I said one sentence:
"I would like to ask the Senator to vote against allowing Joe Lieberman to retain his chairmanship of Homeland Security."
Each staffer who answered thanked me and told me they would tell the Senator. Then I said, "Thank you!" That was it. It took 30 seconds and couldn't have been easier.
Tomorrow is the last day that call can be made because the caucus votes on Tuesday. The purpose of this diary is to move those of you who haven't already called your Dem Senators, no you don't have to call every Dem Senator in the Senate the way I did, to make that call and ask that Lieberman not be allowed to retain his Homeland Security Chairmanship.
There have been alot of great diaries on the subject of Lieberman. I wish I could reprint them all here for you but this diary would then definately be too long. What I will do is answer some questions as succinctly as possible that have been raised and addressed in those diaries for those of you who are still question whether you should make that call. I will also reference some of those other diaries when applicable in case you want an indepth analysis of the particular subject.
(more below the fold with Senator's contact info.)
Q. If we cut Lieberman out of the caucus won't we be unable to break filibusters because we won’t have 60 votes?
These are the 2 greatest myths perpetuated by Lieberman apologists.
First of all, we are not asking that Lieberman be thrown out of the caucus. You can see that by the request I made to the senate staffers who answered the phone. We are asking that he be removed from his chairmanship of the committee of Homeland Security. Lieberman will be completely welcome to continue caucusing with democrats as he has always done.
Secondly, keep in mind that filibusters and cloture votes are not about how many seats you have, it’s about how many votes you can come up with. In fact, of the 110 cloture votes that took place in the last Congress , only 3 saw no crossover voting. See Kagro X’s excellent diary, which can be found at www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/13/235449/32
Q. But didn't Obama say he didn’t want us to punish Lieberman?
No, what Obama said was that he did not want Lieberman to leave the dem caucus and that he hoped that a compromise could be reached. That was a subtle way of saying take away Lieberman’s chairmanship but don’t throw him out of the caucus. In fact, when Lieberman tried to call Obama to congratulate him on his victory, he wouldn’t take Lieberman’s call. (See Kos’ excellent diary on this which can be found at http://www.dailykos.com/...
Q. What does the Homeland Security committee do anyway?
It investigates the Executive branch. So Lieberman would be in charge of investigating Obama and the rest of the administration. That's keeping your enemy a way too close. Of course when Bush was President, Joe chose to not investigate the administration. Like about Katrina, for example. Or anything else.
Q. If Lieberman is mad at us won’t he refuse to vote with us when he otherwise would have?
In the last Congress, when Lieberman was chairman of Homeland Security and a member of the dem caucus, he parted ways with us 15 times out of 110 times on some of the issues most important to us. Examples: habeas corpus, FISA, a judicial nomination and the "no confidence" vote on Alberto Gonzalez. What makes you think he is going to change his mind now? And what has he done in the last year to make you think we can trust him? And to quote Kagro X, "if you believe that, what the hell are you doing advocating keeping him in charge of anything at all, much less the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee?"
For a more in-depth analysis of this point please read Kagro X’s excellent diary, which can be found at www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/13/235449/32, in which he also points out that Lieberman actively campaigned for republicans Norm Coleman and Susan Colllins.
Q. But, aren’t we then punishing Connecticut? And we like Connecrticut!
Yes, we like Connecticut. But it had the opportunity to elect a Democrat, Ned Lamont, and instead chose to elect Lieberman, an Independent. And still, we are not kicking Lieberman out of the caucus. And they still have Chris Dodd.
Q. Well, Evan Bayh said on Rachel Maddow that if Lieberman does anything bad again we can take away his chairmanship at any time. So why don’t we just wait to see what he does? And he also said that Lieberman would say that he was sorry.
The former statement is untrue. In order for Lieberman to be removed from his chairmanship there would have to be a vote of the full Senate which can be filibustered. Andn at that point, Joe and the Repugs would start screaming bloody murder, that the dems were trying to take away poor Joe’s chairmanship away when he was just trying to vote his conscience and weren’t mean Obama and the Dems liars when they talked about crossing over the aisle."And, so what if he apologises behind closed doors to the caucus. Talk is cheap. For a more in-depth analysis of this point please see My Philosphy’s wonderful diary "The Lying Eyes of Evan Bayh" which can be found at http://www.dailykos.com/... and Mahoney’s letter to Bayh found at http://www.dailykos.com/...
