Tom Harkin isn't worried about Joe Lieberman's bluff:
"As I said before, when it comes down to getting the 60 votes necessary to pass this bill, I do not believe that Joe Lieberman would want to be the one person who caucuses with the Democrats ... to bring this bill down. I don’t think he wants to go down in history like that," Harkin said.
"He still wants to be a part of the Democratic Party although he is a registered independent. He wants to caucus with us and, of course, he enjoys his chairmanship of the [Homeland Security] committee because of the indulgence of the Democratic Caucus. So, I’m sure all of those things will cross his mind before the final vote."
You gotta' love the way Harkin put that. "He wants to caucus with us" and he's chairman of his committee "because of the indulgence of the Democratic Caucus." In other words: if Joe wants to keep his chairmanship, he had better get on board the train. Which he'll do. And we all know what that's going to mean for the cow on the tracks.