Joe Lieberman needs to go. He blocked investigations into the failures of the government's response to Katrina, he blocked investigations into illegals behavior by the Bush administration, he blocked investigations into no bid contracts to Halliburton and Blackwater. Why does he deserve to keep his chairmanship? He has sucked at this job.

Obama and some senators have said that they want to look into abuses by the Bush administration before and during the occupation of Iraq. Lieberman could use his chairmanship to block those investigations, as he has in the past when it came to looking into any of Bush's misdeeds. Lieberman will run interference for the Republicans because he has been bitter about the Dems supporting the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Connecticut. Obama can rest assured that his attempts to govern will be obstructed by Lieberman. Now, if the Senate Dems want to strip Lieberman of his chairmanship when he does prevent the investigation, they will face charges of partisanship. I can see Lieberman now, standing before the microphone with his Republican buddies standing behind him saying "I am losing my role on the committee because I had the courage to stand up in the face of partisan bickering and vindictiveness." Then, the Democrats will back down and nothing will happen.

Some people are hailing this as a defeat for the "left win blogosphere" or the "crazy left-wing of the party." Guess what? People who vote for Democrats are left of center. The Republicans vote the way their base wants them to vote because their base sent them to Washington to represent them and their beliefs and vote accordingly. Democrats treat their base as if we are their dirty little secret.

Republicans are laughing at us while they say that it is nice of the Democrats for being "classy" and "magnanimous." They would never take this from one of their caucus members. Obama and Reid will see how dumb this move is when they need every vote from the party to pass a bill. Reid and Obama have shown they do not have the spine to impose party discipline, and that will come back to bite them time after time until 2012.

Should we be surprised, though? In 2006, Democratic activists and the left wing blogosphere, who are derided by the party and the media, worked their asses off to raise money, knock on doors, make phone calls, send e-mails, and stuff envelopes to move Republican seats into the Democratic column. We did this because they said they wanted to end the illegal occupation of Iraq , protect our civil liberties, and make sure things like Katrina would be investigated and never happen again. Not only did they fail to keep these promises, they did the exact opposite. Obama and the Democrats voted to keep funding the occupation of Iraq, rather than using the power of the purse to end it. They voted in overwhelming numbers to pass FISA. And we still haven't heard anything about Katrina.

I am keeping my money and time. Screw the Democrats.

Do the Democrats who were elected this year and are new members of the caucus have a right to call for a new vote when they are sworn in?

The question is: How much do we on the left respect ourselves? Will we continue to bust our asses to elect politicians who do not respect us and treat us like we are an annoyance? Will we continue to support politicians who swear to do one thing and then do another when elected?

I do not blame the Senate staffer who laughed at us. We have always been a laughingstock. We beg for crumbs from the Democrats table and reelect them. When Republicans go against the mandate their base gives them, they are punished at the ballot box. John McCain couldn't pick Joe Lieberman as his running mate because the Republican base wouldn't have stood for it. For years, Democrats have had to put a right of center southerner on their presidential tickets because they did not want to seem like they were in the pocket of the people who vote for them.

We've brought things like this Lieberman thing on ourselves. We did not punish the Democrats in Congress who voted to continue to fund the Iraq war when they promised to end it. We did not punish those who voted for FISA. We did not punish those members of the Senate who rolled over for anyone Bush offered up for judicial appointments. Our elected officials from our party do not listen to us because they do not have to.

What are we going to do next? Are we going to continue to break our asses, leave our jobs and school, and donate money for and to politicians who treat us like we are their dirty little secret? It is clear that the Democrats are going to dick us over this term, so that battle is lost. How are we going to organize a movement to unseat the people who thumb their noses at us year after year? We threw Lieberman out during the Connecticut primary but did not follow up. Why not do the same thing all over the country, but follow through this time?