Joe Lieberman is Peter Pettigrew

To start with, as a note of clarification to my mother-in-law: I don't think Barack Obama is the Chosen One. She thinks we have all bought into some idea that Obama is the Messiah. But I am as secular as anyone can be. I don't believe anyone will be delivered from the heavens to save us from immorality and violence and despair. And I certainly would never believe that Harvard Law School, of all places, could produce a savior. Oberlin maybe. But then there's Michelle Malkin to account for. I guess there is no place unsullied by evil. No citadel where decency and tolerance are preserved.

Anyway, my goal here is to offer a basic primer for understanding why Barack Obama wants to save Joe Lieberman from the wrath of the Democratic party. I want to make this so simple anyone can get it.

We know that Obama is a Harry Potter fan, and has read all seven books with his daughters. He has to be aware of the fate of Peter Pettigrew, otherwise known as Wormtail, the shape-shifting wizard who possesses the ability to transform into a rat. The resemblence to Lieberman is hard to miss.

We learn in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that Peter Pettigrew betrayed the Order of the Phoenix, the forces of tolerance and decency, to side with the evil Lord Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters. When Voldemort was unable to eliminate Harry, and in the process was instead transformed into a mere shadow, Pettigrew slinked away and concealed himself for years, disguised as a rat. When Harry and Wormtail's paths crossed again, Harry's friends, angered by Wormtail's betrayal, sought revenge. Just to be clear, Sirius Black wanted to do more than relieve Wormtail of a few Committee Chairmanships and kick him out of the caucus. He wanted to kill Wormtail. By comparison, the Democratic leadership in the Senate is exercising restraint.

But, to get to the point, Harry intervened and saved Wormtail, earning, in the process, a life debt, forging an obligation on Wormtail's part. It wasn't clear at the time what the result would be. But, years later, in the book that wraps up Harry's story, we learn that Wormtail's magical debt is paid when he hesitates to deliver Harry back into the clutches of Voldemort. At precisely the moment when Harry was trapped and it looked like the forces of evil would triumph, Pettigrew delays, allowing Harry to escape.

Obama knows the dark forces have merely been driven into the shadows. They will do all they can to destroy him and regain power. But at some point, perhaps in the closing days of his first term, when he needs a legislative victory to survive, Lieberman will be obligated to step in and help. When he does, I suspect Lieberman will learn, as Wormtail did, that the dark forces are far less forgiving.