From the
Boston Globe:
"He's going to be pretty hard to beat right now. He's the person to beat," said Reid, who said he would not try to persuade Lieberman to drop plans to run as an independent candidate.
"I don't think it is fair for me to judge what he (Lieberman) should or shouldn't do. He has told me what he was going to do. He told me that before the election. I think his decision has been made," Reid said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Far from stripping Lieberman of his committee seats, Reid instead has chosen to publicly back Lamont but in reality not force Lieberman out of the race. Many people here will probably be furious, but I suspect Reid thinks Lieberman is more likely to caucus with the Democrats if he does not try to force the issue. Good thing Lieberman has lived up to his word to Reid on their previous bargains, huh?
However, maybe it is not such a bad thing that Lieberman is running as an independent. There was a record 43% turnout in the primary; if the November rematch makes general election turnout high as well, we might have a better chance of picking up the three House seats controlled by Republicans in CT. A large part of the people who support Lieberman are GOPers, of course, but some are Democrats and will vote Dem in the House races, and might not turn out if Lamont and Schlesinger were the only ones in the Senate race.
Hopefully the GOP will nominate someone stronger than Schlesinger to steal more votes from Joe!