian Mary Cheney got $1 million for a book about nothing that nobody bought. So, this is one of those inside deals, probably aided by some GOPer in the publishing business, to make Palin rich enough that she can run for president without having anyone else buy her clothes:

Sarah Palin has garnered more than fame from her failed Vice-Presidential bid. She is reportedly close to making a book deal for $7 million.

"Bill Clinton made over $10 million for his deal seven years ago," a publishing insider told Radar. "That was more than any other former President."

Palin offers more than just a political memoir with flashes of sexual mea culpa.

"She has huge appeal to a segment of the female reading public, and her private life hasn't been an open book," our source told us. "Not yet."

The book would be crafted with a ghost-writer and the goal will be to get it in stores in time for Christmas of next year.

Her private life? Ick. We know enough already. Seven million dollars for what?

I can forgive John McCain for a lot of his campaign rhetoric. But, I don't think I'll ever forgive him for inflicting Palin on us. Read More......

4 milllion expected in DC for Obama's inauguration

Barack Obama's inauguration will be the biggest event ever held in Washington, by far. Four million people are expected. Four million. That's more than one percent of the entire population:

District and federal officials are preparing for as many as 4 million people for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, a crowd that would be three or four times larger than previous big events on the Mall.

Only a fraction of those people will be close enough to get a good look at the action. But officials are planning extra JumboTrons at the Mall and along the inaugural parade route so that spectators can feel a part of the historic day.

"The Mall actually may be the best seat in the house. . . . It'll kind of be like the world's biggest stage and auditorium on January 20th," said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), adding that the crowd projections have emerged in briefings conducted by federal and local officials.

This city is going to be crazy, in a good way. I never thought I'd see people dancing in the streets here, but that's what happened on Election night after Obama won. And, this assessment is probably accurate:

Farouk El-Baz, a Boston University expert who analyzed the crowd size, estimated that the entire two-mile stretch is so open that it could hold 3 million people.

"There should be no concern about the number of people. Particularly since this one will be a celebratory gathering. People will be up. They will be pleasant to each other," El-Baz said.

Yes, they will.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Today, the Senate Democrats meet for the first time since the election. On their agenda is the Lieberman situation. Seems like Joe has learned well from his Republican colleagues. He's trashed the president-elect and worked against Democratic Senate candidates. For that, he'll be rewarded. He's called the Democrats bluff. This is, of course, instructive for the small GOP caucus. They now know that the Democrats in the Senate are all talk, no action. Not a good signal to send. But, that's what Democrats do. They cave. Pathetic.

What's Joe Lieberman doing to help Al Franken in the recount? Lieberman helped Coleman during the election. What's Joe Lieberman doing to help Jim Martin in the Georgia runoff?

It's just irritating.

Let's get started.... Read More......

Dutch insurer wants bailout cash to grow their business

Give me a break. What started as a necessity to keep US institutions afloat during troubled times is rapidly becoming a free for all as the corporate world filters through the legal details in order to game the system. In this instance, Aegon has already received billions from the Dutch government and now has plans to buy a US bank so they can rake in even more. What's even more annoying is that Aegon is doing this not because they are experiencing financial problems but because they want to expand. So US taxpayers have the honor of funding Aegon's business growth strategy.

Congress really needs to put the brakes on here and redefine the rescue plan. If we leave it up to Paulson, Wall Street will be wading through billions in bonuses and business will be expanding into the "too big to fail" category on the taxpayers dollar. There is a complete lack of control over this process and before Bailout II moves, Bailout I needs to prove that it is targeting the initial goal of preventing massive failure and not funding normal business growth. Read More......

Where does Wall Street stand on bonuses?

Again, it's shocking that we have not yet heard across the board decisions to stop bonuses for 2008, but after all, this is Wall Street we're talking about. They received a lifeline courtesy of taxpayers and without the cash or cheap (free, really) loans they would have gone under and been left with nothing. But no, Wall Street is still trying to make up its mind. They're still not sure whether they ought to be shoveling out bonuses or not, as if nothing has happened.

