Lieberman gets slap, keeps gavel

Senate Democrats refused Tuesday to strip Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) of his prized chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

After months of acrimony between him and his former party, Democrats ultimately decided that taking away Lieberman’s gavel would give Republicans an extra vote next Congress.

{mosads}As punishment for his attacks on Barack Obama during the presidential campaign, including those lobbed in a primetime speech at the Republican National Convention, Lieberman will lose his seat on the Environment and Public Works Committee and give up a chairmanship of a global warming subcommittee.

The Independent said stepping down from that committee was done in the “spirit of cooperation,” but also was a move to give a freshman Democratic senator a spot on the committee and to comply with a rule prohibiting members from running multiple subcommittees if they chair a full panel.

Lieberman spoke at a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday that lasted nearly two hours. He expressed regret for some of his statements on the campaign trail. Senators said he did not apologize, although one aide said he did.

“Some of the things that people have said I said about Sen. Obama are simply not true,” Lieberman said to a packed room of reporters, just outside the Senate chambers. “There are other statements that I made that I wish I had made more clearly. And there are some I made that I wish I had not made at all. Obviously, in the heat of campaigns, that happens to all of us. But I regret that, and now is time to move on.”

Lieberman did not specify which statements he regrets. About 10 senators expressed their views on Lieberman before Democrats approved by a 42-13 vote a resolution that expressed strong disapproval of statements Lieberman made on the campaign but allowed him to keep his chairmanship.

Democratic Sens. John Kerry (Mass.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Ben Cardin (Md.) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) spoke in favor of Lieberman, as did Sen.-elects Tom Udall (N.M.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.), according to a senior Democratic aide. Speaking against Lieberman were Sens. Bernie Sanders (I) and Patrick Leahy (D), both of Vermont, who had said Lieberman should lose his chairmanship.

Lieberman questioned Obama’s capacity to lead during the campaign, and during his speech at the Republican National Convention called him an “eloquent young man” who lacked a record of accomplishment.

His comments fueled a groundswell of Democratic anger and a petition drive by liberal bloggers to oust him from his Homeland Security chairmanship, which would give him broad oversight of the incoming administration’s domestic security agenda.

Lieberman indicated that he would leave the Democratic Caucus and organize with Republicans if his gavel was taken away, potentially handing the GOP a crucial vote over major issues for the new Democratic president.

At a news conference, Reid said that in light of the struggling economy and Obama’s calls for unity, “this was not a time for retribution, it was a time for moving forward on the problems of this country.”

He added that he was angered by Lieberman this year, but that his long record of backing the Democratic agenda trumped his actions on the campaign trail, which included voicing support for two GOP senators up for reelection.

Reid said he understands the anger Democrats felt at Lieberman, who was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000. ” I would defy anyone to be more angry than I was,” Reid said. “But I also believe that if you look at the problems we face as a nation, is this a time we walk out of here saying, ‘Boy, did we get even.’?” Reid said.

He added: “I feel good about what we did today. I don’t apologize to anyone on what we did today.”

In addition to his full committee chairmanship, Lieberman will continue to serve as chairman of a subcommittee on Armed Services and continue sitting on the Small Business Committee. Lieberman said Reid would now enforce a rule to make sure that senators cannot chair more than one subcommittee if they also chair a full committee.

“l appreciate their respect for my independence of mine, and that’s who I am,” Lieberman said. “But I’ve also for 45 years been a Democrat, and for the last 20, what I consider to be a member of good standing of the Senate Democratic Caucus.”

This story was updated at 1:51 p.m.