Obama Sends Message: Lieberman Should Caucus With Democrats
The Huffington Post reports that President Elect Barack Obama has made it known that he wants to continue to let Connecticut Independent Senator Joe Lieberman caucus with the Democrats, despite a clamor from some progressive to have Lieberman stripped of his committee chairmanship and basically shunned due to his active and vocal support of losing presidential candidate Republican Sen. John McCain:
President-elect Barack Obama has informed party officials that he wants Joe Lieberman to continue caucusing with the Democrats in the 111th Congress, Senate aides tell the Huffington Post.
Obama’s decision could tie the hands of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has been negotiating to remove Lieberman as chair of the Homeland Security and Government Reform committee while keeping him within the caucus. Lieberman has insisted that he will split from the Democrats if his homeland security position is stripped.
Aides to the president-elect did not return requests for comment. Senate officials were unclear whether Obama would be comfortable with Lieberman maintaining his current committee post.
Obama will get a lot of criticism for this from progressives, since Lieberman didn’t only support McCain but joined in the GOP’s medley of insinuations that Obama wasn’t really totally patriotic, didn’t really want to see American troops win in Iraq, was a risk in terms of terrorism and if he wasn’t actually a socialist, then he acted like one.
As noted here earlier, Obama had several choices.
By not going to the mat on the Lieberman controversy, he can wipe the slate clean and begin with a new tone and show that he is forgiving. On the other hand, he runs the risk that his foes (inside and outside of his party) could think that he’s easily pushed around and that there are no political consequences. The latter is apparently a risk Obama is willing to take. The Huffington Post again:
A Democrat close to Lieberman, meanwhile, said he thought that keeping Lieberman in the fold “would be a good move for Obama as a way to make real his promise of new politics, a less partisan Washington and more unity. He would do so at some risk. Obviously there is a liberal wing of the party that wants Joe punished…
And could there also be here an element of deferred consequences? Connecticut went overwhelmingly for Obama. Lieberman’s approval ratings in his state are not what they used to be. Could part of this also be a decision to not fight this battle now, but to hang in there until Lieberman is up for re-election and let Connecticut voters do the rest on a future election day?
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7 Responses to “Obama Sends Message: Lieberman Should Caucus With Democrats”
Harry Reid was on CNN yesterday discussing Lieberman. About 2:50 into this clip John King asked Reid if Lieberman owed Obama an apology and whether “they” (meaning Obama and Lieberman) should make peace. Reid responded, “Maybe they already have.” If you watch the clip note not only what he said but the way he said it. I got the strong impression that some kind of deal was struck. So this news today doesn't surprise me at all.
Lieberman is about as GOP as nothing. He went to the other side on the promise of $$.
So it can be said his soul is for sale. The old saying “keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer” may be what Obama is thinking when he considers keeping Lieberman around?
Of course, compromising one's moral fiber for cash seems to be a common malady around DC. I'd like to see lobbying made illegal. The only pressure brought to bear on Congresspeople should be from the throngs of their constituents and never any special business interest. In case it escaped anyone's attention, we are in the mess we are in today because of special-interest lobbying.
The big offenders? BigOil, BigInsurance, and BigPharmaceuticals. They kept us from developing alternative energy and affordable workers and almost brought our country to an end, effectively..
I'm surprised nobody has yet said that he should be the next US ambassador to Israel.
In most issues, aside from national security related votes, Lieberman historically votes with the democrats. He should receive a good shaming for supporting his BFF McCain, likely a stripping of his committee chairmanship, especially since its the Homeland Security Committee, the one area where he usually breaks with dems. He has no future without a little democratic party support, and he knows it. He will take whatever humble pie is thrown his way and eat it.
“Keep your friends close, your enemies closer”-Mafia proverb
@DLS,
What good would the U.S. Senate Mossad agent (CODENAME: LIEBERMAN) do in Israel?
The truth is that Joe Lieberman did not think Obama could possibly win and so hitched his cart to McCain's horse, hoping for a nice payoff. That's politics. Usual retaliatory politics would be to kick Joe the Turncoat (sorry, I couldn't resist that) out of the Dem caucus. But Obama does not believe in retaliatory politics and understands in a very adult way that politics is politics and once campaigns are over then former opponents need to work together to get stuff done. Obama understands the incredibly bad shape the economy is in, and all the other issues which he must overcome.
IMO Obama has created a long-term strategy for success. Instead of savoring the short-term satisfaction of his newfound power (like a kid eating every piece of candy in his Halloween bag who will only become sick later) Obama has decided to savor one or two pieces of candy and put the rest away, to savor later. Obama understands that he has many enemies out there (and right radio doesn't help the country at all) and knows he needs as many friends as possible, even if it means forgoing instant gratification (banishing Lieberman) at this moment. Obama will need Joe Lieberman in the future. If Lieberman were to be ostracized now then Lieberman would not be of much use to Obama and the Dems in the future. It's a more sophisticated view of politics than the, “Let's reward our friends and hurt those he didn't help us.” We've all seen where that kind of politics lead.
It will be interesting to see if the rest of the Senate Dems decide to keep Lieberman in the caucus, and if they do, what (if any) punishment (such as stripping him of his DHS chair) is meted out.