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Democratic caucus to decide fate of Conn.'s Lieberman

8:43 AM Tue, Nov 18, 2008 | Permalink
By Jack Perry

John Mulligan
Journal Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- An emotion-laden subplot of the buildup to the new Congress -- Democratic anger over independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's aggressive role in Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign -- approaches its resolution this morning at a closed-doors caucus of the Senate majority.

The upshot might be that the party's onetime vice-presidential candidate will be permitted to remain in the Democratic caucus, with some expressions of support for President-elect Barack Obama but without severe punishment.

Such a conditional welcome for the Connecticut senator, a former Democrat who outraged many of his former partisans by speaking for McCain at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last summer, would disappoint liberals who have called for Lieberman to be drummed out of the party caucus.

But a return of the prodigal senator to the Democratic caucus could also stand as a sign of magnanimity very much in keeping with one of former Senator Obama's most popular campaign promises: to reach across the aisle and mend the rancorous partisan divisions of recent years.

Lieberman's voting record makes him in many respects a stalwart New England liberal. He was Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore's running mate in 2000 and four years later made an unsuccessful run for president himself. But unlike other Democrats who voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Lieberman has stood by President Bush's war policy. Lieberman lost the Democratic primary election over the war issue in 2006 but went on to win reelection as an independent.

He was essential to the Democratic takeover of the Senate, caucusing with the party and adding his vote to make a thin majority of 51 to 49.

For many Democrats, however, Lieberman's endorsement of his friend McCain was a far more grave error than his continued support of the war -- greatly compounded by the prominent part he took in the presidential campaign. A few Democratic senators, including Vermont Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, have called for Lieberman to be stripped of his powerful chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, a sanction that could drive him into the Republican caucus.

Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, while critical of Lieberman's role in McCain's campaign, have stopped short of calling for specific sanctions against him and have remained open to letting him stay in the Democratic caucus for the upcoming Congress. Lieberman's vote would give the Democrats a majority of at least 57 votes.