Several top Democratic senators have launched a behind-the-scenes effort to save Sen. Joe Lieberman’s chairmanship. Dem senators try to save Lieberman

Several top Democratic senators have launched a behind-the-scenes effort to save Sen. Joe Lieberman’s chairmanship, despite calls from a Democratic base seeking retribution for Lieberman’s vocal support of John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) are all involved in the effort, according to top Senate Democratic aides. These four senators — along with other Lieberman allies — are reaching out to the rest of the Democratic Senate caucus to try to ensure Lieberman survives a secret ballot vote on whether to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.


This effort, along with kind words from Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) last night about Lieberman, is giving the Connecticut senator some serious momentum heading into next week’s secret vote. Dodd’s involvement in saving his home-state senator is an extraordinary turn because Dodd backed Democratic candidate Ned Lamont in 2006 against Lieberman, who won the Connecticut Senate race as an independent. Dodd, however, had backed Lieberman in the Democratic primary and only switched support to Lamont when he became the Democratic nominee.



Also driving the effort to save Lieberman — an outcast with the progressive left — is the spirit behind Barack Obama’s victory.

“He’s got momentum, and we need to keep him in the caucus, and this fits into Barack Obama’s message of change and moving forward,” said one Senate Democratic aide familiar with discussions. “The message here is that we don’t want to start off a new era with retribution.”

Democratic senators are also trying to figure out a token punishment for Lieberman if he retains his chairmanship, but that has not been decided. One of the options being discussed would be to revoke other committee assignments while letting Lieberman keep his chairmanship of Homeland Security. Lieberman is a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, and his support for the Iraq war was what drove him into the arms of the McCain campaign early this year.

The Lieberman situation is very sensitive for Democratic leaders, and several offices declined to publicly comment on the Dodd and Salazar effort.

“Sen. Carper has no comment and is referring all such inquiries to Sens. Reid and Lieberman,” said Carper spokeswoman Bette Phelan.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declined to comment, as did one for Salazar.

Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittmann said that his office was “not commenting on the process right now.”

On Tuesday night, Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said Senate Democrats should be "gracious in victory" toward Lieberman, according to an AP report.

"Despite what Sen. Lieberman did in campaigning for Sen. McCain, speaking at the Republican convention, he has voted with the Democrats an overwhelming percentage of the time," he said.

During a Thursday meeting in Reid’s office, Lieberman told Reid that if he was stripped of his chairmanship he would bolt from the Democratic caucus, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already reached out to Lieberman should he decide to leave the Democratic side of the aisle.

Speaking to reporters in Connecticut, Dodd made the case that President-elect Obama has “talked about reconciliation, healing, bringing people together. I don't think he'd necessarily want to spend the first month of this president-elect period, this transition period, talking about a Senate seat, particularly if someone is willing to come forward and is willing to be a member of your family in the caucus in that sense.”

Aides cautioned that there are not simply two camps — keep him or dump him — in the Senate Democratic caucus. Instead, a number of options are being considered that would allow him to keep his chairmanship and remain in the caucus but still suffer some sort of penalty.