A high-level senate Democratic source tells me former President Clinton is making calls on Sen. Lieberman’s behalf.
I can also confirm, on the same basis, what Huffington Post has already reported, that President-elect Obama is signaling to Senate leadership and other party officials that he wants Sen. Lieberman to be in the Democratic caucus in the 111th Congress.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want him punished in some way. I have the sense — though this is more speculation on my part — that he’s agnostic on that question. But he wants him in the caucus — which would seem to give Lieberman some real leverage.
I’ll have more on the Lieberman story soon.
Late Update: Kos has some more thoughts gaming out the options for Joe.
Looking back over the campaign, everyone now seems to see that there were a few key moments when John McCain did things that surrendered whatever chance he had to beat Barack Obama. At the top of the list has to be the choice of Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential nominee — a choice that seemed fatal from the first for those who had eyes to see it, and soon revealed itself as such over the concluding weeks of the campaign. And McCain staffer and alter-ego Mark Salter is now conceding that the campaign suspension is probably another.
But what is easy to miss in these key moments is that most of them weren’t simply what McCain did but how Obama reacted — and the critical synergy between the two.
The campaign suspension was the key example.
It wasn’t just that McCain suspended his campaign (and tried to postpone the debate). That wasn’t the point at all. He unilaterally suspended his campaign and dared Obama not to suspend his. That was the key. Either Obama had to follow McCain’s lead and suspend his campaign or reveal himself as the self-serving, all-about-himself, unpatriotic freak McCain’s campaign had spent so many millions of dollars to portray him as. It was a classic play at the Republicans’ ‘bitch-slap’ theory of electoral politics, with all the gendered weight and macho-hierarchy-setting the unlovely phrase implies.
But Obama didn’t budge. I think there were a lot of Democrats who were really worried that McCain had put Obama in some kind of box or that Obama would see it as such and react accordingly. But he didn’t.
And it went from McCain bigfooting Obama (with all that would have entailed), to Obama turning the stunt around on McCain. It undermined one of McCain’s key selling points against Obama — that he was tougher, more seasoned under pressure — and further cemented the image of a man who was erratic and showed questionable judgments under pressure.
Palin to spend weekend sorting through clothes to see what belongs to the RNC.
I mentioned on Friday that at his first press conference President-elect Obama was deferential to President Bush and his continuing tenure in office through January 20th, but not overly so. And now comes word that in his meeting today with President Bush, Obama pressed him on three economic agenda items — stimulus package and aid to the auto industry and homeowners. Don’t wait till I’m president, Obama told Bush, according to NBC. Do it now.
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) says Obama is planning to create a American Gestapo.
“It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s the one who proposed this national security force. I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism. That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did. When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”
John Hinderacker, arguably the most influential conservative blogger in the country …
Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn’t raise his standards, he will exceed Bush’s total before he is inaugurated.
At the feet of masters.
It’s all transition all the time at the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.
The Obama transition team signals to TPM Election Central that Joe Lieberman is safe. “We don’t hold any grudges,” Obama transition spokesperson Stephanie Cutter tells us.
Late Update: What does it all mean? Is Obama punting this to the Senate or coming to Joe’s rescue?