The first casualty of Lieberman’s ineptitude and smarminess was Al Gore, who undoubtedly watched in horror as Lieberman not only threw the vice presidential debate, but in so doing managed to make Dick Cheney look principled and charismatic.  And we all know how that turned out.  Holy Joe then went from Fox News Democrat to “Independent,” to Republican to, well, what he is now, which is a foaming-at-the-mouth right-wing nutcase having circle jerks with Bill Kristol and Binjamin Netanyahu by the light of the Passover moon.

Unfortunately for poor Joe, his ego has been writing checks his body can’t cash for so long that he can only get on Fox when Karl Rove has the sniffles, so in a desperate bid for attention, this half-melted waxwork has to turn to Newsmax for a little love.  To wit:

“There were a lot of people, particularly Democrats, who were declaring after the 2008 election that we were beginning a period of Democratic dominance that would go on for decades,” Lieberman told Newsmax. “Now, all of a sudden, the momentum is with the Republicans. And that’s — thank God — that’s the way people have spoken, you know? That’s our democracy.”

Well, the same Democracy would have also tossed you out on your ass in 2006, Joe, had your state had “sore loser” laws, which it will probably enact forthwith.  Don’t thank God…  if He liked you he would have made you tall, handsome, and quite a bit less despicable.

The senator also said that “everybody should listen” to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Especially since she handily dethroned you as the worst VP candidate since Spiro Agnew.

“I think Sarah Palin for a lot of people has become a spokesperson,” Lieberman said. “People worried that government has forgotten them, has grown too big, that the deficit is growing too large, and in some sense that we’re not being as strong as we should be in the world — Governor Palin has spoken to those concerns as much as anyone.

Anyone on the nutcase right, indeed.  But no one vaguely connected with reality, of course.

“I do disagree with her on some of the specifics that she has said, but I think anybody who underestimates Sarah Palin as a political force in America does so at some peril, because she is speaking for a lot of people out there,” he continued. “I don’t know what her future is, but I’m just saying everybody should listen.”

Like they listen to you?  And where as that gotten anyone?

Lieberman was speaking in an interview that largely focused on US foreign policy regarding Israel and Iran. The onetime Democrat has repeatedly urged the US to take a hawkish position against Iranian development of nuclear weapons, and consider an armed airstrike to halt nuclear enrichment.

In other words, Lieberman thinks that the government still ought to get just a little bigger, spend a bit more, and forget the will of the people one more time, since they are clearly as tired of hearing about war as they are tired of paying for it, because ol’ Joe isn’t through turning America into a despised, bankrupt, war-depleted theocracy.  Maybe he’s angling for another chance at the VP slot, and he’s figuring that Palin is the only American stupid enough to pick him, which is undeniably true.

In that way, Joe Lieberman may have done us all a favor; no longer will Democrats be saddled with the feckless leadership of Harry Reid after 2010, and maybe the next guy (or gal) will be smart enough to start kicking worthless protoplasm like Lieberman to the curb when they have the chance.

The only real loser will be Hadassah, who will have to put up with Joe full time after 2012.