Can we please retire the thumbs-up?

So Hottest Gay Journalist in New York Patrick Healy has been sent on assignment to Connecticut. While there, he managed to get a quote from Lieberman that perfectly encapsulates everything annoying about the man:

He lamented that he had not “clarified” his criticism of the war and the White House earlier, but he also argued that Republicans were “salivating” over the possibility that Democrats would pick an antiwar liberal instead of Mr. Lieberman.

“They are anxious to say the left wing is taking over, the antisecurity wing,” Mr. Lieberman said of Republicans.

Everything is in that one soundbite: the reification of Republican talking points, the reflexive Washington-insider bow to "electability," the false and stupid preoccupation with "the left wing," the even falser and positively insulting equation of "the left wing" with "the antisecurity wing."

Could he look any more bored giving that thumbs-up? That gesture is beyond cliche now, it's openly a joke.

(Incidentally, I was all set to say that this guy is what Steve Urkel will be when he's old



but as it happens Jaleel White didn't turn out half bad.



Weird.)