Finally, a reminder of what Joe did to upset all of us so much. See Kos’ highlights reel where you can find visual proof of Lieberman hanging himself which can be found at http://www.dailykos.com/... . If you need even another reminder as to why this Lieberman needs to at least be removed from his chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee read Jane Hamsher's brief and excellent article at tinyurl.com/NO2JOE.
Senate Democratic Steering Committee phone numbers (who you should call right after your dem Senators if you still want to make more calls):
Senator Debbie Stabenow, Michigan, Chair 202-224-4822
Senator Harry Reid, Nevada 202-224-3542
Senator John Kerry, Massachusetts 202-224-2742
Senator Daniel Inouye, Hawaii 202-224-3934
Senator Robert Byrd, West Virginia 202-224-3954
Senator Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts 202-224-4543
Senator Joseph Biden, Delaware 202-224-5042
Senator Patrick Leahy, Vermont 202-224-4242
Senator Christopher Dodd, Connecticut 202-224-2823
Senator Tom Harkin, Iowa 202-224-3254
Senator Max Baucus, Montana 202-224-2651
Senator Richard Durbin, Illinois 202-224-2152
Senator Kent Conrad, North Dakota 202-224-2043
Senator Carl Levin, Michigan 202-224-6221
Senator Herbert Kohl, Wisconsin 202-224-5653
Senator Barbara Boxer, California 202-224-3553
Senator Hillary Clinton, New York 202-224-4451
Senator Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico 202-224-5521
Senator Mark Pryor, Arkansas 202-224-2353
Senate phone numbers
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) 202-224-4843
Mark L. Pryor (D-AR) 202-224-2353
Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 202-224-3553
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841
Ken Salazar (D-CO) 202-224-5852
Mark Udall (D-CO) 303-820-2008
Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) 202-224-2823
Joseph I. Lieberman (ID-CT) 202-224-4041
Joseph R. Biden (D-DE) 202-224-5042
Thomas R. Carper (D-DE) 202-224-2441
Bill Nelson (D-FL) 202-224-5274
Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) 202-224-6361
Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) 202-224-3934
Tom Harkin (D-IA) 202-224-3254
Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) 202-224-2152
Barack Obama (D-IL) 202-224-2854
Evan Bayh (D-IN) 202-224-5623
Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA) 202-224-5824
Edward M. Kennedy(D-MA) 202-224-4543
John F. Kerry (D-MA) 202-224-2742
Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) 202-224-4524
Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) 202-224-4654
Carl Levin (D-MI) 202-224-6221
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) 202-224-4822
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 202-224-3244
Claire McCaskill(D-MO) 202-224-6154
Max Baucus (D-MT) 202-224-2651
Jon Tester (D-MT) 202-224-2644
Kay Hagan (D-NC) 336-617-7416
Kent Conrad (D-ND) 202-224-2043
Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) 202-224-2551
Benjamin Nelson (D-NE) 202-224-6551
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) 603-647-2008
Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) 202-224-3224
Robert Menendez (D-NJ) 202-224-4744
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) 202-224-5521
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Harry Reid (D-NV) 202-224-3542
Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) 202-224-4451
Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) 202-224-6542
Sherrod Brown (D-OH) 202-224-2315
Jeff Merkley (D-OR) 503-274-4439
Ron Wyden (D-OR) 202-224-5244
Robert P. Case (D-PA) 202-224-6324
Jack Reed (D-RI) 202-224-4642
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) 202-224-2921
Tim Johnson (D-SD) 202-224-5842
Jim Webb (D-VA) 202-224-4024
Mark Warner (D-VA) 703-740-5100
Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) 202-224-4242
Bernard Sanders (I-VT) 202-224-5141
Maria Cantwell (D-WA) 202-224-3441
Patty Murray (D-WA) 202-224-2621
Russell D. Feingold (D-WI) 202-224-5323
Herb Kohl (D-WI) 202-224-5653
Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) 202-224-3954
We have a mandate! Now let's act like it!