It's Official: Lieberman Won

Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 9:20 AM on November 18, 2008.

Reid, backed in solidarity by members of the Democratic Senate Caucus including Boxer, Schumer, Patty Murray and others just held a press conference:

We had a historic caucus in the old senate chamber.  We had a very nice discussion.  And it's very clear that the vast majority of the Democratic caucus wants to keep Sen Lieberman as chairman of this committee, member  of the Armed Services committee and that was done, it's all over with.

Joe Lieberman is a Democrat, he's part of this caucus.

[...]

We accepted the statement made by one of the more senior member of the senate that this is not a time for retribution, it's a time for moving forward on the problems of this country.The great depression may be in the history annals a worse time economically in the history of our country but we don't know yet.  We have all kinds of problems we need to move forward on.  We need to be unified.  We need to be unified as Democrats, we need to be unified as a Senate, and that's what this meeting which we just completed is all about, moving forward and handling the problems of this country to the best of our ability.  And that's what we're going to do.

Harry wouldn't let Lieberman step forward and talk.

It's high irony for Reid to talk about being "unified as Democrats."  He just told the people who worked hard for Obama's election, who still want to see some oversight on Katrina, to go Cheney themselves.

I'm not feeling too welcome at the moment.

How about you?

Update:  Lieberman stepped up and spoke -- he said there was a "resolution of reconciliation and not of retribution"  in the caucus.  He cites Obama's support of him as critical.  

Where is the promise that Evan Bayh and Amy Klobuchar said that he owed everyone?  He thanks the "gang of four" -- Dodd, Ken Salazar, Bill Nelson and Tom Carper -- for saving him.

Update II:  Lieberman says the resolution was an expression of disapproval for some of the things that he said, and "some of the things people said that I said about Obama that simply aren't true."  

He won't say what those things are, but also excuses himself on the basis of "heat of the campaign moment," and appreciates his colleagues' support of his "independence of mind."

He says Reid asked him to relinquish his seat of the environment committee.  He agreed, to "make room for freshmen Senators."

If you want to know how I'll be spending my time, I'll be working even harder on the Primary Recruitment Project. 

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Tagged as: democrats, lieberman, obama, reid, caucus, bayh, chairmanship, dem leaders

Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.