Left Wing Seething over Lieberman’s Possibly Escaping the Noose

Let’s take a quick poll here and have a show of hands if you didn’t see this one coming. CNN is reporting that Joe Lieberman looks to be a “shoe-in” to keep his chairman’s seat on Homeland Security and stay in the Democratic Caucus, while being “punished” by losing some less prestigious position. Predictably, his opponents in the Democratic base who are still boiling mad over his endorsement of John McCain and attacks on Barack Obama, are up in arms.

Um, what idiot would think that taking away a subcommittee from Lieberman would be seen as a “stinging rebuke”? In whose DC-Beltway-addled mind is that even remotely punishment?

Let Lieberman keep that subcommittee. No one gives a shit about it. The only thing that matters, the only thing that Lieberman wants, and the only thing we don’t want him to have — is the chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

If this is the “starting point”, and given the Senate Democrats’ history of capitulations, expect Lieberman to come out of that meeting as majority leader.

KOS is hardly the only one. Of course, the main point which made this so predictable is that the majority of these critics are bloggers, pundits and talking heads who are partisan, ideological purists. Harry Reid, on the other hand, has a job which makes him a pragmatist by definition. If you select a majority leader who is a purist, he’s very likely to be a minority leader within an election cycle or two. The Senate races are still playing out, but it looks like the Democrats will seize Ted Stevens’ seat in Alaska and Al Franken may still find a path to victory if he can pry open the trunks of a few more Chevy Impalas. The Georgia seat, however, is a pipe dream and the Dems will come up at least one seat short of a bullet proof majority. He can get by with the support of a few hungry RINOs (which assumes the loss of a couple blue dogs here and there) but it will still be razor thin. He needs Lieberman more than Lieberman needs him.

So Joe will give the appearance of eating a small portion of crow (”whew! That was close. They almost kicked me out!”) but he’ll go back to business as usual. Lieberman will wander off the ranch at times, particularly on foreign policy issues where he wants to play the hawk. But on the critical domestic issues – particularly SCOTUS appointments – he’ll toe the company line. There’s high drama playing out in the blogosphere and the media, but it’s looking like nothing more than business as usual on the Hill.