Maybe they needed to see a few more Lehman Brothers or maybe we just need a few more Andrew Cuomos out there. Wall Street will gladly accept a few ego-bashing sessions in front of Waxman and the nightly news TV cameras if they can still keep the cash. It's those pesky legal letters from Cuomo that seem to cause the real pain, so in other words, send more of them. Public humiliation doesn't register with Wall Street but subpoenas do. Read More......

DHS to "enhance" visa waiver program and make travel even more miserable

And when they say "enhance" they really mean "completely screw up". Starting on 12 January the US will require overseas travelers from the "Visa Waiver Program" countries (such as Western Europe, for example) to fill out some sort of online pre-screening document as seen here. This will no doubt be a quick and easy process, making travel from the "Visa Waiver Program" countries not quite a Visa Waiver Program but a visa-by-another-name program. Anyone who thinks the kind gesture will not be returned, forcing Americans to prepare the same kind of documentation with the same head numbing problems is kidding themselves.

In practical terms, imagine the fun of adding this process to your travel planning. Especially in work situations, think about the enjoyable moments as you book and then submit and then wait for confirmation. This is going to be wonderful fun when you have an urgent business trip or family emergency and I'm sure that the DHS will be speedy since they've never been know to have problems. Just imagine the delight of traveling with family (heck, even yourself) and looking for that pre-screening code that you jotted down after an eight or ten hour flight. It's in your bags somewhere and surely it won't cause any further delay upon landing and going through passport control. How will you buy a ticket with this addition? Will it be refunded if there's a delay due to DHS incompetence? The imaginable disruptions are unlimited.

Whatever idiot thought up this "enhancement" has hopefully already found another job and will be gone by 20 January though it's going to take a while to undo this stunningly stupid change. Read More......

Prop 8 supporters threaten "revolution" if we don't let them inflict their religious beliefs on others

Not very Christian.

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Newt Gingrich thinks his gay sister is a fascist. But I'm sure she thinks the same of her brother, and she'd be right.

Here we go again, with Republicans accusing us of being them. I noticed a good ten years ago or so something odd about Republicans. They would do something nasty, and then turn around and accuse Democrats of doing it first - when we were doing nothing of the kind. A reader pointed out to me a while back that this, in poker, is called a "tell." It's like a subconscious tic that gives away what the person is really thinking.

Well, the latest nervous tic to cross our radar is from none other than discredited former conservative Republican leader Newt Gingrich. Newt thinks gay people are fascists and are hell bent on taking over the world. (Methinks Newt still may have some unresolved issues from having a lesbian sister. Lord knows she must have some issues having a neanderthal brother.) Well, Newt now thinks gays are fascists - he used the word - because they are publicly holding rallies to oppose the passage of Prop 8 in California. You'll recall that Prop 8 was the proposition that the Mormons and the religious right used to overturn a civil rights decision of the California Supreme Court, ripping the right of marriage away from gay couples.

Here's Newt:

Discussing actions by individual protesters of Proposition 8, Newt Gingrich stated: "I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion."

So let's revisit. You're apparently not a fascist if you use the frenzied anger of the majority to get the government to take away the judicially-recognized civil rights of a discriminated-against minority, but you are a fascist if you're a member of the powerless minority who exercises their Democratic right to publicly rally and exercise free speech.

But it makes sense, if you think of the poker "tell." If you were a member of a political party that believed that the only "real" Americans were southern, white, conservative, Baptist men (sorry, Mormons), then it would make sense to use the mindless popular will of the majority to take rights away from the minority. And when the minority tried to stand up to defend itself, knowing that the minority is per se sub-human under this line of thinking, the minority is naturally being uppity, or the more modern phrase, "fascist."

Gingrich is actually using a religious right trick, in which they beat up on minorities, and then when the minorities fight back the victims are accused of being "intolerant of intolerance." The Mormons have played this card of late as well, trying to portray themselves as some sot of "victim" of "religious bigotry" after they spent $20 million ripping away the civil rights of gay men and lesbians in California in an effort to jam Mormon values down the throats of Christians, Jews and others.

But I'm sure it's not religious bigotry when the Mormons forcibly convert dead Holocaust victims to Mormonism against the wishes of the victims' families. It's only religious bigotry when Jews demand Mormons stop violating their dead. Yeah, right. Read More......