Lieberman

Looks like Lieberman will remain as chair of the Homeland Security committee. My gut reaction was that for his disloyalty (particularly in painting Obama as a socialist and somebody who would be soft on terror) was such that he should be demoted or even kicked out of the caucus. On the other hand, if Obama sees fit to forgive the man, and thinks that it's in his (Obama's) best interest, and the party's best interest to keep him around, then I'm fine with the decision.

One issue that the left keeps bringing up is the fear that Lieberman will use the subpoena powers of his commission to probe into the administration and intentionally undermine Obama. First, I think that any attempt to do this would be incredibly unpopular- as Obama has reached in to spare Lieberman, and the press would harp incessantly on the disloyalty. The other point to note is that the committee as a whole, of which Lieberman is the chair, has delegated its authority to a permanent committee on investigations headed by Carl Levin.

I don't know a ton about how delegations of authority work in Senate committees, but it seems that Levin's subcommittee would get first crack at any kind of investigation, and that it might make it more difficult for Lieberman to run investigations into the administration on his own.