D-Day for Lieberman (D). Tomorrow
is the day that Senate Democrats will decide whether they want to
boot Joe Lieberman from their caucus for supporting John McCain
and criticizing Barack Obama in a speech to the Republican
National Convention. Of course, the Democrats won't directly
throw him out but if they strip him of his committe chairmanship
and key assignments, it's unlikely he'd remain a Democrat.
I've said before that the enlarged Democratic majority may make a
Lieberman purge possible, but with the focus now on domestic
issues -- where he overwhelmingly votes with the liberals of his
party -- that doesn't mean it makes sense. And unless he starts
voting with Republicans on issues besides Iraq, Lieberman won't
be a big addition to Mitch McConnell's caucus.
Most interesting, however, is how the Democrats are going to
decide Lieberman's fate: by secret ballot. Congressional
Quarterly reports, "Lawmakers will write their vote on slip
of paper, those papers will be collected and counted, and the
final tally will be read aloud to the caucus. Lieberman, then,
will be able to know how many of his colleagues stood with him
but will not know their identities."
A friend points out: "This will be an amusing thing to bring up
when the Dems try to pass card check."
