Triumph of the Money Party

Joe Lieberman & the Collective Amnesia

The full exoneration of a clear traitor to the Democratic Party predicts how Congress will treat the dire challenges facing the country.

There will be little is no opposition to the arranged marriage between corporate and government interests.

There will be no remedies for the problems that were created as a result of this arrangement.

There will be no accountability for the crimes committed over the past eight years. The looting of the United States Treasury will continue.

And the projection of power in behalf of corporate interests will continue when needed, unopposed, without regard to the well being of the nation as a whole or the interests of citizens. The Senate cave-in is a paradigm for past behavior by corporatist Democrats in both houses of Congress.

Lieberman’s retention of his committee chairmanship and caucus membership is all the proof we need that a majority of the Senate Democratic Caucus finds nothing objectionable to a member actively campaigning for the Republican nominee for president, live and in person. It doesn’t matter that Lieberman dismissed the Democratic nominee’s qualifications to be president. Could they be any more obvious?

Lieberman spoke in support of Senator McCain’s candidacy in prime time at the Republican convention. He derided the importance of parties by saying,

“But when they (citizens) look to Washington, all too often they don’t see their leaders coming together to tackle these problems. Instead, they see Democrats and Republicans fighting each other, rather than fighting for the American people.”

This description of party conflict is a total lie as Lieberman well knows. The tyrant Bush got nearly everything he asked for from Congress without any noticeable opposition, even after the Democrats assumed the majority in 2006.

Lieberman went on to remind the assembled that George Washington had warned of the dangers of political parties. Then he told the audience, “Well, I’ll tell you what: I’m here to support John McCain because country matters more than party.” By implication, he argued that President-elect Obama did not put country before party.

What country is Lieberman talking about?

Is the country that saw nearly a trillion dollars (and counting) given away to corporate failures on Wall Street while millions lose their homes?

Is it the country that was tricked into supporting an invasion of Iraq to catch someone in Afghanistan? Wasn’t this the invasion that precipitated events resulting in the death of 1.2 million Iraqi civilians, caused tens of thousands of deaths and injuries to U.S. soldiers, and began the road to bankruptcy?

Is it the country that was attacked on 9/11 that never saw a real investigation other than the one choreographed by Condoleezza Rice’s former collaborator.

It is certainly the country in which the majority of citizens have little say while their government is looted by the corporate elite represented by Lieberman and those who endorse him.

He does well by his friends. When the Enron scandal broke and tens of thousands lost billions in that pyramid scheme, Lieberman’s Senate committee was in charge of investigating. But as The New York Times pointed out, Lieberman:

“[R]eceived $25,000 from Enron. Critics have also pointed out that Citigroup, Enron’s largest lender, is Mr. Lieberman’s top donor, giving his campaigns $112,000 since 1997, campaign records show. A longtime Republican strategist put it this way, ”Lieberman’s problem is simple — Enron’s biggest creditor is his campaign’s biggest contributor.” (Jan. 2, 2002)

Lieberman delivered. There was no serious investigation of Enron by the Senate. The people were without an advocate. All we got was a wink and a nod paving the way for the latest corporate thefts. This is the best clue to Lieberman’s morality and philosophy, the same morality and philosophy endorsed by the Democrats who welcomed him back to their “party” with open arms.

He does put one country first, corporate America. His record is riddled with this sort of self serving deals that benefit of those who pay his campaign bills and employ his ex staffers.

How serious can those 42 Senate Democrats be? Quite serious, actually. Most of them are guilty of the same betrayals that Lieberman committed. They’re just a bit less obvious than the low key male hysteric that they find so irresistible.

They are the hollow men and women who act as though political parties mean nothing.

They are the political zombies with feigned amnesia allowing them to forget the crimes of the past eight years, crimes to which they’ve been a party.

They represent the triumph of The Money Party:

“It is not about Republicans versus Democrats. Right now, the Republicans do a better job taking money than the Democrats. But The Money Party is an equal opportunity employer. They have no permanent friends or enemies, just permanent interests. Democrats are as welcome as Republicans to this party. It’s all good when you’re on the take and the take is legal.”

