Posted on 11/10/2006 10:41:25 AM PST by truthandlife
Sen. Joe Lieberman, who won re-election as an independent, has a message for his Senate colleagues in the next Congress: Call me a Democrat.
The three-term Connecticut lawmaker defied party leaders when he launched his independent bid after losing to Democrat Ned Lamont in the August primary. During the campaign, he vowed to be an "independent-minded Democrat" if he were re-elected. In Tuesday's election, Lieberman won strong GOP support and given the closely divided Senate, Republicans are expected to court him.
So will he count as a Democrat or an independent who caucuses with the majority Democrats? In an e-mail message late Thursday, Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein said the senator will begin his new term as a Democrat.
With the Democratic takeover of the Senate, Lieberman is in line to become chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
In a post-election news conference, Lieberman said he was reassured by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid that he would retain his seniority when the new Senate convenes.
Joe said all along that he would caucus with the Democrats. That's probably a reason he won. If he did anything else, he would be untrustworthy.
I never understood all the enthusiasm for Lieberman by conservatives/Republicans in this Senate race anyway.
I didn't either. People were acting as if he were another Zell Miller.
As if we would have confused him with a Republican.
No real surprise there.
How does it show that?
I may not agree with Sen. Lieberman but you cannot say he is untrustworthy. He has always said if he was elected as an independent he would caucus with the Democratic party. He has never said he would not do this.
In a sense, Lieberman is now the most powerful Senator. He owes absolutely nothing to the Democratic Party now. He can demand any chairmanship with either party if he wanted to. Without his caucus vote, the Democrats would not have a majority and would be forced to share power with Republicans.
he is a strong supporter of the war on terrorism. we should be fortunate we can get even that out of connecticut.
Good point!
Lieberman will never learn. I felt badly how he was treated; now I don't.
We'll see.
I don't trust any liberal or any Democrat.
Why?! What's so hard to understand that Lieberman is 5X better than his opponent, Demented?
The wife in denial who stays with the abusive husband no matter what.
Just shows, you can't trust a Democrat. - not true; campaigns are one thing, working with the other side is quite another; politics is NOT nice business, the President knows this.
If we didn't, the Senate would have included George Soros' / moveon.org's pet anti-war, anti-Bush moonbat Ned Lamont, who roared into Connecticut like a hurricane. Lieberman was clearly the lesser of the two evils. He's a liberal for sure, but definitely "gets it" regarding the WOT. The Connecticut GOP candidate was not even remotely viable. Our choice was between Lieberman and Lamont.
I never thought for one day Joe would become a Republican after he won the election, btw. I knew he would remain a democRAT.
Regards, Ivan
Say a little bird told me.
After that, as far as anything official goes, Lieberman will be a full member of the Democrat establishment. Joe Lieberman is as much a Democrat as Pat Leahy. What's unbelievably ironic about all this is that the money that Lieberman turns over is almost exclusively from the $6-$8 million in GOP contributors that Rove steered towards him. So you'll effectively have Bush Pioneer types funding the Democrat party. BRILLIANT STRATEGY GUYS -- so glad that money went to a stalwart conservative like Loserman rather than to, I DON'T KNOW ---- George Allen.
Anybody who expeced Joe to be a republican was just fooling themselves.
Joe has sense and can be trusted more than any other dem on the WoT, but other issues he has always promised to be the liberal that he is.
Thank you... you are correct. Joe is probably at least 10X better than Red Ned Lamont, who was supported by George Soros, Moveon.org, Code Pink, Daily Kos, DU, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Cindy Sheehan...
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