Joe Lieberman cleans up after John McCain

The Politico on Holy Joe Lieberman, the American Quisling:

Wherever John McCain goes these days, it seems, Joseph I. Lieberman is there.

When McCain needed a quick reminder in Jordan last week on how to characterize Islamic radicals in Iraq receiving aid from Iran, Lieberman was there to whisper into his colleague’s ear. A day later in Israel, the Connecticut senator proved equally helpful, stepping in to help McCain clarify the meaning of the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Whether wearing yarmulkes together amid the throngs at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, meeting reporters outside 10 Downing Street in London or sporting matching suit-and-sweater combos at a snowy New Hampshire town hall meeting, the two have been nearly inseparable since Lieberman endorsed McCain last December.

[...]

Newly energized and again relevant in national political circles, Lieberman is already being talked about as an obvious pick for a McCain administration, likely as secretary of defense or some other high-profile foreign policy post.

Lieberman is only "relevant" in political circles based upon the fact that the Democrats occasionally require his vote in a closely divided Senate. With the changeover of a few Senate seats in November he faces the prospect of becoming as relevant as a first-term Congressman from Raccoon Holler, TN. But then there is the tantalizing prospect of his giving up his Senate seat to join a McCain administration... but, that would really be a case of cutting off one's nose yadda yadda yadda.

But wait, there's more:

Lieberman, who an aide says has only signaled a desire to keep serving in the Senate, has disappointed some of his admirers by coming out for McCain.

“I wish I understood it,” laments Steve Rabinowitz, a Democratic strategist who stuck by Lieberman in 2006 even after his primary loss to Ned Lamont. “I just don’t know what to make of him anymore. I’m very sad.”

[...]

Those close to Lieberman, however, say that his decision to so enthusiastically get behind McCain is borne in their shared experience as party loners, as much about persona as policy.

“First and foremost, it’s character,” says Dan Gerstein, a Democratic strategist who helped lead Lieberman’s 2006 campaign and previously worked in his Senate office. “This is purely a personal decision and is based on faith and belief in McCain.”

Gerstein, a Barack Obama supporter, shares the same concern of other Democrats: that Lieberman could serve as exactly the sort of validator for McCain’s independence that the Arizonan’s aides are counting on.

Democratic "strategists" will be the death of us all.