Washington Post:
President-elect Barack Obama has endorsed keeping Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) in the Democratic caucus, suggesting to leadership that the two sides reach a compromise in the conflict over the former Democratic vice presidential nominee's future, sources said today.
In a phone conversation last week with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), Obama said that expulsion of Lieberman for his support of the Republican presidential ticket would send the wrong signal after Obama's promises to set partisanship aside, according to a Senate Democratic aide familiar with the conversation.
Obama "didn't get into the minutiae. It was more along the lines of, 'let's find a way to put the campaign behind us'," the aide said.
No one is considering expelling Lieberman from the caucus. That's a straw man set up by Lieberman's people to try and muddy the waters. But if the issue is "compromise" as I've highlighted in the quote above, then that means Lieberman has to give something in return. A "compromise" isn't "give Lieberman everything he wants.
Now now, I know that in our Democratic Congress the last two years, "compromise" has been "give Bush everything he wants", so it's perfectly natural for the pseudo-Republican Joe Lieberman to think nothing has changed. And maybe nothing has changed. But plum committee chairmanships should go to those who worked to elect Democrats to the Senate and White House, not those who, like Lieberman, spoke at the RNC convention trashing our nominee and campaigned for Republicans in Senate races in Maine and Minnesota. And the "he votes with us on everything but the war" crap is just that -- crap, as a comprehensive study by the Center for American Progress notes.
Said progressive economic plans would bring about a depression: “Lieberman compared Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama’s economic plan to former president Herbert Hoover’s approach, which he said ‘turned a recession into a depression.’” [...]
Suggested that Obama could be a Marxist: When asked if Obama is “a Marxist as Bill Kristol says might be the case,” Lieberman replied, “Well, you know, I must say that’s a good question.” [...]
Lieberman defended radical pastor John Hagee: Last year, Pastor John Hagee stirred a controversy after referring to Catholicism as “The Great Whore.” When it was revealed that he also said that “Hitler was a hunter” sent by God to get “the Jewish people” to “come back to the land of Israel,” Lieberman defended Hagee, saying his comments were taken “out of context.” Lieberman spoke at Hagee’s Washington-Israel Summit in July and compared Hagee to Moses. Even McCain denounced Hagee’s comments.
Lots more stuff like that. This guy long ago lost his way, which is why his own constituents have tired of him. And with a poll in the field this week in Connecticut, we'll soon see how much his embrace of Bush/McCain has affected his job ratings back home. Results due Friday.
The Post suggests a nice compromise:
A possible alternative would be to give Lieberman the chairmanship of the Small Business Committee, which has one of the lowest profiles on Capitol Hill. Its current chairman, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), is set to move into a more prestigious chairmanship. Other senior members of the Small Business panel already chair more powerful committees, which would allow Lieberman to become chair if he is removed from his current post.
While that chairmanship would be a step down for Lieberman, he still would receive an annual budget that would allow him to maintain additional staff and would continue to participate in important meetings, such as the weekly gathering of committee chairmen hosted by Reid.
Now the reporter didn't come up with that all by himself, I'm sure. It was probably floated by the same "Senate aide" who served as his source for most of the rest of the piece. It's a good alternative.