Michael Collins writes for Scoop Independent News and a variety of other web publications on election fraud and other corruptions of the new millennium. He is one of few to report on the ongoing struggles of Susan Lindauer, an activist accused of being a foreign agent, who was the subject of a government request for forced psychiatric medication. This article may be reproduced in whole or in part with attribution of authorship, a link to this article, and acknowledgment of images. Read other articles by Michael, or visit Michael's website.

11 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. Ron Horn said on November 19th, 2008 at 2:02pm #

    Wonderful! People are beginning to wake up.

  2. joed said on November 19th, 2008 at 5:50pm #

    you amerikans ain’t got a clue as to how screwed you really are. the only way to make thing right is for you guys to go to dc and arrest the murderous thugs in the bush/cheney gang, arrest 98% of the congress and arrest the entire scotus. but this wont happen and therefore you guys got the govt that you deserve. this is the only action that will save you guys; arrest, arrest, arrest. too bad you guys cant figure this out. but what really get me is that you wont even go to the streets to make noise. intimidated by the bush/cheney gang. hardship and sacrifice are the only way to create real change. you have to arrest today, tomorrow is too late.

  3. HR said on November 19th, 2008 at 8:18pm #

    joed, some of us do have a clue, but I gotta agree that we do get, and have gotten, exactly the government we deserve, and that your solution, or something similar, are the only realistic ones. However, we USans would rather sit around and chant, “U.S.A., U.S.A.,” or, “Yes, we can,” in unison and under the direction of clever propaganda artists all day, and then go pray to various nonexistent beings than actually do something positive and useful. There was at least one REAL choice on most of our ballots: Nader/Gonzalez. And we could have written in McKinney/Clemente. But no, we’d rather continue shooting ourselves in the foot. We are so doomed … and so deserving of it.

  4. Michael Collins said on November 20th, 2008 at 2:16am #

    Ron, I think the people are much more awake than the Congress, even on their worst day, without coffee! It’s an incremental process for those who don’t follow politics on a regular basis. Now it’s apparent that political parties mean nothing. That’s the message from Lieberman, although we knew that a long time ago. Next is the first 90 days of Obama’s administration. If it’s a program that shuts GITMO but leaves School of the Americas open, that’s one clue. The bigger clues are those that the public is waiting for – jobs, putting the crooks who stole billions away, going after the 8 years of crime, to start, etc etc. The “believers” believe in what they want, the people who elected Obama. If they see real action, then they’ll be satisfied. If not and they hear, “I never said I was a ‘progressive'” then it’s going to get very ugly, very quickly.

    The triumphal march was interrupted by the Senate (the country already knows about the House). Next – an evaluation of the action plan. If there’s no measurable action on a broad range of issues, the you know what hits the fan.

    joed, see this link. It addresses your concerns.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0808/S00099.htm

    USans, nice. I think that “we’re #1” will soon be replaced by “we’re broke,” possibly the best tool to end empire and “empire talk” available.

  5. bozhidar bob balkas said on November 20th, 2008 at 7:17am #

    to iterate: don’t blame the victims. by now, we may have noticed that there r all kinds of people among us: gentle, gentler, agressive, more aggressive, trusting, less trusting, greedy, greedier, thieving, more thieving, honest, etcetc.
    so, why blame a person for being trusting which is one of our noblest characteristics?
    why reward a liar/deceiver for deceiving a trusting person?
    why punish honest people along w. dishonest (in all its degrees) people?
    thnx

  6. gui r. said on November 20th, 2008 at 7:54am #

    Though one can expect president Obama to cling close to his instructions and to be a loyal servant to the establishment, there is a slight chance that at least for domestic policies he may be less stringently against the public than his predecessors and hopefully a bit more balanced in foreign affairs because of his early experiences outside the confining and stifling provinciality of life within this country. The usual pox of the media may turn against him if he does relent from the war against the people and decide to use diplomacy instead of the usual instant attack mode abroad. But on the other hand he fulfils a true need in the public here for a more idealistic and liberal image, whatever his policies are. Mundus vult decipi ergo decipiatur !

