Informed Speculation

…marred only by the appearance of MoDo (transcript here).  Said MoDo:

MR. RUSSERT: Maureen Dowd, here’s the cover of Newsweek magazine. “Father Knows Best.” With Bush 41, Bush 43, and it’s subtitled “With Congress Lost, Iraq in Chaos, Bush Calls In His Dad’s Team. Can James, James Baker and Company Save the Son’s Presidency?” Very similar to a column you wrote on Thursday. You think there’s truth to that?

MS. DOWD: Well, I think the best way for me to describe it is that, remember when parents would have their teenagers kidnapped by a Moony cult, and they would try and, and get him back, and deprogram him? That’s what’s—the, the 41 group is doing. They’re trying to get W back away from the cult of the neocons, as they see it, and reprogram him in the family tradition of internationalism, diplomacy, nuance. And Baker’s the deprogrammer.

And even more of that brilliant MoDo wit:

MR. RUSSERT: Maureen Dowd, we’re hearing a lot about bipartisanship. The president saying, you know, he came to Washington, he was a uniter, not a divider. This has been a very polarizing administration, playing to the Republican base. Is the Bush White House capable of now pivoting and being truly bipartisan, working with the congressional leadership, and are the Democrats in a receptive mood? Or is it time for payback?

MS. DOWD: Well, I think that Bush is going to try to, at first, go back to his persona that he had in the Texas legislature of someone who could work with the other side. But I think it’s going to be very tough for him because he and Rummy and Cheney have basically had this “Who’s your daddy?” attitude to the world and the Congress, and they’re used to the executive branch getting more and more and more power. And now they have Nancy Pelosi saying to them, “Who’s your mommy?”

Truly insipid…if there are more than twelve people alive who think Maureen Dowd has anything remotely intelligent to say about anything, then I guess her extended family is larger than I thought.

To the substance, though, mainly with Joe Lieberman, but first, an interesting assertion from John McCain:

…I am a proud conservative, both economically and socially. And I am a conservative Republican, and I will remain so in the school of Ronald Reagan…

Some of my own readers have made it clear they big to differ.

Now to the main event: Lieberman triumphant.

MR. RUSSERT: The Economist magazine, here is the headline. “Stuck with Joe:

Suddenly the most influential man in the Senate.” And what that refers to, senator, as you well know, the Senate is now 51 Democrats and independents; 49 Republicans. If you caucused with the Republicans rather then the Democrats, the Republicans would be in charge of the Senate.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Right.

MR. RUSSERT: You will caucus with the Democrats?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I will caucus with the Democrats. I said that to my constituents throughout. I’m going to caucus with the Democrats both because it’s good for my constituents in Connecticut, because I retained my seniority, I become a committee chair, but also I want to continue to work to bring the party back to its historic traditions of, of strength on national security, foreign policy and innovation, and progress in domestic policy—the, the Harry Truman/John F. Kennedy Democrat that, that I was raised to be.

But, but I’m going to be an independent because that is how and why I returned to the Senate. I was elected as an independent, I was elected, I believe, because I said to my constituents in Connecticut, “I’m, I’m as fed up with the partisanship in Washington as you are. I promise you I will put progress and, and patriotism ahead of partisanship and polarization.” So I’m going to—I am now an Independent Democrat, capital I, capital D. Matter of fact, the secretary of the Senate called my office and asked, “How do you want to be identified” and, and that’s it. Independent Democrat.

MR. RUSSERT: So you’ll be Senator Joe Lieberman, I/D, Connecticut.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah, we checked with history and actually in the late ‘70s Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia listed himself as an Independent Democrat. You got to go back to the mid-19th century to find the last Independent Democrat.

