Lieberman can't flip the Senate to Republicans, thank God
There has been some confusion and uncertainty as to whether Joe Lieberman has the power to flip control of the Senate to the Republicans. I come bearing good news!! As of this past Friday (January 12), it appears that Lieberman is powerless to effect party control of the 110th Congress.
This is due to the fact that the Senate passed a resolution on January 12 (S.Res. 27) that designates various Democrats by name as committee chairs and specifies the Democratic members of each committee. The Senate also passed a similar resolution (S. Res. 28) the same day that names various Republicans as the ranking minority members of each committee and specifies the Republican members of each committee. Based on these two resolutions, the membership of each standing committee in the Senate appears to be fixed for the duration of this Congress. Further, it includes one more Democratic member than it does Republican members in each case, thereby providing Democrats with control of the committee system and the flow of legislation in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the CT for Lieberman party (the one Lieberman formed once he lost the Democratic primary, but never actually joined, and which has since been taken over by six anti-Lieberman activists) had a meeting. Apparently, there's a leadership dispute (which made the New York Times, no less) as to who is really chair of the party. Remember, although this party is basically a joke, they do have the ability to put someone on the ballot for CT-Senator in 2012, which is a non-trivial bit of power. Presumably, Lieberman will be on that ballot (he'll probably have to form yet another party), and it will be funny to see the CT for Lieberman candidate being someone else. Unless of course CT for Lieberman actually nominates Lieberman. Hey, stranger things have happened.
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