Will Obama Forgive Lieberman?



(image via msnbc)

It kind of sucks to be Senator Joe Lieberman right about now. Even though Senator Barack Obama endorsed the Connecticut Senator in his difficult Democratic primary in 2006, Lieberman gambled heavy in 2008 on McCain winning the Presidency and awarding him a position as Secretary of Defense, or even -- dare to dream -- the Vice Presidency. The conservative base nixed the Vice Presidency idea at the outset (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). And the electorate, on Tuesday, made sure that Senator Lieberman's fevered dreams of becoming the SecDef and administering the Iraq War died, ingloriously, on the electoral battlefields of Pennsylvania and Ohio (The Corsair sips a chilled glass of Grappa). And the Senate tipped farther in favor of a Democrat majority, thus making Joe Lieberman's "caucusing," which were previously necessary, quite a bit less necessary to party rule over that august body. So -- what's a Lieberman to do?

Fact: Even with the three contested Senate seats still in limbo, the Democrats will not get their filibuster-proof majority. While Senator Lieberman isn't indispensable to a Senate majority, he could be important. Only one man -- the wronged party, President-elect Barack Obama -- can heal the rift between Lieberman and the Democrats. The question arises: Should Obama forgive Senator Joe Lieberman's traitorous campaigning for Senator John McCain? It would certainly be a Lincolnian gesture, a sign of "putting country first" over petty personal grievances. From Talkingpointsmemo:

"Harry Reid and Joe Lieberman just wrapped up a private meeting about what Lieberman's fate will be in the wake of an election where he campaigned aggressively for McCain, said the attacks on Obama over William Ayers were legit and said Obama does not always 'put the country first.'

"The upshot of the meeting? No decisions have been made as to whether to strip Lieberman of his plum committee slots or whether to take any other action.

"'No decisions have been made,' Reid said, in a statement sent to us by his office."

We cannot fail to note that Obama and Lieberman have had "words" in the recent past, in the heat of the campaign, most recently when the Senator returned to the Senate well after defeating Hillary Clinton in the primary. From Jake Tapper of ABCNews, June 5th:

"Returning to the Senate after his securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama and Lieberman greeted each on the Senate floor in the Well as they were voting on the budget resolution.

"They shook hands. But Obama didn’t let go, leading Lieberman - cordially - by the hand across the room into a corner on the Democratic side, where Democratic sources tell ABC News he delivered some tough words for the junior senator from Connecticut, who had just minutes before hammered Obama's speech before the pro-Israel group AIPAC in a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign."

Wow.