A couple hundred words on the junior senator from CT

I'm watching the first NCAA semi-final, and I got to thinkin about the antics of JoJo the circus clown. In case you haven't been following, Lieberman has step by step been going back on his election promise to caucus with the democrats. First, after the inauguration, he stated that he was only in the democratic caucus because he had to choose one caucus or the other. And even then, only because they gave him the chmnship of governmental affairs and homeland security. Last week, he would not rule out a switch to the GOP. Now, the AP is consistently listing him as "I-CT" rather than the confused "ID-CT" (a change with which i of course agree). At the time of the inauguration, Joe was in fact the kingmaker - had he caucused with the GOP, the bastards would have been able to organized the senate. Based on Joe's lukewarmness on the dems (which results, i guess, in part from their lukewarmness towards him), many have opined that the GOP may in fact take back the senate for 22 months or so ala 2001 in reverse. But, rest assured, this can not happen...let me explain...

The situation today is critically different from when Jeffords defected 6 years ago. Every 2 years, each of the 2 houses passes an organizing resolution, defining the leadership and naming committee members. Generally, the OR states that the manner in which the senate is organized (ie who the leadership is), is permanent until the next congress is sworn in. However, in 2001, with the senate evenly split, this posed a problem. Because the senate is organized 17 days earlier than the vice president is sworn in, at the time of the organization, the tie-breaking senate vote was cast by Albert Gore, Jr for Tom Daschle. However, the GOP was able to get language into the OR that stated,

if at any time during the 107th Congress either party attains a majority, . . . the provisions of this resolution shall have no further effect . . . except that the committee chairmanships shall be held by the party which has attained a majority.

When Dick was installed as the president of the senate, they were able to pass a new OR, installing Lott as ML. However, for the 110th congress, Reid was of course smart enough to ensure that such a provision was not included. Therefore, no matter what happens with Lieberman (or for that matter Sen. Johnson, who has unfortunately not yet returned to the floor), the democrats will control the senate until at least january 3rd, 2009. Thus sending Joseph Lieberman (CFL-CT) to the dustbin of history, never to rank among the great statesmen of the early 21st century, such as say James Jeffords (I-VT).