"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.

[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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