Establishment Circles The Wagons Around Lieberman

Chris Bowers wrote yesterday that, with a vote next week on Joe Lieberman's chairmanship on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, it was time to set up a whip count. However, he based a portion of it on Howard Fineman's report that Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer wanted Lieberman booted. ANd now Fineman has come out and said the opposite:

FINEMAN: Senator Dick Durbin is a key factor there and I think he's moving toward allowing Lieberman to stay. Dick Durbin was somebody who was extremely angry at Lieberman for campaigning for John McCain.

But I'm now told after having gone through a horrible week or so, where he was mourning the death of his 40-year-old daughter to congenital heart disease, he's come out of that and looked around and, also, heard what Barack Obama has had to say, and Durbin is now saying he's willing to give Lieberman a chance.

I think that's going to go to a vote next week but I bet that Lieberman gets to keep his committee chairmanship because Obama has signaled that he wants him to.

I think liberal bloggers are in denial about this. Many are saying that Obama didn't signal that Lieberman stays in the chairmanship, but the sequence of events pretty clearly suggests that he did. Lieberman balked at losing the chairmanship and threatened to bolt the party, and then Obama, through aides, said he wants Lieberman kept in the party. As President it's not his decision to make, but it's hard to see that as not exerting influence. And Durbin is Obama's chief ally in the Senate.

Obviously, the Senate, which is a clubby, insider organization, doesn't want to punish Lieberman because they don't see the upside in it. They think in terms of getting cloture votes, and Lieberman can help at the margins, so there's no need to irritate him. What they don't feel pressured by is any downside, and that's where the progressive community comes in. We have to keep making calls and let these Senators know that our memories will be long and our wallets suddenly tight if nothing is done to Lieberman.

But ultimately, this is up to the Senators themselves. If they want to project an attitude of lacking self-respect, of allowing a member of their caucus to endorse the opposing Presidential candidate, make all sorts of slanders and accusations against their standard-bearer, and welcome him back with open arms, it's really on them. And the mischief he ends up causing will be their doing. I will let my representatives know how I feel, but I'm kind of tired of protecting them from their own actions.

UPDATE: Politico has more. The establishment figures are whipping support for Lieberman. They'll only be stopped if we choose to make our voices heard.