Why Joe Lieberman Would Be a Bad Pick to Lead the FBI

President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have been interviewing candidates to lead the FBI since the president fired Director James Comey last week.

Speaking to reporters while meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Trump said he is “very close” to choosing a new FBI director to replace James Comey. And asked if former Senator Joe Lieberman, the Democrat-turned-independent senator from Connecticut was a top candidate, Trump said yes.

President Trump has apparently forgotten, if he ever knew, that Lieberman’s best friend in the Senate is none other than Trump’s arch-nemesis Senator John McCain.

Indeed, John McCain and Joe Lieberman are so close that in 2008 McCain seriously floated the idea of placing Democrat turned Independent Senator Lieberman on the Republican ticket as his running mate.

Lieberman, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2000, endorsed John McCain for president in 2008.

And who was the strongest advocate for Lieberman among McCain’s 2008 advisors?

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, another arch-nemesis of the President’s.

McCain, Graham and Lieberman were longtime Senate traveling companions—the trio were known as the “three amigos”—and Graham pushed so hard for Lieberman to be McCain’s vice president over conservative Governor Sarah Palin that he nearly caused a rift in McCain’s campaign.

While choosing Lieberman would empower President Trump’s most vociferous Republican critics, it would not get Democrats off his back.

Many Senate Democrats hold a grudge against Lieberman for his rightward turn and opposition to some of President Barack Obama’s agenda late in his Senate career. Others told Politico even though they respect Lieberman, the job of FBI director should not go to a former politician. And all Democratic senators interviewed by Politico for their article said the former Connecticut senator lacks the kind of experience needed for the post.

Naturally, the president’s Republican enemies are all lining-up behind Lieberman, who left the Senate in 2013 after four terms.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) called him a “person of unquestioned integrity and that’s what we need.” Added Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has spoken to Lieberman about the job: “If the president picked Joe Lieberman he’d be doing [the] country a good service and, I think, the FBI a good service.”

What’s more, the choice of Lieberman would undoubtedly set-off a partisan firestorm because the law firm where Lieberman now works as a rainmaker counts Trump among its clients.

The firm, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres, has represented Trump since at least November of 2001, often on cases that had to do with his reputation.

Although the firm has apparently scrubbed Trump from its client list, and Lieberman is not listed as the attorney for any of the firm’s Trump-related cases, according to QZ’s White House correspondent, Heather Timmons, one can only imagine the media reaction.

About the only person in D.C. who had anything sensible to say about the prospect of Lieberman as FBI Director was the usually nasty progressive Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

“I don’t think there’s going to be much excitement about that from our side of the aisle. Not because we don’t respect Joe Lieberman. But we need a law enforcement professional, not someone who’s run for office before,” McCaskill told Politico. “We don’t need anyone who’s put on a red shirt or blue shirt—or who’s campaigned for president.” Lieberman ran for president in 2004.

PJ Media’s David P. Goldman reported yesterday that a ranking Republican statesman this week told an off-the-record gathering that a “coup” attempt was in progress against President Donald Trump, with collusion between the largely Democratic media and Trump’s numerous enemies in the Republican Party.

The object of the coup, the Republican leader added, was not impeachment, but the recruitment of a critical mass of Republican senators and congressmen to the claim that Trump was “unfit” for office and to force his resignation.

Goldman’s reporting echoes and confirms what we have been saying for a long time.

Appointing former Senator Joe Lieberman, a confidant of President Trump’s fiercest enemies in the Republican Party, as Director of the FBI would only advance that coup. {eoa}

This article was originally published at ConservativeHQ.com. Used with permission.