The Lieberman nightmare scenario

[Perky]

Would it not be ironic if the Senate wound up 50 Dem and 49 GOP and Lieberman holding the ace card.


Who is Joe going to Caucus with? If he opts GOP. Cheney is the tie breaker for Senate control (I think) If he opts Dem. We control the Senate.

[LeftCoast]

1. If he caucuses with the pubs' he's going to piss off a LOT of his voters

I hope we never have to find out though!

Go Lamont!

[Deep13]

2. That's right. Lieberman is promising to caucus with the Ds.

Who knows, though.

[hlthe2b]

3. he's spiteful... he'll only caucus with DEMS to retain a

Chairman position on committee. But, he'll surely vote for the REPUGS every chance he gets...

[Perky]

5. Oh please!!!!

Lokk his stand on IRAQ is rerehensible. but to say he will always vote with reukes is a gross distortion of his whole record.

[hlthe2b]

7. allow me to clarify (in doing so, I am still not defending Liarman)

He will (to his credit) vote with Dems on those bedrock issues he has in the past--e.g., environment, most women's issues, etc., but he wil always vote with the Repukes on those issues impacting Iraq, Israel, RW war on civil liberties, torture, etc. These are the critical issues for the more moderate Connecticut REPUG base, which is clearly HIS now...

[Perky]

9. Thank you... I agree (EOM)

[AndyTiedye]

14. LIEberman Also Votes with the ReThugs on SUPREME COURT Nominees Every Time

:grr:

[Maine-i-acs]

4. here are two worse scenarios:

(1) 50 D's and 50 R's but one of the D's is Loserman. Loserman either caucuses with the R's and laughs his wrinkly ass off, or just switches parties entirely.

(2) as above but on November 8th Rumsfeld resigns, and Loserman is appointed in his place, allowing CT's R govermor to hand-pick a successor. A win-win-win for Bush!

[Blackhatjack]

12. I think scenario (2) is the more likely nightmare coming to pass....

YOU POSTED:
(1) 50 D's and 50 R's but one of the D's is Loserman. Loserman either caucuses with the R's and laughs his wrinkly ass off, or just switches parties entirely.

(2) as above but on November 8th Rumsfeld resigns, and Loserman is appointed in his place, allowing CT's R govermor to hand-pick a successor. A win-win-win for Bush!

Clearly Lieberman is Bush's vote on anything to do with the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars, and the upcoming Iran attack. However, your scenario #2 is plainly the Rove choice because it fulfills both goals --a surefire Republican filling that seat, so there is no question who has majority control and committee assignments remain intact, AND Bush gets a yes-man as Rumsfeld's replacement who proclaims to be a DEMOCRAT.

This is why it is vitally important that Lamont win. It would take the appointment of Lieberman to succeed Rumsfeld down a notch, and would mean that the Senate would be one more vote away from giving Bush what he wants.

[Warpy]

6. The real nightmare is 49GOP, 49 Dem and 2 independents

That would mean the GOP would still keep their committee chairs.

[hlthe2b]

8. Bernie Sanders will caucus with the Dems...

Would he have to come over to become a DEM in order for the GOP NOT to maintian chairmanships?

[Perky]

10. Bernie will absolutely caucus with the Dems

[Warpy]

15. The Indies are Jeffords and Lieberman

Sanders is in the House.

And yes, the only way to have a Dem Senate in such a case would be for either of them to switch to Dem.

And we all know what's going to freeze over first.

[hlthe2b]

16. Jeffords is not running for reelection; Sanders is running for his

seat...Sanders is highly favored to win. Thus, the two "indies" would possibly be Liarman and Sanders...

[Warpy]

17. Not in the Senate

because Sanders is in the House.

[Perky]

18. Nope Bernie is running for Jeffords seat

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/washington/2006ELECTIONGUIDE.html?currentDataSet=senANALYSIS
Click the map for VT and scroll down

[hlthe2b]

19. No, Warpy 1). Jeffords is currently in the Senate. 2). Jeffords

is NOT running for reelection; 3). Bernie Sanders, RATHER THAN RUN FOR HIS HOUSE SEAT, is running for Jefford's soon-to-be vacant Senate seat. 4). If successful, (as is expected) then Bernie Sanders would be one independent member in the Senate, NOT Jeffords. 5). The HOUSE of Congress has nothing to do with it.

Please google if you still don't believe us...:shrug:

[WI_DEM]

11. it is the nightmare scenerio because if his vote is the one which tips

the balance he will demand this and that and will try and stop any investigations on Iraq. Let's hope he is defeated.

[SaveElmer]

13. A very plausible scenario in terms of numbers...

However I do believe Lieberman will caucus with the Democrats. It looks to me like he is going to be reelected even though Lamont has run a pretty good campaign thus far. Hopefully it will finally begin to resonate, but I am not hopeful.