WASHINGTON (AFP) — Angry US Senate Democrats voted to keep independent Joseph Lieberman in their camp on Tuesday, despite his withering criticism of president-elect Barack Obama during the election campaign.
Many Democrats were angry with Lieberman, who split with them over Iraq and campaigned for Obama's rival John McCain, but kept an eye on the political mathematics in the Senate and voted to stop him defecting to Republicans.
Lieberman is one of two independents in the Senate that vote with the Democratic Party on most issues.
The decision to retain him means that, with three Senate races still undecided after the November 4 election, Democrats could theoretically reach the 60-seat supermajority needed to thwart Republican obstruction tactics.
Lieberman, a Connecticut senator and Al Gore's Democratic running mate in the 2000 election also succeeded in clinging on to the coveted chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee.
"I pretty well understand anger," said Senate Majority leader Harry Reid after the vote of the Democratic caucus.
"I would defy anyone to be more angry than I was 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?'"
For his part, Lieberman offered a tempered apology.
"Some of the things that people have said I said about Senator Obama are simply not true," Lieberman told reporters. "There are other statements that I made that I wish I had made more clearly and there are some that I made that I wish I had not made at all."
As part of a political slap on the wrists, Lieberman was required by Democrats to step down from the Environment and Public Works Committee.
He also paid tribute to Obama, who had made clear that he did not want bloodletting in the Democratic Party over Lieberman to harm the chances of a new mood of bipartisanship in Congress after his historic election victory.
Lieberman infuriated Democrats, not just by campaigning for McCain, but by appearing at the Republican National Convention in September and speaking out against Obama.
"Especially at a time of war, we need a president we can count on to fight for what's right for our country -- not only when it is easy," Lieberman said at the convention in St Paul, Minnesota.
"When others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, when Barack Obama was voting to cut off funding for our troops on the ground, John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
