EzraKlein Archive | The American Prospect
Here's what you need to say about Lieberman: His heterodoxies have remained contained. Unlike John McCain, who conveyed his post-2000 disgust with the Republican Party by sponsoring a lot of liberal legislation on essentially random issues, Lieberman's fight with the Democrats has not strayed from foreign policy. For instance: His 2007 AFL-CIO voting record was 84 percent. That's exactly the same as his lifetime AFL-CIO voting record. In the most recent Congress, his score from the League of Conservation was 96 percent (which is actually a recent career high). Lieberman is, arguably, an extremely reliable Democratic vote. The exception, of course, is foreign policy, where he's an extremely reliable Republican vote. But he's not really needed on foreign policy votes. The president has broad autonomy on strategic questions. ... That said, the operational effect of stripping Lieberman would have been that he becomes a Republican, and caucuses with them. It would have meant his incentives shift to curry favor with Republican voters. It would have, in other words, made him a fairly unreliable Democratic vote on domestic issues. The question became, then, does the satisfaction of retribution outweigh the value of one more vote in an extremely close Senate? It's hard to say that it does.
But he's not really needed on foreign policy votes. The president has broad autonomy on strategic questions.
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That said, the operational effect of stripping Lieberman would have been that he becomes a Republican, and caucuses with them. It would have meant his incentives shift to curry favor with Republican voters. It would have, in other words, made him a fairly unreliable Democratic vote on domestic issues. The question became, then, does the satisfaction of retribution outweigh the value of one more vote in an extremely close Senate? It's hard to say that it does.
The worry now is not that he remains so indolent, but that he discovers an energy so far lacking and starts using his powers to get in the way of the Obama legislative efforts. That committee can cause real problems for a president if he so wishes, the question is; does he wish ? keep to the Fen Causeway
And if he screws around, he can be kicked off. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
EK might have a point, but running the second most powerful committee in the Senate does look like the sort of thing you get as a reward for doing good works, not what you get despite being backstabbing scum. keep to the Fen Causeway
I wish Vermont chose all of our politicians. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
The Senate seems to have a lot of complex hierarchies, and many are not all that clear... Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and accounting measures other than appropriations, the Census, the federal civil service, the affairs of the District of Columbia, and the United States Postal Service. The committee's name was formerly the United States Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, prior to homeland security being added to its responsibilities.
The politics of the committee are up in the air for now, because so many Republicans on it were either defeated in the election (Stevens, Sununu, possibly Coleman), have retired and been replaced by Dems (Warner, Domenici), or are in serious danger in upcoming elections (Voinovich). Collins and Coburn are the only two Reps certain to be on for the foreseeable future, but even they're likely without problem, since Collins can be pushed around and Coburn has a good relationship with Obama after working on transparency issues with him. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