  7. rosemarie jackowski said on November 20th, 2008 at 11:04am #

    Good topic here. About USA being first – we are 29th in infant mortality.
    Yes, it is the Congress that is responsible for the economy and the wars. It was the dems that sided with Bush and pushed through the 700 billion money laundering fraud. My Congressman changed his vote from ‘no’ to ‘yes’ after just one phone call from Obama – ignoring thousands of phone calls from citizens who were opposed to the bailout.
    I made a phone call to that Congressman. Asked his office what they would do to help consumers who had credit card debt. Citi card is one that is doubling interest rates, even on those who have never been late with a payment. I explained the issue to the Congressman’s office staff. Requested that they make a phone call to the company on behalf of consumers. I was told that it would be ‘unethical’ for a Congressman’s office to make a call on in support of consumers. My answer was that that since the Congress created this problem by not having a limit on interest rates, and then exacerbated the problem by giving taxpayer money to company, it would be UNETHICAL for the congressman not to support the consumers. I was told that they would get ‘back to me’. Anybody want to bet that they never call back?

  8. Michael Collins said on November 20th, 2008 at 3:54pm #

    rosemarie, I’ll bet that you never hear another word from the office or that you get a form letter indicating the member’s committment to something useless and vague. They don’t care because they don’t have to. They’re not working for us, it’s all about their personal enrichment and aggrandizement.

    The point about “he may be less stringently against the public than his predecessors and hopefully a bit more balanced in foreign affairs because of his” is a good one. They’ll loosen the grip a bit thinking that letting off some steam will calm us. It won’t work out that way. There are so many lined up to blow any number of scandals wide open, they’ll never hear the end of it.

    My litmus test is the internet thought control bill, which I wrote about some time ago. It passed the House 400-6 and is now in Lieberman’s committee. Obama tacitly endorsed it. If they pass this, it is a sign of extreme bad faith. I’m willing to give Obama 90 days after he’s in the chair to prove himself one way or another (barring any invasions or other outrages before that). The public isn’t ready to give up on “hope” and the evidence needs to be clear.

    Here’ s the internet control stuff:

    By an overwhelming majority… Congress Brings You Thought Control on the Internet Dec. 19, 2008

    Internet Thought Control Bill Under Fire Dec. 19, 2008

  9. bozhidar bob balkas said on November 20th, 2008 at 3:58pm #

    i bet rosemarie.
    as an aside, nobody in the world can split uncle sam in two. do the politicos know that?
    i say they all? do. thus there is no two policies in US. there r tactical differences btwn dems nad reps.
    in other words, the differences r not in kind/strategy but in the ways to obtain their strategic goals. thnx

  10. Michael Collins said on November 20th, 2008 at 4:32pm #

    bozhidar bob, I agree. The ends have been the same for decades. Ironically, Lincoln, whom Obama is supposedly studying now, was of an era where policies met strong opposition. He tried to end the U.S. invasion of Mexico, without success. Nevertheless, at that time, people were bold enough to speak up and castigate those carrying out a policy viewed as immoral an illegal. Who are our Lincoln’s? Those are not allowed by the Matrix media managers who insist in marginalizing anyone with strong dissent from the mainstream pablum.

    Those same managers are creating the myth of a stupid people following their new “hero,” while, at the same time, pretending that the world will love us for this election choice. I suspect the world is relieved that we finally got an honest vote count and someone without overt pathology. As for “hero” worship, any politician needs to understand that the people have substantive issues in mind – no more wars, stopping the theft from the U.S. (aka Wall Street) Treasury, helping save the planet, etc. Hero status is temporary, if it even exists. Actions are the measure for the citizens here and those around the world watching.

  11. Phil said on November 21st, 2008 at 10:14am #

    Actually, let’s not forget that Lieberman serves two interests equally – corporate America and violent Israeli extremism.

    “…all too often they don’t see their leaders coming together to tackle these problems. Instead, they see Democrats and Republicans fighting each other, rather than fighting for the American people.”

    All too true. He just doesn’t mention that when the Republicrats and Demicans do come together, it’s still never to fight for the American people. Quite the opposite.