Here’s the thing about Joe Lieberman that I keep coming back to. Well, there are a few things about Joe Lieberman, and I will do my best to say them, be done, and never mention them again.

Joe Lieberman did not ‘earn’ the committee chair position he currently holds, he bargained for it. Joe Lieberman got primaried out in 2006 because he no longer represented his constituency. Joe Lieberman is no longer in the Democratic Party. Joe Lieberman was needed in the Democratic Party caucus from 2006 through 2008 in order to secure majority control of committees. The party with majority control gets more staff, more offices, and the ability to determine the course of the bills in the Senate: what they’re about and whether they ever move out of Committees to the floor for a vote at all. This was, obviously a valuable contribution that Joe Lieberman could make to the Democratic Party, this shift to majority control, and it is (1) why he was needed in the caucus and (2) why he was able to barter for an important committee chair position in return.

The democrats do not need Joe Lieberman anymore. They do not need him for majority control, as they have a clean majority without any independents caucusing with them, although I recommend they keep Bernie Saunders because he’s a respectable human being more in line with the party platform. I will not be the first to assert that the line about Joe being with the dems 90% of the time is just that, a line of bull, nor will I be the first to point out that the 10% divergence rather markedly coincides with the topic of the committee he currently chairs. Beyond pedantic arguments about which of his votes are or are not in line with the party, he actively campaigned against a fellow Democratic senator as the candidate for President chosen by the party he caucuses with. It seems like the most basic function of a Democrat (even a self-described pale shadow of a former one like Joe Lieberman) would be to support the party’s candidates, if not in all state-level and national races, at the very least in the instance of the presidency.

Which brings me to the summation: (1) Joe Lieberman is no longer needed in the caucus, (2) his chair position was payment for keeping him in the caucus when he was needed, and (3) he is totally off the ranch and is no longer a Democrat in either form or substance. Which means his committee chair position can be given to someone else, he can stay or go, and we can close this sorry chapter in American political life. Frankly, I don’t really get what the problem is. Are the Democrats afraid to acknowledge that they bartered with Joe to gain control of Congress? Do they think their voters will shun them for demonstrating a pragmatic grasp of the workings of government and accurately assessing the cost of the greater of two evils — continued control of the Senate by Republicans with a Republican president — and choosing the lesser? I don’t think so. I think that the country has pretty much agreed they’d rather have the Democrats running things, and they accept the reality of what has been done. Up until now. Now, they are looking to see that the Democrats are not, for lack of a less sexist term, wusses. They want to see that the Democrats are able to make a second, arguably more important, pragmatic choice and take away the chair position from Joe Lieberman now that they no longer need him. It is not the responsibility of the Senate Democrats to prolong Joe Lieberman’s political career for as long as humanly possible while he does his best to tank it.

Everyone except Joe Lieberman seems to understand that the Democrats no longer need him, which makes his positioning a bluff, a situation which I am again not the first person to characterize in this manner. It is in Joe’s best interest to remain in the caucus, and he will likely not walk away from it. Which doesn’t matter and solely affects him and his own career because (I can’t emphasize this enough) the Democrats no longer need him. Offer him another less important chair position, one where he maybe, I don’t know, actually holds Democratic Party opinions with regard to the topic area. If he doesn’t take it, he doesn’t take it. Oh well.

I hear that other old increasingly out of touch Senators feel for Joe and fear that his fate will be theirs, too. Maybe. Probably it won’t help their cause to take Joe’s side on this, though. If they are looking for a way to show their goodwill toward fellow long-term Senators outside their party, I recommend lobbying for Dick Lugar to get a cabinet position. Joe is a sinking ship, my friends. Reassign his chair position, give him his choice about remaining in the caucus, and let him be the architect of his own fate. Seriously, this is way past overdone and requires some actual senate leadership, Mr. Reid. Get it done, and deal with your personal feelings on your own time.