...and so it begins.

I'm not an idealist. Haven't been for quite a while now. So I wasn't exactly surprised to read today that the cowardly Senate Democrats rewarded Republican shill Joe Lieberman with a plum committee chairmanship. Lieberman, a warmongerer and recent purveyor of Obama-as-terrorist/Marxist slurs, repeatedly spat in the face of Democrats over the last year and has supported the Bush/Cheney cabal in most every one of their most egregious power grabs over the past 7 years. So it is only natural that Senate Democrats would continue to support and reward him.

As IOZ would (and does, regularly) say: uh, yeah, they're on the same side!

For his part, Lieberman credits Obama for his ascendance: "Lieberman singled out the 'appeal by President Obama himself' as a key reason he's staying."

But that's not all President-elect Obama has been up to. He's also in the process of placing Hillary Clinton in the preeminent foreign policy post in his nascent administration. Although I'm not as much anti-Hillary as I once was... it surely is disappointing to know that Obama's Secretary of State will be someone who supported the Iraq War, voted for the AUMF, and has favored the most hawkish of positions on Iran. John McCain's slogan abides: My friends, that's not change we can believe in.

Furthermore, Obama's people have -- albeit anonymously -- been making conciliatory noises on whether there will be any accountability for the Bush/Cheney cabal in connection with their torture policies. No, holding those people accountable for kidnapping, torture, and endless imprisonment of innocent people would be... divisive. And we can't have that. We've got so many More Important Things To Do. (Like give multi-billion dollar handouts to car companies that have spent the last two decades twiddling their thumbs while their sales fall and their cars get crappier and less fuel efficient -- but I guess that's a separate post, eh?)

What does Obama himself have to say about this? Well, on 60 Minutes he said: "I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture..." Indeed. And there's another guy who has repeatedly said this: His name is George W. Bush. And, I guess, since Obama knows that America Doesn't Torture, then that's pretty much an end of it, no need to investigate or, really, do anything, other than continue on much as before, but with a better public communications strategy.

Or, maybe it's just me.