Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Lieberman's Committees

Joe Lieberman faces a primary challenge in Connecticut from a Greenwich businessman named Ned Lamont. Lamont is the great-grandson of Thomas W. Lamont, one-time chairman of the Morgan Bank, after whom Lamont Library at Harvard is named. So naturally he is the ideal candidate to lead a Kos style people's crusade against the privileged, insulated interests that control American politics!

Lamont has a fair chance of ousting Lieberman in the Democratic primary. But if Lieberman ran as an independent, he would easily win in the general election. John Dickerson speculates in Slate that Lieberman may be deterred from quitting the Dems, though, for fear of losing his seniority on Senate committees: He is the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security committee , and he sits as well on Armed Services, Small Business, and Environment.

Few Republicans would object to Lieberman's record on the Homeland and Armed Services committee. And I am sure we could all live with his domestic liberalism on small business and environment. I am no kind of expert on Senate rules, but assuming that the Republicans hold the Senate, what obstacles would there be to letting him remain on his existing committees in one of the majority rather than minority slots? Surely there's a deal to be done here - and a good man to be rescued from some bad companions?

06/21 01:16 AM