Word: liebermanically
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...then there were some random acts of kindness. Lieberman widely credits the President for forging a more realistic foreign policy after years of what he derides as Democratic "pacifism" during the Bush era. And Lieberman shepherded Erroll Southers, Obama's pick to head the Transportation Security Administration, through a contentious committee vote, though Southers was eventually forced to withdraw for allegedly misleading Lieberman's committee about his personal history. Lieberman is doing all of this with an eye to his own political survival. With 25% approval ratings in Connecticut, he needs to woo moderate Democrats and independents...
...that doesn't mean the West Wing thinks of Lieberman as a sure thing. For months, he has pressured the White House to impose punitive sanctions on Iran. And in October, he threatened to filibuster the President's centerpiece health care measure if it included a public option. Though Obama had not favored that provision for months, Lieberman's move sent the left running for its pitchforks and cast him in the public eye as disloyal, despite his efforts for the President...
Most of the tension may never abate. While fellow Democrats in the Senate treat him much as they always have, he is a pariah to the fundraisers, liberal activists and netroots bloggers who have largely engineered the party's comeback since 2006. For his part, Lieberman accuses many of those same actors of "political tribalism" and calls their tactics "vituperative." But he admits that his defeat in a 2006 primary fight scarred him deeply and remains a source of pain. He has had virtually no contact with his state Democratic Party in nearly four years, and it's easy...
Friends say Lieberman is partly to blame for his isolation and that his fury about 2006 can still get the best of him. "He has a blind spot to his own continuing or lingering anger toward the left," says someone who knows him well. That makes him more confrontational than he needs to be, as in his strident threat to filibuster health care. "The old Clinton-era Joe would've said he really wanted to get health care done and was hopeful for a compromise," says one former adviser...
...that Obama's margin in the Senate is narrower, the White House can't afford to take offense. Besides, on gays in the military, Lieberman is true blue: he has opposed the 1993 ban since its inception and sees lifting it as part of the next act in his 50-year role in the civil rights movement. It is also a way to bring people on the outside in, something Lieberman knows more about now than ever before...