Left to be counted. Stick a fork in Stevens. The felon lost! ;-)

So um.... off to Naderland then I take it?

I wish you the best of luck sir.

I'm assuming you mean Lieberman, not Begich...

Right, because the Republicans thank him (Lieberman) and hug him tight after every organizational vote.

It's 58-40 with two to go.

Over Lieberman. I am, too. Still, what happened is done & he's still an "Independent Democrat".

Don't worry, though. We'll take care of Traitor Joe in 2012. ;-)

Something tells me when it comes time to vote for majority leader, McConnell will have less than 41 votes and Reid will have more than 47 (not counting MN and GA, of course).

Absent an disastrous first two years for Obama, I think 2010 is looking good for the Democrats.  At most they'll have three competitive seats, the Republicans at least twice that many.   Good odds that we push past 60 in 2010.

As for the hypothesis that the Republicans will recruit well, that presupposes a clean and quick resolution of their impending civil war...I don't see that happening.

2010 should not be difficult... in fact, the number of vulnerable republicans is much higher than even this year... and the number we have to defend is lower...  Still, the first midterm after a new president is always tough... even Reagan got killed in his....

Interesting point, given that Lieberman voted with the Democrats 80% of the time and Snowe voted with the Democrats 50% of the time in the last Congress.  I guess only in bloggerworld is 50>80.

Expect Lieberman to vote for cloture on anything involving choice and the environment, on both of which he gets 100% ratings from liberal ratings groups.  He also gets very high ratings on labor issues.  In fact, for all intents and purposes the only things he voted against the Democrats were on Iraq and some defense and security issues, and there are probably Republican votes available on those issues if it ever comes up.

Interesting that none of the discussion on the Lieberman vote pointed out that he gave over $200,000 to the DSCC this cycle.  That was a lot more than many of the Senators who were voting, which may have made it hard to argue that they were more supportive of the caucus than he.

I mean, I don't love the guy, but in the end I think this is much ado about nothing.  Let's wait until he actually roadblocks any of President Obama's initiatives before we start complaining.  If he doesn't, then what's the big deal?

Not just Snowe, but Collins and Specter as well. And depending on the issue, various others.

The vote was 42-13.

Sandwich Repairman's Rule #1: Get the facts straight.

Lots of folks losing sight of the prize here. Lieberman is locked in now as a Democrat. He owes his life to Obama. If we can win the recount in Minnesota we sit at 59 and have a real shot at Georgia.

But even without those two, we can pick up the two Senators from Maine and Specter on most issues to break a filibuster.

We're still in Iraq.  We haven't even begun preparations to get out.  Obama wants a timeline Lieberman opposes.  Behind us???  Hardly.  That's like trusting Nixon's secret plan to end the Vietnam War in 1968.