Friday, November 07, 2008

Hey Joe, Where You Goin with that Chairmanship in Your Hand?   [Mark Hemingway]

Just got off the phone with a Lieberman aide, trying to get to the bottom of what's going to happen with Joe Lieberman now that the election is over. There's been a lot of speculation he'll be stripped of his committee assigments.

According to the aide, Lieberman's met with Harry Reid and discussions were very friendly. Reid wanted him to step down from his post as chairman of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in exchange for heading a lesser committee. Lieberman reminded Reid of how loyal he's been to the Democrats in myriad of ways despite the obvious disagreements, and indicated that would be unnacceptable. Reid made it clear he would prefer that Lieberman would remain in the Democratic caucus, and Lieberman agreed. Talks are ongoing.

The aide made it clear that the Daily News report that Lieberman "begged" to keep his committee chairmanship is simply not true.

Further, the aide also said that Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has also reached out to Lieberman. Though Lieberman would like to remain in the Democratic caucus, he's keeping his options open and nothing has been decided about his fate in the senate yet.

11/07 12:03 PMShare