Post #273,138
11/13/06 10:03:43 AM
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Lieberman?
Looks like Joe is in a bigger position of power than if
he had been elected VP back in '00
Will he sell out the voters of CT the way he seems to have sold out
everything else and become a Republican and give them the Senate?
[link|http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15692613/|Joe]
A
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Post #273,140
11/13/06 10:14:36 AM
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I don't think so.
He's in the cat-bird seat. He'll have his chairmanship and will be courted by both sides. He's not a Republican (he claims he's a John Kennedy Democrat), there's no benefit to him in him changing parties.
It's just the political talking heads throwing up "what if's" to try to seem relevant.
What I think is more likely to happen is that a few nominal Republicans will strongly consider switching parties, especially since the right wing of the GOP seems to think that they lost because they [link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111101103_pf.html|weren't right-wing enough].
As far as Lieberman having more power than he would have had as VP, well [link|http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/presidents_and_first_ladies/35366/3|that's not saying much]. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #273,141
11/13/06 11:05:14 AM
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Chairmanship?
Is that not assigned by the parties in power? Since he's an independent, could the Dem's just assign him to the committee on swamps or something if they feel they have to give him anything? It seems that when the party in power changes, so do the appointments. Why do the Dem's owe him anything. He's been a functional Repo, and now he's an independent. It seems dangerous to give any more power than absolutely necessary.
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Post #273,145
11/13/06 11:27:28 AM
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"Hold your friends close, and your enemies closer."
The main benefit, as I see it, of having Lieberman in the D column rather than the R column, even though he nominally agrees with the Rs on many issues, is that the Democratic leadership will get to choose who gets on the Conference Committees that determine the final shape of legislation. It's these ad hoc committees that have the real power to set legislation. The Republicans ran roughshod over the process and made radical changes to legislation in far too many cases (e.g., putting things in that was in neither the House nor Senate bills). Having the Democrats in control of that process will serve as an important check on the President.
Keeping up Senate traditions is an important benefit too.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #273,252
11/14/06 7:02:47 AM
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Then again, Kos thinks he may switch.
[link|http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/14/13949/574|DailyKos]: Mon Nov 13, 2006 at 10:39:49 PM PST
This would make me upset if it surprised me any. [link|http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/13/lieberman_wont_rule_out_gop_caucusing/|But I expected it].
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut said yesterday that he will caucus with Senate Democrats in the new Congress, but he would not rule out switching to the Republican caucus if he starts to feel uncomfortable among Democrats.
Here's the bottom line for Joe -- if he leaves the Democratic Party, he'll give the GOP a short-lived 50-50 majority. But in 2008, the Senate map is [link|http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/9/141055/253|ALL Democratic pickups]. And Lieberman can then enjoy life in a big GOP minority.
So I fully expect him to jump to the dark side. It's what his voters want, it's what his financiers want, it's what his strategists want. You get elected with Republican voters, money and advice, you sort of end up indebted to the other side.
Or, he thinks he's being funny and clever by taunting the Democratic caucus.
Either way, his career is over in two years. With a big Democratic majority, he'll no longer have the leverage to hold Democrats hostage, and the minority Republicans will have no use for him.
So he should enjoy these next two years as much as he can. Because by helping deliver the big Democratic majority in 2008, we'll finish the job we started this year.
There's more than one way to skin a cat. I don't buy the reasoning myself. Lieberman's not stupid - he can probably read the electoral Tea Leaves better than Kos (he did get re-elected by a healthy margin after all). I think he knows that there's little chance of the Republicans taking back the Senate soon. I still don't think there's much of any chance of him switching - I think he was just doing the "never say never" routine. FWIW. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #273,310
11/14/06 10:12:46 PM
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Rove. It **is** a four-letter word
From the same Washington Post article: The "one-pager" outlines why, in his view, the losses were not particularly extraordinary and therefore not a repudiation of Bush: The loss of 28 House seats and six Senate seats is roughly comparable to losses suffered by the party in the White House in the sixth year of other presidencies and the same as the average wartime midterm. Moreover, it says, 23 races were decided by two percentage points or less, and it credits the "GOP Ground Game," the Rove-devised turnout machine. Overall, a shift of 77,611 votes would have kept the House in Republican hands. Seems I recall that a shift of less than 1000 votes in Florida in 2000, and less that 5000 votes in Ohio in 2004 would have made Karl Rove less important than the period at the end of this sentence. Something about liars and damn liars comes to mind.... jb4
"When the final history is written in Iraq, [link|http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tmate/2006/tmate060926.gif|it'll look just like a comma.]"
— George W. Bush, 24 Sep 06
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Post #273,305
11/14/06 8:28:07 PM
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What could the Republicans offer him?
I think Joe would consider it, if the Republicans where in a position to offer him very much. But what can they offer him now? His choice of committees to head for two years, at the risk of royally pissing of the voters in CT and being an outcast after two years?
He nearly has that already, and at no cost to him. Lieberman is just playing games to squeeze as much out of the Democrats as he can, because he knows they have to offer him a good slot now. Lieberman will end up as head of some choice committee, but possibly not his first choice.
Jay
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