With all the scares going around about Senator Johnson of South Dakota's health, there's another tricky little maneuver that has thus far gone mostly under the radar. This Salon article brings up what they think is a current idea floating around the defiled air of the White House: removing Lieberman from the Senate, and shoehorning him into John Bolton's U.N. dancing shoes.
This would obviously take away a vote in the Senate that has been unapologetically pro-Bush, but it would allow the Governor of Lieberman's state of Connecticut to install Holy Joe's replacement. Naturally, Governor Rell is a Republican, hence you can imagine what the odds are of Joementum's successor being any more Blue than he is.
If Senator Johnson recovers, this would deadlock the Senate and allow Darth Cheney to motor his lazy behind over to the Senate floor to break any deadlocks, and if the distinguished gentleman from S.D. is unable to go on, the GOP might well hold its majority.
Then again, how likely is it that Lieberman will really vote with the Democrats?
And how likely is it that every single Republican Senator is going to be voting along party lines now, with dissent to their agenda so high? The key is in the power of the titles, Majority Leader etc, and the ruling party's ability to place its members on commitees.
What do you think? Is this a likely scenario? Would the people of CT pull a Gray Davis and find some means of countering this move (I don't know if a recall would be legal in such a scenario)?
Very sticky.