Goodbye to a Guy Named Joe
By GAIL COLLINS
NYT
On Wednesday, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced that he won’t be a candidate for re-election in 2012. Normally people look particularly appealing when they’re promising to go away. This time, not so much.
“I can’t help but also think about my four grandparents and the journey they traveled more than a century ago,” he said in his speech. “Even they could not have dreamed that their grandson would end up a United States senator and, incidentally, a barrier-breaking candidate for vice president.”
Lieberman has reached a point in his public career when every single thing he does, including talking about his grandparents, is irritating. Last month, when he helped lead the fight for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” some people seemed more than a tad resentful at having to give up complaining about him for the duration of the debate. “Of course, he wants gay people in the military,” wrote Alex Pareene at Salon.com, “He wants everyone in the military.”
Plus, he isn’t really leaving. He’s got two years of his term left, during which he will be looking for “new opportunities that will allow me to serve my country.” Do you think that means something involving a large salary and a chance to make multitudinous TV appearances, or a Peace Corps stint in Burkina Faso? Let me see hands.
(More here.)
NYT
On Wednesday, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced that he won’t be a candidate for re-election in 2012. Normally people look particularly appealing when they’re promising to go away. This time, not so much.
“I can’t help but also think about my four grandparents and the journey they traveled more than a century ago,” he said in his speech. “Even they could not have dreamed that their grandson would end up a United States senator and, incidentally, a barrier-breaking candidate for vice president.”
Lieberman has reached a point in his public career when every single thing he does, including talking about his grandparents, is irritating. Last month, when he helped lead the fight for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” some people seemed more than a tad resentful at having to give up complaining about him for the duration of the debate. “Of course, he wants gay people in the military,” wrote Alex Pareene at Salon.com, “He wants everyone in the military.”
Plus, he isn’t really leaving. He’s got two years of his term left, during which he will be looking for “new opportunities that will allow me to serve my country.” Do you think that means something involving a large salary and a chance to make multitudinous TV appearances, or a Peace Corps stint in Burkina Faso? Let me see hands.
(More here.)
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