Jump and be damned

So to the surprise of pretty much no one, Joe Lieberman is talking ever more openly about abandoning the last pretense of loyalty to the Democratic Party and jumping over to the Republican side of the aisle. My own reaction to this is pretty simple: let him jump and be damned. It's a pity, of course, that so many leaders of the party were so blind to this entirely predictable outcome during the general election, but all that jumping parties will do for Lieberman will be to make him even more irrelevant than he already is.

The Dems stand an excellent chance of expanding their control of the Senate in 2008, with a large number of vulnerable Republican seats up for election, and the possibility of a wave of Republican retirements that would make the odds even better. And I can think of no more appropriate fate for Lieberman than to be an unwelcome addition to a party trapped in the minority for the last few years of his broken political career. It's a shame that he wasn't retired in last November's election, but we should all be grateful to Ned Lamont for exposing what Lieberman really is.