I have to say, this is for me a sit on the sidelines and enjoy situation as both sides disgust me for different reasons. So, I’ll kibitz and score their points

The subject of the gloating is Lieberman. On substance I am entirely on the side of the netroots – he should be out. Not for supporting McCain, but for supporting the war. And selling the 2000 win. And a few more things.
But I also recognize that his very election, like Obama’s is testimony of the collusion of the so called 2 parties.

That being said, let me  fully enjoy the title

Barack Obama doesn’t fear the enraged, impotent Netroots

Richard Kirchik from the New Republic is happy:

That the Netroots – the fabled bloggers who, in 2004, carried Howard Dean from being an unknown governor of a small state to a Democratic presidential front-runner – are not the potent political force that the media portrays was confirmed this past week when Senate Democrats resisted their “demand” that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman be punished for endorsing John McCain for President

yes, the feud started with Dean’s candidacy, and is not forgotten.

For weeks, they pounded their keyboards, huffed and puffed on their Internet radio shows and called on their readers to flood the offices of Democratic senators with phone calls and e-mails demanding that Lieberman be stripped of his chairmanship over the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

and the Orange Cheeto gets a special mention

“He wasn’t sanctioned,” seethed Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos. “And Senate Democrats trying to make that claim are dishonestly trying to cover up the extent of their betrayal of the American people’s vote for change.”

Imagine the shock, Marcos! The guy who had Barbara Boxer and Dick Cheney campaign for him in 2006 – each to his own party – is not “punished”! Oh, the humanity!

Jane Hamsher is also quoted with a statement that I find insightful

“No matter what Joe Lieberman does,” wrote Jane Hamsher, proprietor of the popular liberal blog Firedoglake, “the people who are protecting him hate you much more than they hate him.”

and a story unknown to me about a doctored photo in the 2006 campaign

That being said, I fully agree with this delicious statement

Given the intensity of blogger rage over Lieberman, one can understand how their defeat at the ends of their own party would lend itself to hyperbole, but when did the “American people” appoint Markos Moulitsas their spokesman?

and profoundly disagree with this one

many liberals have been quick to claim that the Democratic triumph means that we’re now living in a liberal country.

They should take a deep breath before reaching such conclusions. Only 22% of voters this year consider themselves “liberal” while 34% call themselves “conservative,” numbers roughly unchanged from four years ago.

There wasn’t a “democratic” triumph, and the many liberals in this country have been had.

But this is the DLC – and the article ends with “neener, neener, neener – Obama is ours” – which is true:

The week before Tuesday’s meeting, Obama let it be known that he bore “no grudge” against Lieberman. Setting a positive tone so early after a hard-fought election, he is already making good on his promise to, if not end, then at least lessen the “petty partisanship” he decried in the campaign. Among the positive outcomes of this week’s abject lesson in letting bygones be bygones, it is reassuring to see that the leadership of the Democratic Party isn’t as petty, vindictive and small as its left-wing supporters.

How many times did I read during the primaries the accusation: “Hillary is DLC?”

And of course the reality (as of February 2007) is this

In a Washington Post interview, Harold Ford, the new chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, says Illinois’ junior senator has expressed interest in “find[ing] ways he could work with the DLC.” Ford describes Obama as a “personal friend” and says they talk regularly.