 |
Every media outlet in the country is talking about Senator Joe Lieberman.
There’s so much to say about his obsessive cultivation of the spotlight, but we will leave it to Colin McEnroe:
Lieberman has long known how to be Mr. Relevant. He may have stumbled accidentally on the formula through his old habit of relfection-bordering-on-dithering, but by the time of the Clarence Thomas nomination, he understood there are two ways to dominate a public issue cycle. Be the first. (Less likely in his case, but it worked well in the Bill Clinton imbroglio.) Or, more commonly, be the last. In the Senate, the last pony in the barn often gets the hay set up just the way he likes it. Being last has other advantages. You can, if you like, argue one way (i.e., in favor of Thomas) and then vote the other way (because you’ve counted noses and ensured that your vote won’t affect the outcome). You can also vote with the right on the dispostive issue of cloture in the case of Alito and still tell the reproductive rights voting bloc back home that you voted against that nasty man.
Unfortunately for fine efforts like this, unearthing proof that Lieberman has reversed one of his positions is sort of like discovering footage of Kareem Abdul Jabbar dunking. Yeah? What else ya got?
