CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
Nov. 17, 2008 – 7:14 p.m.
Stevens, Lieberman Likely to Avoid Rebukes
By Bart Jansen, CQ Staff
Senate Democrats and Republicans both face wrenching conference votes Tuesday on whether to discipline one of their own members.
The outcome could alter the leadership of powerful committees and potentially the size of the majority in the chamber, although it appears increasingly unlikely that either party will choose to get tough in the waning days of the 110th Congress.
Democrats are mulling whether to punish Joseph I. Lieberman , a Connecticut independent who caucuses with them, for supporting Arizona Republican John McCain in his campaign against President-elect Barack Obama .
But Lieberman has threatened to quit the caucus if he loses his gavel, and his allies claim “significant support” for him to remain.
Republicans face a demand to expel Ted Stevens of Alaska from their conference after his felony conviction on seven counts of falsifying financial-disclosure forms. However, Stevens trails Democrat Mark Begich in his re-election bid, blunting Sen. Jim DeMint ’s call for his ejection from the conference.
Both cases pose uncomfortable questions for rank-and-file members.
In the Democratic Caucus, Vermonters Patrick J. Leahy and Bernard Sanders (an independent who caucuses with the Democrats) called for removing Lieberman from the chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Other options include removing his subcommittee chairmanships or assignments on other committees.
Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, head of the Steering and Outreach Committee that recommends committee chairmanships, said she had discussed several options with Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada that she didn’t disclose.
“At this point, we’re basically looking for what people think is the fairest,” Stabenow said.
Ken Salazar of Colorado, a Lieberman ally, said the Connecticut senator enjoys “significant support” within the caucus.
“I think he will be a force of good in supporting an Obama administration,” Salazar said.
Evan Bayh of Indiana has argued that driving Lieberman out of the caucus or embittering him would hurt prospects for the party’s agenda.
“I’ll follow the leadership position and President-elect Obama’s recommendation: Send a message, but don’t pick a big fight within the family,” said Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland.
But others continue to call for some form of punishment. Thomas R. Carper of Delaware said Lieberman had disappointed him by going to the Republican convention, speaking and criticizing Obama.
“He disappointed me on all three scores,” Carper said. “There need to be consequences.”
Stevens Scenarios
Among Republicans, Stevens has pleaded for more time to appeal his conviction. Also, it appears increasingly likely he will lose his re-election bid, which would remove the need for Senate action. “There’s a chance the election process deals with that issue, and I think it would be far better to see what happens there first,” said Bob Corker of Tennessee.
“At this stage of the game, I think it’s something we should see how things work out with the election,” said George V. Voinovich , R-Ohio.
The motion by South Carolina’s DeMint, which could fail for lack of a second, reads: “Resolved that Sen. Ted Stevens not be invited to future Republican Conferences, and that committee assignments shall not be assigned him by the Republican Conference.” Stevens currently sits on five committees: Appropriations; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Rules and Administration; and Joint Library.
Stevens, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican, is likely to garner support from the chamber’s “Old Bulls.” But even less-senior lawmakers were reticent about supporting DeMint’s proposal against Stevens, who returned to Washington last week and has been making calls to his colleagues to shore up support in advance of the vote.
“In all likelihood, from the trend we see right now, Sen. Stevens is not going to win his re-election. Therefore, he won’t be a member of the Senate at the conclusion of this year,” said Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, who added that a better option could be “just to let the voters of Alaska” decide Stevens’ fate.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky remained tight-lipped about whether he would support removing Stevens from the conference.
“We’re going to discuss all of that tomorrow when we get together,” said McConnell, who before the Nov. 4 election called on Stevens to resign immediately.
McConnell added that Stevens would certainly be expelled eventually if the verdict is not overturned on appeal.
Besides the disciplinary matters, each conference will also elect leaders. But none of those races has a publicized contest.
Democrats will return Reid as majority leader, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois as whip, Charles E. Schumer of New York as vice chairman of the conference and Patty Murray of Washington as conference secretary.
The returning slate for Republicans includes Leader McConnell, Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona and Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
John Cornyn of Texas will become head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) now that Norm Coleman has dropped his potential bid to focus on the recount in his Minnesota re-election race.
John Ensign of Nevada, the current NRSC chairman, is running for head of the Policy Committee, which Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is vacating as she considers a run for governor.
John Thune of South Dakota wants to become conference vice chairman, the post Cornyn now holds.
Catharine Richert, Kathleen Hunter and John Reichard contributed to this story.
Comments
I'm a Democrat and I wouldn't mind if Harry Reid were replaced by a less vindictive majority leader. Since when is it a punishable offense to support the opposition candidate? I don't like Sen. Lieberman at all, but I do care about process, and if we punish dissent we are no better than the people who have been running things for the last 8 years. As for Stevens, I hope the Republicans give him a pass because he is really guilty and that would just be one more blot on their dubious record. Fact is, their party has to rebuild, and that means they have to stop appealing to their lunatic fringe. They have to stop running attack campaigns and appealling to fear. That worked in the short term, but folks have gotten wise to it. We are not enemies with our next-door neighbors. We can disagree without hating each other. That's the America I love, not this vile hate your neighbor agenda. Anyway, I hope they both get off, this time.
Wow, the Republicans can't even kick out the doomed felon?
Since when is it punishable to support the opposition candidate? I suspect since political parties and affiliations began. If Lieberman wants a Republican to be president, then let him join that party and work for that goal. If he wants to keep his seat in the senate next time he comes up for re-election, he knows he can't win as a Republican, so he wants to pretend he's an Independent but really (wink wink) "I'm a Democrat, even though I did say terrible things about our party's candidate, I spoke at the opposition party's convention, and I took every opportunity to tell voters that our party's candidate sucked." I'd say that's a pretty good reason to dump him from the Democratic ranks. Let him quite the caucus and join the GOP. Let him see how much power he'll have in that party. The only reason they tolerated him for the last few years was because they hoped they could get him to caucus as a Republican and give them control of the senate. Now they have no more use for him than the Democrats do.
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