No super-majority in the Senate. Can we kick Lieberman out now?

[Poiuyt]

With Chambliss winning in Georgia, it means we won't get 60 Democrats in the Senate. I think Reid can safely strip Lieberman of his committee chairmanships now.

[tekisui]

1. Nothing changes.

58,59,60, and 61 are really all the same number.

[Mass]

2. There is no such thing as a supermajority. There is something as getting 60 votes to beat a

filibuster. Even if we do not have 60 votes, we can get a few mild Republicans to vote with us to beat filibusters. And we need to keep all our Dems, which is not an easy task with people like Landrieu, Pryor, or Ben Nelson. On social and economical issues, Lieberman votes more often with Dems than those three.

This said, I would have no problem kicking Lieberman out, just pointing that your reasoning is not correct.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. 'Mild republicans" Well with bu$h and cheney gone, maybe we can convince them to vote with us, but

we shouldn't count on that.

[Breeze54]

3. Which means we still need him.... sorry to say.

:(

We have 58 seats now. Maybe 59 with Franken.

We need 60 votes or 2/3rds to pass bills.

[MiniMe]

4. I don't want to kick him out, just take his chairmanship away

[Jack Rabbit]

5. No, of course not

The Democrats have to show how inclusive they are.

The Republicans don't have a Democrat in their caucus. But the Democrats have a Republican in theirs!!

See? Democrats are the party of inclusion.

[frogcycle]

6. in metallurgy, an inclusion is

a bit of undesirable contaminating matter that weakens a structure

just sayin...

:)

[onenote]

8. you obviously weren't paying attention when the decision on lieberman was made

It had nothing to do with the notion that he was necessary to getting 60 votes. Nothing changes.

And how exactly would Reid "kick" lieberman out. These decisions were made by a vote of the caucus and that vote was quite lopsided.