Reid Gives Lieberman Ultimatum

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman met behind closed doors yesterday to discuss Lieberman's future role with the Democratic Party.

Lieberman, a member of the Democratic caucus, openly supported John McCain for president and spoke at the Republican National Convention, and is widely seen as a traitor of sorts within his own party.

Staffers of both men are saying that at the meeting, Reid offered that Lieberman could keep his place in the Democratic caucus if and only if he gave up his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

A Lieberman staffer said: "Senator Lieberman's preference is to stay in the caucus, but he's going to keep all his options open. [Senate Minority Leader] McConnell has reached out to him and at this stage his position is he wants to remain in the caucus but losing the chairmanship is unacceptable."

But here's the thing, the Democrats no longer need his vote. Back when they had a 51-49 majority (including Lieberman), they needed his vote to prevent Dick Cheney from being the decider. But now that the Democrats have 56-59 seats in the Senate even without him, Lieberman does not have any leverage over Reid and the Senate Democrats. They stand to lose nothing if he switches sides.

What Lieberman did during this campaign was inexcusable for someone of his stature, and I think Reid and the Democrats should punish him for his actions.

Although McConnell and the Senate Republicans need all the votes they can get at this point, Lieberman would not be welcomed with open arms to the Republican caucus, should he decide to join it because he still disagrees with them on most non-foreign policy related issues.

So despite which caucus he decides to go with in the end, it really shouldn't make that much of a difference. He is likely to continue to vote on an issue-to-issue basis, and it appears that he's lost much of his former power and sway in the Senate.