Meet the New Era of Bipartisanship and Unity, Same As the Old Era of Bipartisanship and Unity

Longest blog title ever. I know. Cool. We'll have to see if the whole thing comes out in the URL.

2008 will long be remembered as the year in which we set aside partisan bickering and attacks and came together in a spirit of unity and consensus. Kumbaya. Yeah right. (Warning: the following blog post contains graphic partisan bickering and brief depictions of snarkiness. Viewer discretion is advised.)

As you may or may not be aware, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut that caucuses with the Democrats (and indeed, was the Democrat's nominee for VP back in 2000) endorsed John McCain for president in 2008. He is also the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and of the Governmental Affairs Committee in the Senate. Now that the election is over, some are calling for him to be removed from his chairmanship. They don't even pretend it's about qualifications or past job performance. It's about his endorsement. "To reward Senator Lieberman with a major committee chairmanship would be a slap in the face of millions of Americans who worked tirelessly for Barack Obama and who want to see real change in our country. " Uh-huh. This, dear reader, is the danger of campaigning on "change" without really saying what it is you're going to change: people will use the buzzword as an excuse to justify their own agenda.

So let me get this straight. "Bipartisanship" is a good thing, as long as it means someone from the other party is going along with your idea. If it goes in the other direction, it goes by a different name: "betrayal." "Undermining the party." The above article approves a suggestion that Lieberman be "allowed" to continue caucusing with the Democrats, but to be stripped of his chairmanships. Isn't that gracious? We'll let him continue eating lunch with us along with the rest of the little people. I know. That's what makes us so nice. (What's that? You say alienating Lieberman might make us lose our filibuster-proof majority? Huh. Who knew.) Remind me, why didn't we bring this up when he first made the endorsement, rather than now when the elections are over? And why did we get so angry with Alberto Gonzales for firing those prosecutors?

Unity: what happens when everyone agrees to let me do what I want.

Politics as usual, and rather petty at that.

Ben Franklin's character in the movie 1776 had it right when he stated: "Treason is a charge used by winners as an excuse for hanging the losers." (Adams: "I have better things to do than stand here listening to you quote yourself." Franklin: "Oh, that was a new one!")