Senate Democrats Allow Lieberman to Retain Key Chairmanship

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Dems Vote to Keep Lieberman in Caucus

Senate Democrats have voted to keep Sen. Joe Lieberman in the party's caucus. The Independent Senator from Connecticut supported Republican John McCain during the presidential campaign.

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Some said privately that the risk of driving Lieberman across the aisle to caucus with Republicans was worth taking because of the Democrats' increased majority in the next Congress. But Obama endorsed reaching a compromise that would keep the independent in the caucus.

Lieberman lost the 2006 Connecticut Democratic primary to Ned Lamont, a self-financing multimillionaire whose campaign was centered on Lieberman's support of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war. But he won the general election as an independent and announced in late 2007 that he would endorse McCain.

For the past year, liberal activists have demanded retribution, with some calling for his expulsion from the caucus and others pushing for his chairmanship to be revoked.

But Democratic sources said Lieberman held the upper hand in the negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), because he appeared to have less to lose. Many of his Senate colleagues have interpreted the Connecticut independent's behavior as an indication that he may retire when his term expires in 2012, leaving him free to remain politically at large -- or perhaps willing to join the Republican conference under the right terms.

Senators who witnessed yesterday's proceedings in the Democratic caucus described the mood as businesslike. Vermont's two senators, Patrick J. Leahy (D) and Bernard Sanders (I), opposed Lieberman retaining his chairmanship, but many others -- including Senators-elect Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Udall of New Mexico -- offered remarks on his behalf.

For Obama's closest allies, Lieberman's sin was not his support for McCain, but his speaking so emphatically against Obama, especially on foreign policy. "I was as frustrated and angry as anyone else," said Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), a centrist who voted for Lieberman to retain his homeland security post.

According to one Democratic participant and others familiar with his remarks, Lieberman said that although he wanted McCain to win, he was "deeply moved" by Obama's victory. He cited Obama's victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park, when the president-elect called for national reconciliation.