and that is John McCain:
Look, Joe Lieberman is an obnoxious talking cyst infecting the politics of America. I think that Ezra Klein had it exactly correct when he said earlier today that:
At this point, Lieberman seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals. That is to say, he seems willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score.
We almost defeated this little prick in 2006 but he survived and now if a policy has progressives support, he will do his best to kill it. Worst of all, it seems that there is very little that we can do to him if Democrats are unwilling to kick him out of the Caucus.
But, we can take away what he loves: John McCain.
Let’s jump...
John McCain is coming under a lot of Teabagger pressure. He is in their sights and they hope to primary him with J.D. Hayworth, a former conservative Congressman who was one of Jack Abramoff’s Congressmen in his pocket. McCain should be able to take Hayworth out by releasing some of the 750,000 pages of Abramoff documents he suppressed as part his cover-up of the Abramoff scandal. There should be plenty in there that ties Abramoff and Hayworth together. But, I suspect that most Teabaggers will overlook those scandal details in a Republican Primary, especially if they think that McCain is the chosen candidate of liberals, progressives and DFHs everywhere.
And that is how we can take away what Lieberman loves.
All we have to do is support John McCain as the choice of liberals, progressives and DFHs in the Arizona Republican Primary in 2010. We write glowing articles about how McCain will help with environmental issues. We point to the work he did with campaign finance reform and Russ Feingold. We talk about how he has to say tough things about President Obama just to get through the primary, but that once he is re-elected we can count on McCain to pass a progressive agenda. We point out how McCain will help us pass immigration reform with a pathway to Citizenship for undocumented workers.
In short, we make it clear that it is a goal of liberals, progressives and DFHs everywhere that John McCain wins the Republican Primary for Senate in Arizonia.
Of course, the more we support McCain, the greater trouble he will be in. The more we extol his liberal, progressive values the more that the Teabaggers will put him in their sights and go after him. The more we sing the praises of John McCain, the more we ensure his defeat.
Progressives in Arizona can run an "Operation Chaos" of their own. We should be able to skew the results of McCain’s primary. Some can sign on with the Teabaggers, some with McCain’s campaign and help to mix things up. We could organize rallies for McCain with crowds of liberals, progressives and DFHs singing his praises and daring the Teabaggers to take him on.
Once folks start to think that liberals, progressives and DFHs want McCain to win, he will be doomed (and Hayworth will be a very weak scandal plagued General Election candidate, especially if Democrats have a decent person in the race) .
And when McCain is defeated in the GOP Primary in Arizona, we will know that we help to take away from Lieberman the only thing that he loves: John McCain.
Cheers