Senate Dems make peace with Lieberman

November 19, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats decided not to take revenge on Joe Lieberman despite lingering anger over the Connecticut independent’s forceful support of John McCain over Barack Obama in the presidential campaign.

In opting to let bygones be bygones, Democrats decided to let Lieberman remain chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee even though some Senate Democrats wanted to punish him for criticizing Obama in a speech at the Republican National Convention and elsewhere as he traveled around the country campaigning for McCain.

Lieberman’s colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday to approve a resolution condemning statements Lieberman made during the campaign but letting him keep the Homeland Security committee gavel.

President-elect Barack Obama had weighed in on Lieberman’s behalf to urge Democrats to make sure he remains in the Democratic caucus in the Senate. It was feared that Lieberman might bolt the caucus if he’d been booted as Homeland Security chairman.

“The Senate Democratic caucus has decided that if President-elect Barack Obama can forgive, so can we,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who helped fashion a compromise resolution that rebuked Lieberman for his statements but let him keep his chairmanship. “If Barack can move on, so can we.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was among those who had met with Lieberman less than two weeks ago and proposed removing Lieberman’s chairmanship. But he had a change of heart and recommended Tuesday’s light punishment.

“We’re looking forward, we’re not looking back,” Reid said.

“This is the beginning of a new chapter, and I know that my colleagues in the Senate Democratic Caucus were moved not only by the kind words that Senator Reid said about my longtime record, but by the appeal from President-elect Obama himself that the nation now unite to confront our very serious problems,” Lieberman said after the vote.

Lieberman, who was Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore’s running mate in 2000, was re-elected in 2006 as an independent after losing his state’s Democratic primary to Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont amid intense anti-war sentiment. Lieberman is a strong supporter of the war.

One senator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private, said Lieberman spoke openly about the rejection he faced in 2006, when many Democrats supported his opponent during the Connecticut Senate race.

“He spoke earnestly of the pain he felt when he was rejected by the Democratic Party in his re-election and in turn, the rejection he felt from many in the caucus who campaigned against him after decades and decades of friendship,” the lawmaker said. “And that put him in a very different place approaching the 2008 election, and John McCain was the only candidate for president who asked for his support.”

Lieberman remains a registered Democrat and aligns with the party in the Senate, where he supports the party position on most issues other than the war.