« Hagel unleashed | Main | Might Fred Phelps have a small point? »

November 18, 2008

Lieberman keeps post, Merkley expresses reservations

The Senate Democratic Caucus voted to give Senator Lieberman a slap-on-the-wrist rather than take away his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

One senator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private, said Lieberman spoke openly about the rejection he faced in 2006, when many Democrats supported his opponent during the Connecticut Senate race.

"He spoke earnestly of the pain he felt when he was rejected by the Democratic Party in his re-election and in turn, the rejection he felt from many in the caucus who campaigned against him after decades and decades of friendship," the lawmaker said. "And that put him in a very different place approaching the 2008 election and John McCain was the only candidate for president who asked for his support."

My recollection is that he got pretty strong support from several key Dems during the Connecticut Primary race. It was primarily in the General Election that Dems campaigned for the Democratic nominee. And what else were they supposed to do - campaign against their own party's nominee?

Senator-Elect Merkley (gawd I love saying that!) was questioned by the AP reporter after the caucus vote.

Senator-elect Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., was critical of Lieberman at the caucus and said afterward in a statement that he was "very personally disappointed by his conduct during the campaign." He wouldn't say how he voted on the resolution.

"Serving as a committee chairman is a privilege, not an entitlement and I expressed those views during today's meeting," Merkley said. "Beyond that, I hope we can move forward as a caucus to do the work we were elected to do."

He's right about it being a privilege, not an entitlement. But what's done is done and moving forward is the only pragmatic thing to do at this point. So Merkley is already demonstrating the kind of competence that I'd want to see from my Senator.

Posted by Kevin at November 18, 2008 02:16 PM