Senator Joe Lieberman Operates Much Like Imus

Though he’s been in office for more than 20 years, Joe Lieberman is still the junior Senator from the state of Connecticut. He welcomed Imus to his territory this morning, where a battle is raging for the seat of retiring senior Senator Chris Dodd.

Lieberman, an Independent, has yet to make an endorsement, telling Imus he’s waiting to see who gets nominated by each party before making an endorsement.

“So, you’re doing like I do,” said Imus, hitting the nail on the head. “You’re waiting to see who’s ahead, and who’s going to win, and you’ll support that person.”

Sort of like in New Jersey, where Imus jumped on the bandwagon of the “rather rotund” Governor Chris Christie just before election day, and dragged him across the finish line. “And it was no easy task,” Lieberman chimed in. “Considering his corpulence.”

President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new arms reduction treaty recently, which Imus thinks is hilarious considering, “we know the Russians aren’t going to honor it.” But will the U.S.?

“The odds are we will,” said Lieberman. “Because that’s what Americans do.”

Right. Just ask the Native Americans.

In one sense, Lieberman continued, the new agreement is “probably the most ambitious nuclear arms control treaty in a couple of decades.” How effective it will be, however, depends on whether the Russians will honor it.

Medvedev actually told Obama he’d pull out of the treaty if the U.S. develops missile defense in Europe, for fear that it would threaten Russian security. But this country’s need for missile defense has little to do with Russia.

“We’re worried about the Iranians,” said Lieberman. If Iran obtains nuclear weapons, the international effort to halt proliferation would be decimated, he added, because everybody in the Middle East and beyond will want weapons too.

“I hope this leads to cooperation between the Russians and the Untied States on that question,” said Lieberman. “But I’m not optimistic.”

None of Obama’s interaction with Medvedev matters anyway, in Imus’s estimation, because Vladimir Putin, the former President who appointed himself Prime Minister once his two consecutive terms were over, is really running the show.

“Medvedev does occasionally show signs of independence,” said Lieberman, who eventually admitted Putin is really in charge. “Russia has not really progressed as we hoped it would when the Iron Curtain fell. It’s not a democracy.”

Before the arms reduction treaty can be ratified, Congress must give its approval and Lieberman would like some assurance that the 1,500 remaining Cold War-era U.S. nuclear warheads will be modernized or replaced. “A bunch of us in the Senate are going to ask the administration to commit to that,” he said.
 
As for the Senate race, Imus suggested Lieberman take a look at Vinny Forras, a firefighter who worked at Ground Zero and who is now running for the Republican nomination for Dodd’s seat. Lieberman said he’d be happy to speak with him, since “firefighters are, generally speaking, a great group of humans.”

Here’s hoping Lieberman actually takes the call. “I’m going to follow up,” Imus warned his guest.

-Julie Kanfer