Lieberman Stays With the Democrats

In 2000, Joe Lieberman was the democratic nominee for vice president. He was a prominent democratic senator from Connecticut and he even ran for the democratic nomination in 2004. However, in 2006, Lieberman lost his democratic primary in Connecticut to Ned Lemont due to the fact that Lieberman supported the war in Iraq. Unwilling to give up his Senate seat, Lieberman left the democratic party. He became an independent, still vowing to vote with the democrats. With the support of independents and some republicans, Lieberman managed to remain in the Senate. However, he next endorsed Sen. John McCain over Barack Obama for president. Not only did he endorse McCain, but he campaigned constantly with him. He said very negative things about Obama, including that it was "reasonable" for it to be questioned whether or not Obama was a socialist. Lieberman was considered a possible vice-presidential candidate for McCain even. He did not get it, but was given a keynote speaking role at the Republican National Convention:



After all of this, Lieberman still wants to caucus with the Democrats and keep his position as Chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Today he was allowed to keep the position as the Chair and he was allowed to caucus with the Democrats moving forward. One reason behind this is that the democrats still want a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Without Lieberman, this would not be possible. The biggest reason, however, was probably that President-elect Obama said he wanted Lieberman to remain with the democrats. Now Lieberman is staying with the dems, not up for re-election until 2012. However, some of the blogs aren't taking this quietly.

Nate Silver at one of my new favorite blogs to read, FiveThirtyEight.com, wrote that it was Obama who kept Lieberman in the Senate. He says that a vote that ended up being a 30 point spread was previously expected to be a very close vote before Obama's announcement. He says that if one disagrees with Lieberman, they are now disagreeing with Obama.

Steve Benan at The Washington Monthly blogs that now Lieberman owes Obama now. He says that with this, Lieberman is now in Obama's debt, but that he could betray Obama sometime in the future again after he repays Obama by voting with him.

Over at Huffington Post, Bob Cesca said that Obama punished Lieberman more than he knows by not punishing him. He says Obama showed that he was a better man than Lieberman to the entire world by not holding grudges or getting involved in something petty.

The Daily Kos blog said that it will be much harder to get the change we need, as Obama campaigned for, with Lieberman still in the Senate. The blog says that with Lieberman still head of the Homeland Security Committee, it will be harder to get things done with his pro-Iraq views and many dissagreements with Obama.

Moving father left, the blog "Open Left" was very angry and said this would hurt withdrawl in Iraq and that Obama was wrong to keep him in.

Some of the farthest left blogs were the most angry by this decision. Many said that this was horrible for the American people and that Obama was acting on politics not on what was right. My Left Nutmeg said that "Lieberman wins, we lose."

Some blogs commended Obama for his decision, saying it showed true leadership. Other more liberal blogs criticized the decision. It is a very interesting topic and we will see how Obama's decision plays out come 2009.