Lieberman makes it clear he intends to be a player, that he too views this election as a move to the center, that he intends to push through some meaningful change, and if the Democrats play business as usual he DOESN’T rule out a move to the Republican side of the aisle:

MR. RUSSERT: If in fact they ask for discipline in the Democratic caucus, and you start to feel uncomfortable with it, would you consider crossing across the—going across the aisle, and joining the Republicans, if they gave you the same chairmanship that you had, and respected your seniority?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah. Well, that’s a hypothetical, which I’m, I’m not going to deal with here. I’m going to be an optimist, and take some encouragement from the fact that this was an election in which, in the House and Senate, Democrats came to the majority of both chambers by electing moderates mostly. This was an election that might be called the return of the center of American politics. And I think that my colleagues and leaders in the Democratic caucus get that. The fact is that this was not a major realignment election in my opinion. This was the voters in Connecticut and elsewhere saying, “We, we, we’re, we, we’re disappointed with the Republicans. We want to give the Democrats a chance.” But I believe that the American people are considering both major political parties to be in a kind of probation, because they’re, they’re understandably angry that Washington is dominated too much by partisan political games, and not enough by problem solving and patriotism, which means put the country and your state first.

MR. RUSSERT: Jim Jeffords of Vermont crossed over and joined the Democrats.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: And they gave—they gave him his committee chairmanship.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: You’re, you’re not ruling that out at some future time?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I’m not ruling it out, but I hope I don’t get to that point. And, and I must say, and with all respect to the Republicans who supported me in Connecticut, nobody ever said, “We’re doing this because we, we want you to switch over. We want you to do what we think—what you think is right, and good for our state and country,” and I appreciate that.

MR. RUSSERT: Harry Reid, who will be the new majority leader, have you spoken to him?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I have. We had a very good discussion, and I think Harry—I appreciate Harry’s initial statements here. He’s talked about bipartisanship, he’s talked about getting things done. And he has the ability to do that. And I think if he does, he’ll strengthen the Democratic Party. If we fall back in a partisan conflict, Democrats are going to be, be rejected by the public next time, just like Republicans were this time.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you think the voters talked about corruption and special interests on Tuesday?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I absolutely do. I mean, you can look at these exit polls in a lot of different ways, but I can tell you in Connecticut that I believe voters were really angry about the failure of the status quo in Washington. The, the, the federal government, the people feel—and I agree with them—is broken, and it’s going to take both political parties to fix it. That includes corruption, that includes partisanship.

Incidentally, I think one of the best things that we could do in this lame duck session of Congress is to take the, the lobbying reform bill that passed the Senate, get it through the House and adopt it. It wasn’t perfect, it didn’t include the office of public integrity that John McCain and Susan Collins and Barack and—Obama and I wanted it to contain, but it, it is, it has total disclosure—excuse me—for lobbyists, a ban on gifts of all kinds. It would be a signal to the people that we heard them. Let’s, let’s clean up our own house.

MR. RUSSERT: But you are in a position now to exert a lot of influence. Here’s The Wall Street Journal from Friday. “Scandals Have Touched Some Key Democrats. Senator Harry Reid, who is expected to be elected to majority leader in the Senate, has come under attack for his relationship with Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a profitable land deal, and whether he inappropriately used campaign funds to give Christmas bonuses to employees at his condo complex.” Why not use, as a condition for your vote for majority leader for Mr. Reid, that he support the office of public integrity, and lobbying reform now? Would you consider that?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Well, I, I’ve already given my commitment, and I said to my constituents during the campaign that I would organize with the Democrats for the reason I said. I want to continue the battle—bring the Democratic Party back to its historic role as a, as a progressive party at home, and a strong party abroad. And because I’m able to maintain my seniority, which will help me do more for my people in Connecticut.

So—but I’m going to push real hard on this lame duck session for that Office of Public Integrity and at least for the lobbying reform bill that passed the Senate that got stopped in the House. If, if the House Republicans want to show that they got the message of the election last Tuesday, they’ll, they’ll let that bill go, bring it to Conference Committee, and we’ll get it to the president before, before the lame duck session is over.

And incidentally, Tim, I’m going to fight with McCain and others for Office of Public Integrity. That office ought to investigate any—independently investigate any charges or corrup—of corruption or ethical wrongdoing by any member of Congress of either party…

MR. RUSSERT: But if you said to the Democratic leadership, “I will stay in caucus with you as long as you support this,” you’re in the driver’s seat.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Well, I’m, I’m not going to start by threatening. I’m going to start by making clear what my priorities are, and I’m going to seek the support of, of my leadership and of members of both political parties.

When the Nutroots® took on Lieberman, they made him more powerful than ever.  What a beautiful turn of events! How do you like them apples, Jane?…