Lieberman Keeps Committee Chairmanship, Stays In Democratic Caucus
By Doug Mataconis | Related entries in Democrats, Lieberman, SenateBy a fairly decisive margin, the Senate Democrats have decided to make nice with Joe Lieberman:
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign.
The Connecticut independent will lose a minor panel post as punishment for criticizing Obama this fall.
Lieberman’s colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday on a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel but lose a subcommittee chair on the Environment and Public Works panel.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was very angry by Lieberman’s actions but that “we’re looking forward, we’re not looking back.”
When this comes out, I’m betting we’ll find that Lieberman’s hide was saved largely thanks to the direct intervention of Barack Obama, which is somewhat ironic considering that Lieberman spent the better part of a year campaigning for the guy that Obama just beat in the election.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 and is filed under Democrats, Lieberman, Senate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Obama probably thinks this makes him look good and “magnanimous.” I think it makes him look foolish. How many reasonable people respect the guy who continues to let a bully smack him around every day and will actively help him do it? The first time Joe uses his committee to “investigate” obama we are going to be hearing all about how “we could never have know” and “we had a deal”. the dems just handed lieberman a license to abuse them and they feel good about it.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Joe Lieberman on CNN: Obama wrong!
http://cnn-election.com/2008/index.php?q=Lieberman:-Obama-wrong
Not so bad! What does this mean?
November 18th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
[...] are trying to make sense of this mess and are speculating on how Lieberman was spared. Doug Mataconis states, “I’m betting we’ll find that Lieberman’s hide was saved largely thanks to the [...]
November 19th, 2008 at 7:05 am
The french connection rule is “follow the money.” The congressional corollary is to “follow the power.”
You don’t need to search for irony or posit divine intervention by Obama to understand this. The party wants his vote. Just do the math.
58>57
59>58
60>59
The rest is static.