It's Official: Full Dem Caucus Will Vote On Lieberman's Fate

By GottaLaff

Josh Marshall gives us insight that gives us hope that will give Joe Lieberman a headache:

The full Democratic caucus will vote on whether Joe Lieberman is allowed to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security committee at its caucus meeting next week, a leadership aide confirms to us. [...]

The Huffington Post reports, for instance, that the Clintons are not making any calls on Lieberman's behalf. And Senators Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin are reported to be hoping that Lieberman is given the push. [...]

Senator Ben Nelson appears to support Lieberman keeping his committee perch. [...]

Chris Bowers has a useful look at how each individual Senator is likely to vote. The key point here is that the decision to go forward with the vote offers the anti-Lieberman forces a key opportunity to ratchet up the pressure right now. [...]

[Reid] may vote to give Lieberman the push, word of which could send a signal to other Senators to do the same. [...]

Markos and Josh Orton make a key point: This isn't about expelling Lieberman from the caucus. It's about the committee chairmanship. The Lieberman camp wants the story framed as "poor Joe may get booted for the caucus by revenge-minded liberals," because then it becomes solely about retribution.

Awww, poor Joe. He needs to frame the story his way in order to hide the fact that he dug himself into a hole which is now filling with quicksand. Blub.

This is, indeed, about the chairmanship. Obama has already made his wishes known, so Lieberman won't be booted from the Democratic caucus.

If Joe wants to pout about the more likely consequences of his actions, he'll have to do that somewhere else, like across the aisle.