No Joe in 2012

I will give Sen. Joe Lieberman props on being a leading voice to repeal DADT. Other than that, I can't think of anything in the last 8 years I'd agree with him on. Losing his Democratic label in 2006 only to win an Independent run later that year pretty much sealed his fate with Democrats and the public at large. And now it seems he sees the writing on the wall as well by deciding not to seek a 5th term in 2012. 

I've met Lieberman a couple different times.  In 2000, while running for VP, he appeared as the bastion of Democratic thinking.  By '04 when I spent some time with him again, everything had changed.  He seemed consumed with war and ridding the world of evil.  I remember thinking my former boss, Sen. Paul Simon, who was great friends with Lieberman, would not have recognized the post-9/11 Lieberman.  Paul passed away in 2003 so he never got to see the person Lieberman turned into.  In a way, I'm glad for that.  On the other hand, I would have liked to have heard Paul hammer him on the merits of political gain at the expense of personal dignity in the amenable fashion only Senator Simon could have done of course.