Lieberman's Power Play

I don't think there was ever much doubt that if Joe Lieberman was elected as an independent, he would caucus, and for the most part, vote with the Dems. However, Joe's no dummy and if he were to close off the possibility of switching sides, he would greatly reduce his potential power in the new Senate. He took care of that today with an appearance on Meet the Press (h/t Captain Ed):

Sen. Joe Lieberman on Sunday repeated his pledge to caucus with Senate Democrats when the 110th Congress convenes in January, but refused to slam the door on possibly moving to the Republican side of the aisle.

Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if he might follow the example of Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont, who left the Republicans in 2001 and became an independent, ending Republican control of the U.S. Senate, Lieberman refused to discount the possibility.

"I'm not ruling it out but I hope I don't get to that point," he said. "And I must say -- and with all respect to the Republicans who supported me in Connecticut -- nobody ever said, 'We're doing this because we want you to switch over. We want you to do what you think is right and good for our state and country,' and I appreciate that."

Heh. Joe's going to have a lot of influence in this new Senate, and if the Dems insist on going hard left on the war or other issues that Joe feels strongly about, they risk alienating him and pushing him toward the GOP. I still highly doubt he would ever make a change, but just the threat that it might be possible could be enough to keep some of the most wacky left of the Dems in check.

I think we can all be glad once again that "Weak Link" Chafee was run out of Congress. Had he won his race and left the Senate 50/50, I have no doubt that he would have switched parties ala Jim Jeffords and handed control to the Dems. Without Chafee on the GOP side, the odds of a party switch from the GOP goes dramatically down.