Open Letter to Chris Dodd

Dear Senator Dodd,

I am writing concerning the fate of Mr LIEberman(I) in the new Congress. This is not a time for all the warm fuzzy friendship notes, it's a time to protect our new president from the kind of attacks that Mr LIEberman can make from the Chair of the Homeland Security Committee. (I apologize if I've said that wrong - I'm just one of the "dirty hippies" who keep pushing for the restoration of our constitution)

I think President Obama will have enough people trying to harm him, block our efforts at restoring checks and balances, and keep us from having a transparent government.

Joe LIEberman has built the Department of Homeland Security into a bloated, ineffectual taxpayer-funded behemoth. He has ignored (or maybe even fostered) the waste, graft, greed and cronyism that have been the hallmark of W's reign.


From Firedoglake:

One point I think needs to be made. This isn't about Joe Lieberman maintaining membership in a country club as a matter of feel-good "bipartisanship." There's actually a job that needs doing here, and when Chris Dodd and Evan Bayh say that they want Lieberman to retain his chairmanship, they are saying that the extraordinary waste, graft, greed and cronyism that have built the Department of Homeland Security to a bloated, ineffectual taxpayer-funded behemoth under Joe Lieberman is just fine.

Here's Naomi Klein from the Shock Doctrine:

In just a few years, the homeland security industry, which barely existed before 9/11, has exploded to a size that is now significantly larger than either Hollywood or the music business. Yet what is most striking is how little the security boom is analyzed and discussed as an economy, as an unprecedented convergence of unchecked police powers and unchecked capitalism, a merger of the shopping mall and the secret prison.

No-bid contracts kept from public scrutiny in the name of "national security" have built a department of unprecedented waste and theft, all rubber stamped and protected from Senate investigation by Joe Lieberman's chairmanship. And what has it gotten us? Nothing. Basically, the Department of Homeland Security became just another front for the military industrial complex to feed off American taxpayers while neocons like Lieberman screamed "terror terror terror, just trust us."

The FY 2009 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security is $50.5 billion, a 6.8% increase over 2008.

What Bayh and Dodd are saying is that they like Joe so much that this is a small price to pay, that the status quo is just fine and that there is no real need for change.

I wonder if taxpayers agree that $50.5 billion is chump change so long everyone can still sing kumbaya on the Senate floor?

I certainly don't agree.

It's time to cut LIEberman, who has done the United States SO much harm, off from the assumption of good intentions, and hold him responsible for his actions of the last 15 years. He has wounded this Democratic party so many times it's like death from the 1,000 cuts. (He's even calling us the "Democrat Party" now - fer crumb sake!) He slandered and lied about Obama continuously for the last two years, and contributed to the bashing of progressives and liberals with glee. His unashamed push for draconian and violent policy in the mideast goes far beyond what even the majority of Israelis want for their arena.

Give him something in Education or Energy or Housing - just keep him the hell away from Defense, Women's Rights, or Oversight of our new president, or he will obstruct, slander, and coverup for the Republicans with all his might for the next four years(until we can vote him out).

Steve Benen says:

This seems to be routinely overlooked, but take a moment to consider what the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs actually does: it's the committee principally responsible for oversight of the executive branch. It's an accountability committee, charged with investigating the conduct of the White House and the president's administration. As chairman of this committee for the last two years, Lieberman decided not to pursue any accusations of wrongdoing against the Bush administration.

If you continue to cover for him, I will have to conclude that you are not serious about restoring our constitution and are just as corrupt as the one you are defending. Your next election is coming up soon, and you can convert me right here from an ardent supporter into one who stays home on election day. It's your choice right now, but my choice in 2010.

Thank you for listening
SB Gypsy